The Daily Barometer, Tuesday, December 2, 2015

VOL. CXVIII, No. 55

DailyBarometer.com

Wednesday, december 2, 2015 Oregon State University

Relieving finals stress brad anderson | THE DAILY BAROMETER

The Counseling and Psychological Services department, located on the 5th floor of Snell Hall, provides a mind spa which students can reserve for 30 to 60 minutes if they need to relieve themselves from finals.

Services, tips for students facing finals week stress

By Julie Cooper

tal health promotion coordinator for Counseling and Psychological Services, stress puts students in a constant state of With finals week approaching, stu- fight-or-flight that can be physically and dents may be struggling with time man- mentally exhausting and can have lasting agement during a period of time that effects on health and wellness. typically causes immense stress for This constant state of being on-edge students. can cause students to experience test Although stress can sometimes act as a anxiety during finals week. positive source of motivation, it can also “A lot of test anxiety comes from fear distract students from their studies and of failure, poor test history or lack of impede their cognitive and test-taking preparation,” Hemrick said. abilities.

Professionals in fields of both health According to Bonnie Hemrick, men- and academics recommend against News Contributor

sleepless nights studying.

“Just because we like to talk about pulling an all-nighter as a badge of honor, doesn’t mean it’s a great thing to do, especially during finals week,” said Jesse Nelson, director of the Academic Success Center.

Nelson said staying up all night before an exam reduces students’ cognitive ability by about 30 percent.

According to Amanda Daugherty, assistant director of health promotion at Student Health Services, a shortage of sleep affects the brain’s ability to

move information from short term to long term memory. She said that staying awake longer to study is negated by the negative impact that sleeplessness has on cognitive processing.

Though students have a larger load of responsibility during finals week, there are many resources available on campus to help them finish out the term.

Hemrick recommends that students take advantage of mental health resources offered by CAPS like coun-

See Stress, Page 3

Storing history for future academic research OSU Special Collections and Archives Research Center houses thousands of documents for research

By Riley Youngman News Contributor

Brian nguyen | THE DAILY BAROMETER

Archives given by Lora L. & Martin N. Kelley Family Foundations, found in the Special Collections & Archives Research Center on the 5th floor of the Valley Library.

IN THIS ISSUE >>>

Towering windows stretching from waist height to the ceiling allow for the sun to permeate the Douglas Strain Reading Room on an unordinary warm winter morning in Corvallis and fill the space with a bright, natural glow.

Two older gentleman sit at one of the four tables in the area carefully examining papers pulled from a royal blue document holder, silently looking over decades worth of information, pausing every now and then to quickly exchange findings.

Hundreds of books, documents, and pictures are perched silently behind glass in the foyer as students gather to explore the “The Nuclear Age: Seventy Years of Peril and Hope” exhibit.

In addition to the special exhibit, the Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center (SCARC), located on the fifth floor of the Valley Library on the OSU campus, aims to enrich research and teaching through a large collection of historical documents, photographs, and records.

“Our mission is to promote research using primary historical sources,” said Larry Landis, the SCARC director.

See Archives, Page 2

Pollution plagues China, THE BLOCK, PAGE 6 Volleyball sets record, SPORTS, PAGE 4 Dr. Tech: Educational gift giving, FORUM, PAGE 7

2 • THE DAILY BAROMETER • WednesDay, December 2, 2015

Archives

Continued from page 1

brian nguyen | THE DAILY BAROMETER

(Top) The Douglas Strain Reading Room, where students can read the archives, scan them through the Bookeye 4, or research them on the computer. (Bottom) OSU’s yearbooks stored in the Special Collections & Archives Research Center.

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The SCARC is home to over 540,000 historical pictures, as well as hundreds of thousands of documents, that cover a wide array of topics relating to OSU and the state of Oregon.

Created in 2011 after the OSU Archives merged with the OSU Special Collections, Landis said the SCARC was a natural merger between the two entities. The Special Collections, established in 1961, operated with a similar mission to the relatively newer Archives, which was established in 1986. This allowed for a seamless transition into what is now the SCARC according to Landis.

Landis has been the director of the SCARC since its foundation, but had previously been the head of the OSU Archives since 1996. Landis said his passion for history, mixed with a case of being in the right place at the right time, lead to his current role with the SCARC. “I love history, the joy of primary sources, the joy of discovery and finding what you are looking for,” Landis said. “Helping someone and finding what they are looking for, a student, a scholar, a community member is what keeps me coming back.”

The SCARC also assists those that need a push in the right direction in their research.

The faculty is there to provide information as well as direct researchers to collections that pertain to relevant topics.

Landis said a lot of students discover the SCARC through classes. In their latest analysis, the SCARC estimates that nearly 40 percent of the people that use the space are OSU students, the largest demographic of users overall.

This is something that Landis is proud of.

Benton Wilbur, a sophomore in pre-business, has used the Archives in the past to help with research for school projects.

“It was very useful for the class I was in and the project I was working on to be able to go to the archives and use the resources there,” Wilbur said. “I first found out about the archives because of a U-Engage class I was in last fall term.”

The SCARC puts up two special displays a year in the foyer at the entrance to the reading room to highlight special collections and material. Currently, ‘Nuclear Age: Seventy Years of Peril and Hope’ focuses on the numerous materials pertaining to nuclear history and activity that the SCARC possesses.

According to Landis, the exhibit is the foremost collection of nuclear history in the western United States. The SCARC has seen graduate students from across the nation come to view and use this collection for studies, as well as many others, Landis noted.

Kolby Owens, a freshman in pre-mechanical engineering discovered the SCARC through a class as well.

“I thought the Archives were a very unique resource, that I did not know existed at OSU,” Owens said. “It will be very useful when the time comes to write my thesis later on down the road.”

Landis encourages people to come in and research a topic that interests them.

The SCARC works constantly to digitize material to be made available online, but due to lack of space and resources, it focuses primarily on digitizing “high need” and “high risk” collections. While there is an expansive amount of material online, the majority of material resides on site in the SCARC. On a more local level, the SCARC has programs that focus on more specific topics.

“Other initiatives we have include the Oregon Multicultural Archives, which is about ten years old, documents and tells the story of underrepresented groups in Oregon, and Oregon State University,” Landis said, referencing the inclusion of groups such as Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and more recently those in the LGBTQ+ community.

In addition, the Hops and Brewing Archives highlights the deep history of hops research and OSU’s contribution to the craft brewing industry. Both initiatives have full time faculty members that work to expand and collect material pertaining to the collections.

The SCARC has worked with major archives and museums in the past, most notably the Smithsonian Museum. Material has been borrowed and used to fill displays in the foyer, as well as material being lent out for use in displays around the country.

“We’ve got a great program here, we’ve got great faculty and staff, and great student workers that really make it a viable program and we love helping people, we love helping them make those discoveries that add to their knowledge, and in turn add to our knowledge,” Landis said. “That’s what it’s all about — that process of discovery. baro.news@oregonstate.edu

Tod ay ’s C r o s s w o r d P u z zl e Across

1 “Mamma Mia!” group 5 Tunes

10 Fundamentals 14 Talking iPhone feature 15 Destroyer destroyer

16 Messy stuff 17 __ smasher 18 “I’m innocent!”

19 Hindu deity 20 High-speed war plane maneuver 22 Hunter’s device 23 Gets close to 24 Cheat, in a way 25 Seasonal malady 27 Find work 30 Shakespearean fairy queen 33 Large-leafed tree 35 Batman portrayer Kilmer 36 Skating commentator Lipinski 37 Passionate 38 Dishes for company 40 Eagerly excited 41 Golfer Ballesteros 42 Furrow maker 43 Ruling period 45 Charlemagne’s realm: Abbr.

46 Avant-garde 48 Low or no follower 49 Insert for a 6-Down 51 Shoot well under par, in golf lingo 53 Syria’s Bashar al-__ 55 Focuses even harder ... and a hint to the starts of the answers to starred clues 59 Letters after phis 60 “The Planets” composer 61 Texter’s “If you ask me”

62 Adorable 63 Wipe off 64 Dismissed, with “off” 65 “Until next time,” in texts 66 Oscar’s roommate 67 Tolkien’s Treebeard et al.

Down

1 PDQ 2 __-Honey 3 *Rhode Island school 4 Pop singer Mann 5 *Like Southern California beaches 6 Duck player in “Peter and the Wolf” 7 Punishment with a grounding 8 Risk, e.g.

9 Canonized Mlle.

10 Feel the same way 11 *Title female “trying to make a devil out of me,” in a Santana hit 12 “¿__ está?”

13 Fix, as a pet 21 Blow one’s top 22 Cotillion honoree 24 *One of two cold atmospheric cyclones 25 Jiffy 26 Iron-rich meat 28 Miller’s “__ From the Bridge” 29 First calendar pg.

31 Food court attraction 32 Something to pick lox for 34 ‘50s political monogram 36 Label 39 “__ so?”

44 Fish caught in pots 46 Author Buntline 47 Tennis great Andre 50 Studio piece 52 “Swan Lake” swan 53 Customer holding: Abbr.

54 Closed 55 Produced, as fruit 56 Tel Aviv airline 57 Smidgen 58 Quiet yeses 60 Celeb with a mansion

Tuesday’s Puzzle solved

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WednesDay, December 2, 2015 • THE DAILY BAROMETER • 3

Protesters march in Chicago

John J. Kim | Chicago

tribune

Protesters lock arms at State and Randolph streets in Chicago on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015.

By Dawn Rhodes, Tony Briscoe and Peter Nickeas

Contact the editor: 541-737-3191 Business: 541-737-2233 On Campus: SEC fourth floor, Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331-1617 Please direct news tips to: 541-737-2231 baro.news@oregonstate.edu To place an ad call 541-737-2233

seling appointments, and the mind spa, which offers guided meditation, biofeedback programs and a full body massage chair. She also recommends practicing mindfulness meditation.

Hemrick said mindfulness meditation, a common strategy for maintaining mental health, is also highly applicable to stress management for students whose finalsweek woes often stem from worrying about both past and future exams.

“Essentially, as soon as you leave an exam, there’s nothing you can do about it, so the point of stressing about that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense,” Hemrick said. “And then if something hasn’t happened yet and you’re worrying about the outcome, that also is something that doesn’t do a lot for you beneficially. So it (mindfulness) is kind of about appreciating where you are in this exact moment.”

The academic success center provides resources like peer tutors at the writing center, academic coaching, study tables, and supplemental instruction for some subjects.

The biggest consensus among stress management professionals is that stu-

baro.news@oregonstate.edu

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Phone: 541-737-2131

Tonight, what we’re having is another instance of a killing, a public lynching of another young black man.

Fresco Steez Member of Black Youth Prokect 100 back the SUV east on Balbo, with an officer banging on the back window to signal the driver when it was OK to step on the gas.

But the driver eventually went over a curb and doubled back to Indiana Avenue as officers tried to move protesters out of the way.

Protesters eventually marched away, winding down more streets to gather at the Central District station, blocking traffic along the way.

“People are mad as hell,” said Page May, an organizer with We Charge Genocide. “It still feels so unnecessary.”

May said the frustration stems from the public statements by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police Superintendent Garry McCarthy in the hours leading up to the video’s release. Emanuel said the publication of the video _ which he and city leaders tried to block for months _ could start a healing process for many Chicagoans.

“It was disgusting to try to claim any sense of moral superiority at this moment,” May said. “They’re out there trying to do damage control. How are they going to hold accountable a system that allowed this to happen in the first place?”

Earlier Tuesday, parents and guardians of students in Chicago Public Schools received an email from Janice Jackson, the district’s chief education officer, alerting them of the video’s release.

“This footage is sure to raise many emotions among our children, and we want you to know that CPS will do everything possible to meet their needs,” Jackson wrote.

The video will not be shown in schools but may be discussed in class, Jackson told parents. Teachers have received “a special toolkit” to help them talk to students about the incident. Counselors also will be available, the district said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois released a statement regarding the video release, urging calm and asking for “productive discussion” about Chicago police interactions with the public.

“The anger and frustration expressed by many African-American residents of Chicago in viewing the video is understandable.

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A&E Editor Shiana Ramos baro.arts@oregonstate.edu

Continued from page 1

dents need to take time to sleep and take breaks from studying.

“If you’re just constantly trying to put information in, and not giving it time to actually settle in and get absorbed, then it’s going to be harder to recall,” Hemrick said.

According to Sarah Norek, administrative program assistant at the Academic Success Center, taking breaks throughout a study session not only provides mental relief, but also helps the brain learn how to remember information.

Daugherty recommends that students create a kind of ‘tool belt’ of things that they know will help them to relax. She said that it is important to make time for leisurely activities once in a while even in the midst of finals week chaos.

Nelson recommends that students study a little bit of each subject in increments each day, rather than spending an entire day with one subject.

Hemrick said students should take care of their bodies and minds during finals week — maintaining hydration during study sessions, using a reward system and maintaining connections with family and friends for social support.

CAPS Information:

Chicago Tribune

Hundreds of protesters weaved through downtown streets Tuesday night into Wednesday morning after Chicago officials released the video of the fatal shooting of a 17-year-old teen by a Chicago police officer.

The march halted traffic for a few minutes on Interstate 290 in and out of the city, just east of the bridge over the Chicago River, around midnight but the protest moved mostly between 18th Street and downtown, never going south of Cullerton or north of the Loop.

There were a few scuffles and one man, 22, was arrested after police said he punched an officer. Malcolm London, of the Austin neighborhood, was charged with aggravated battery to a police officer. The rest of those arrested, about six people, were cited for obstructing traffic, police said.

Many of the marchers chanted, “16 times,” referring to the number of bullets fired by Officer Jason Van Dyke at Laquan McDonald, 17. A dash-cam video showing the shooting near 41st Street and Pulaski Road in October of 2014 was released late Tuesday afternoon, hours after Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder.

Before the march, dozens of black activists gathered inside an art gallery just south of Halsted Street and Roosevelt Road to talk about the video. Fresco Steez of the Black Youth Project 100 later asked reporters to be aware of protesters’ “raw” feelings.

“Tonight, what we’re having is another instance of a killing, a public lynching of another young black man, so we’re asking you to give us some space to process our feeling around that. ... Their feelings might be raw,” Steez said.

Minutes later, the group emerged from the building, chanting. Activists later spilled into the streets, yelling in unison, “16 times.” They called for an overhaul of the Chicago Police Department, demanded more resources for disenfranchised communities and scoffed at city officials’ suggestions on how communities should react to the violent footage.

The demonstrators, numbering about 150, were accompanied into the South Loop by a police escort on bicycles and in squad cars. At Roosevelt and State Street, protesters locked hands, enveloping several police cars.

As the crowd grew to more than 300, police blocked protesters from crossing the Balbo Avenue bridge toward Columbus Drive, and there was a confrontation with police on bicycles. One officer fell beneath a bike, and a protester stomped on the bike.

At least three people were taken into custody, and one officer was taken to an ambulance.

After London was arrested, protesters tried to block the police SUV that was to take him to the Central District police station at 18th and State Streets, about a mile south. The driver tried to

Stress

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4 • THE DAILY BAROMETER • WednesDay, December 2, 2015

Setting the academic standard Women’s volleyball sets a Pac-12 record in all-academic honorees

By Michael Kiever Sports Reporter

“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry.”

For Oregon State women’s volleyball head coach Terry Liskevych, the famous ‘street sweeper’ quote by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. represents a mentality that he wishes to pass onto all of his players.

“Do the best that you can do, that’s what I want to engrain in the people we have,” Liskevych said. “What’s important in being in an environment where you run a good program is that you really make kids accountable and you teach them life skills” After losing four key starters from last year’s defining Sweet Sixteen run, Liskevych has been preaching his ideals to a particularly young and impressionable group of OSU players this season. Unfortunately, the impressionability of this year’s roster proved to be a double-edge sword for the Beavers.

“The big thing about this season is the first match of the year against Wichita State. You win that match, who knows what happens in

your confidence level,” Liskevych said. “We had a chance to win both sets but we lost both sets by (two points) in that first match. All of the sudden, we’re on our heels.”

The season came to its conclusion last Friday evening in a 3-0 loss to Oregon. The Beavers finished with a 6- 24 record and 4-16 in conference play, well below initial expectations for the season.

The team’s performance off the court, however, was a different story.

OSU broke its own Pac-12 record last week for the most All-Academic selections in a single year with 12 total honorees on the Beavers roster. That included first-team selection senior Haley Clarke, second-team selection senior Darby Reeder and honorable mention selections Dana Backlund, Rachel Buehner, Kory Cheshire, Katelyn Driscoll, Sydney Francis, Maddy Gravley, McKenna Hollingsworth, Mary-Kate Marshall, Lanesha Reagan and Lila Toner.

All-Academic dominance is nothing new for the Beavers. In the last 11 years since Liskevych’s arrival, Oregon State has the most All-Academic selections in the Pac-12, beating out programs such as Stanford, UCLA and California-Berkeley.

Clarke, who served as a captain for OSU this season, believes the “school-first” environment

See Volleyball, Page 5

adam t. woods | THE DAILY BAROMETER

Senior middle blocker Haley Clark (No. 4) earned first-team All-Academic. She is one of the Pac-12 record 12 OSU players to earn All-Academic honors in 2015.

Championship week

Final Standings

Young and True Beavers – 152.6 The Duckless Dandies – 103.2

1. Young and True Beavers 2. The Duckless Dandies 3. Fortune Favors the Bolden 4. Freshon on the Scene

Fortune Favors the Bolden – 111.4 Fresh on the Scene – 108.1

Young and True Beavers CHAMPION 6-4 Brenden Slaughter Sports Reporter Color Commentator KBVR FM QB – Jared Goff (Cal) Points: 41.1 RB – Paul Perkins (UCLA) Points: 25.1 RB – Myles Gaskins (UW) Points: 25.8 WR – Bryce Treggs (Cal) Points: 20.7 WR – Seth Collins (OSU) Points: 25.1 TE – Noah Togiai (OSU) Points: 3 FLEX – Xavier Hawkins (OSU) Points: 0.2 FLEX – Jordan Payton (UCLA) Points: 6 K – Ka’imi Fairbairn (UCLA) Points: 3 TOTAL: 152.6

Fortune Favors the Bolden THIRD PLACE 4-6 Brian Rathbone Sports Editor

QB – Vernon Adams Jr. (UO) Points: 32.2 RB – Storm Barrs-Woods (OSU) Points: 0 RB – Royce Freeman (UO) Points: 33.8 WR – Victor Bolden (OSU) Points: 10.4 WR – Hunter Jarmon (OSU) Points: 0 TE – Austin Hooper (Stan) Points: 8.7 FLEX – Ronald Jones II (USC) Points: 6.6 FLEX – Dom Williams (WSU) Points: 10.7 K – Conrad Ukropina (Stan) Points: 9 TOTAL: 111.4

I don’t have words to describe what just happened over the last two weeks. Josh had lost only one game all season and looked well on his way to his second straight championship. But the “Young and True Beavers” had a say in the matter. For the second straight time this season, when I needed a win, Jared Goff came up big for me. He was sensational as he passed for five touchdowns and led my team with 41 points. If that wasn’t enough, Seth Collins returned to his Mr. Touchdown form and also got me 22 points. Surprisingly, it was my highest point total of the season as I destroyed Josh on the scoreboard. Josh put up a good fight, but as I predicted, losing Luke Falk proved just too much as Cody Kessler just couldn’t match him.

So now that I am the champion of the Barometer fantasy football, I think I will gloat to Josh for about another month and then step back and realize that this fantasy football league was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had as a writer.

Bottom line, everyone always remembers the winner, and until another fantasy champ is crowned, my name will forever be etched in Barometer history as Fantasy Champion of 2015.

I tallied up all of the points and my heart stopped — I had lost by two points to finish in last place. The league that I had resurrected would serve as the ultimate public humiliation.

As my mind drifted to dark places, I scoured over numbers hoping beyond all hope that I had made a mathematical error.

And wouldn’t you know, my math was off.

I had miscalculated Royce Freeman’s points.

In 2000-presidential election fashion, I had a recount. And my two point loss turned into a three point victory!

So does this make me George W. Bush, and Jeff, Al Gore? Or vice versa? Is this even a relevant comparison? Do people even care?

Probably not.

Regardless of the victory, this is the not the type of season I wanted or deserved.

Opposing team’s scored an average of 97 points against me this season, whereas our “league champion” had a cakewalk of a season were team’s averaged 81 points against him. How lucky can you get?

Hopefully Brenden bough his lottery ticket or asked out that smoken-hot female.

So thanks to Jeff and Josh for an awesome season, and thanks Brenden for proving once and for all why fantasy football is stupid. When does baseball start?

The Duckless Dandies RUNNER-UP 7-3 Josh Worden Senior Beat Reporter Play-by-play KBVR FM

QB – Cody Kessler (USC) Points: 23 RB – Demario Richard (ASU) Points: 16.7 RB – Christian McCaffrey (Stan) Points: 11.3 WR – JuJu Smith-Schuster (USC) Points: 8.5 WR – Jordan Villamin (OSU) Points: 7.2 TE – Kellen Clute (OSU) Points: 0 FLEX – Joe Williams (UTAH) Points: 24.7 FLEX – Gabe Marks (WSU) Points: 5.8 K – Garrett Owens (OSU) Points: 6 TOTAL: 103.2

Fresh on the Scene FOURTH PLACE 3-4 Jeff Lulay BeaverDam

President

QB – Nick Mitchell (OSU) Points: 0 RB – Chris Brown (OSU) Points: 0 RB – Justin Davis (UCS) Points: 13 WR – Nelson Spruce (Colo) Points: 17.1 WR – DJ Foster (ASU) Points: 3 TE – Ryan Nall (OSU) Points: 28.8 FLEX – Braylon Addison (UO) Points: 37.2 FLEX – Barry Sanders Jr. (Stan) Points: 0 K – Aiden Schneider (UO) Points: 9 TOTAL: 108.1

6-4 7-3 4-6 3-7

I’m not even mad, really. I should have known I would score the most points (by far) in the league and then lose in the championship.

Brenden — congratulations. I mean it, really. Sure, you were averaging 76 points per game before this week. Sure, I was the league’s highest scorer overall and six of the nine regular season weeks. But title games are not won in the first nine weeks of a ten-week league. They’re won in rivalry week, when my quarterback got hurt and no other player on my team scored a touchdown. Also, when every Pac-12 defense seemed to pinpoint what players were on Brenden’s team and decided to not defend them.

But really, it was a fun year. Watching Christian McCaffrey rattle off 200-yard games was a blast, and the Luke Falk-Gabe Marks combination was almost too good to be true. And playing the whole season without any Ducks on my team made it all the more worthwhile.

I’m looking forward to next season, when Brenden’s (undeserved) title will be on the line.

I’ll take last pick in the draft. I’ll win anyways.

Andddddddd its over. Your boy finishes in last place in his first ever Pac-12 fantasy football campaign. What a year and what a roller coaster of emotions.

I’ve been playing fantasy football for seven years now and this has easily been the most challenging endeavor I’ve ever had with fantasy football. I’m unsure if it was because it was college sports scene or if that competition was more challenging. My gut is telling me that it has to be the competition.

It got so heated at the end of the year, Brian decided to send out false numbers to make me believe I didn’t come in last place, when in reality, he was just giving me false hope! What a sick man.

Before I close my rant, I feel that it’s important for the world to know that I endured the second most points scored against me this season. Put that element mixed in with the rookie card and you will typically get a last place draw.

It was a hell of a season and I had a lot of fun. This consisted of a great group of guys who know their football, thanks for letting me join the fun, gentlemen!

WednesDay, December 2, 2015 • THE DAILY BAROMETER • 5

Beavers try not to lose two in a row After suffering their first loss of the season, OSU will try to get back on track on Wednesday

By Josh Worden Senior Beat Reporter

There are plenty of storylines with the Oregon State men’s basketball team — home games this week on Wednesday against Loyola Marymount at 7 p.m. and Saturday against Nevada, players returning from injuries, a McDonald’s habit and an upcoming game with Kansas on Dec. 12.

OSU started the year 4-0 before heading into the Thanksgiving break with a 63-57 loss to Valparaiso last Tuesday. Now the Beavers have a chance to respond Wednesday against Loyola Marymount in Gill Coliseum.

“It’s another home game, we’ve just got to bounce back and not lose two in a row here,” said senior guard Gary Payton II. “We’ve got to learn from that and bring toughness from the get-go,” said senior forward Daniel Gomis. “Last time we kind of came in flat.”

Loyola Marymount is 4-2 this year without any games in common with OSU. The Lions beat Cal State Fullerton 79-74 and OSU will play CSF on Dec. 18 in Portland’s Moda Center in the Far West Classic.

p l e H e p a sh r u o y s. w e n

Injuries

Gomis and senior forwards Jarmal Reid are close to returning from their respective injuries to play for the first time this year.

Reid is easing back into practice after sustaining a stress fracture in his foot, while Gomis broke his hand in a preseason practice.

“If it was up to me, I would definitely play (Wednesday), but the doctors are the one to look it up,” Gomis said. “Hopefully they’ll give me some positive feedback.”

Gomis added that his hand is not yet “that solid,” but he has an appointment Wednesday before the game to be reevaluated.

The 6-foot-10 forward had 41 blocks last year, the tenth-most in OSU single-season history.

Diagnosing the Valparaiso game

Head coach Wayne Tinkle talked candidly on Monday about where his team was “deficient” against the Crusaders. Valparaiso was ahead for more than 35 minutes of the game and led by as much as 17 points.

“Our offense was very disappointing,” Tinkle said. “We didn’t run it with any purpose. It didn’t even look like we were running an offense because we were so lackadaisical in our execution — our cuts, our screens, our spacing and timing.”

The Beavers shot 37.5 percent from the floor and no player had more than two assists. Other than Payton II’s 25 points and 11 rebounds, no player had more than nine points or seven rebounds.

Tinkle also focused on OSU’s transition defense, which was caught out of position at times against the up-tempo, fast-break loving Crusaders.

“We gave up probably three or four dunks or shots right at the rim off of transition (defense) because we didn’t communicate who had the ball, who was stopping the ball and who was stopping who,” Tinkle said. “Really, those things come down to our focus and effort, which was been a little inconsistent here

Volleyball

Continued from page 4 is the difference between OSU and other schools.

“The rule of the team is that you’re going to be a student first. Athletics are great but athletics are temporary, whereas your education lasts for a lifetime,” Clarke said. “That’s basically what this whole program is built around.”

Sophomore outside hitter Lanesha Reagan has similarly felt the extra push for good grades.

“We talk about academics a lot. Even at the beginning of the season, the first thing we talked about was ‘What’s the schedule, how’s it going to work around practice?’,” Reagan said. “(Liskevych) said that we’re not just athletes. We’re student-athletes, and the student comes first.”

The allure of being a part of the educational and molding process of young athletes was a large part of what brought Liskevych back to the college ranks.

Liskevych served as the head coach for the USA women’s volleyball Olympics team from 1985-1996, working with some of the best athletes in the country before taking the Oregon State coaching job. In transitioning to the college level, Liskevych has seen his priorities as a coach shift.

Senior guard Gary Payton II dunks the ball in the second half of the Beavers 93-73 victory over Iona on Nov. 17 at Gill Coliseum. Payton II leads the team in points, rebounds and assists. early in the season. But the practices (since then) have been really good.”

McDonald’s in the Morning Payton II walked into practice Monday with his breakfast still in hand from McDonald’s. Though basketball players are provided breakfast at the Valley Football Center every morning, Payton II said he sleeps in and heads to the golden arches just about “every morning.”

He typically orders an Egg McMuffin or McGriddle. Or, if he wants to branch out a bit, both.

How much money has he spent at McDonald’s since he came to OSU last year?

“A lot,” he said. “Probably $1,500.”

On Twitter @BrightTies

“You’ve got to have perspective, and my perspective has always been a little different,” Liskevych said. “Now, when I’m at my age and I’ve got my own kids that are 31 and 28 and I’ve lived through 12 years of being the national coach, the perspective is different.”

A change in perspective has caused Liskevych to adjust his coaching style and mindset accordingly, and it affects the types of players OSU recruits.

“In life, you’ve got to have the responsibility of being true to yourself. It’s the mirror test when nobody is there,” Liskevych said. “Asking yourself ‘Hey, am I doing everything I need to do?’ You get those kind of players, they thrive in my system.”

Clarke, who played every game of her collegiate career for OSU, provides a shining example of a player thriving under Liskevych’s ideals. On top of being a first team All-Academic selection, Clarke has also showed her prowess on the court for the team, ending her season with a teamhigh 111 total blocks.

“School always comes first because that’s what is going to matter in the long run. Sure, volleyball is fun and everything for now, but it’s definitely temporary,” Clarke said “At the end of the day, you’ve got to put work into the books just like you do on the court.”

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Just as studying is equally, if not more important than athletics, the opportunity to teach life skills over the years ultimately overrules the win-loss column.

“The reason I came back to college coaching is I really feel that you’re working not just on the winning aspect, but you’re part of an educational institution that’s going to make people functional adults when they leave,” Liskevych said.

For all he stresses academic success, Liskevych’s competitive spirit remains as fierce as ever.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to win.

I want to win every time I go on the floor.

Part of it is I know what’s important,” he said.

Win or lose, however, instilling the mindset of “being the best street sweeper possible” is always at the forefront of Liskevych’s mind. His commitment to shaping the best student-athletes possible speaks for itself.

“Making people good people, having them become mature and doing well in school are all very important things to me,” Liskevych said. “12 out of 14 athletes setting the record and standard for the Pac-12; that’s what it’s all about, and that’s a nice tribute for this team.”

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6 • THE DAILY BAROMETER • WednesDay, December 2, 2015

China struggles with air pollution

By Stuart Leavenworth McClatchy Washington Bureau

A day after Chinese leader Xi Jinping arrived in Paris for the United Nations climate conference, his country’s capital was smothered Monday with some of its worst smog of the year.

Levels of tiny particulates – known as PM 2.5 – topped 600 micrograms per cubic meter in Beijing by late afternoon, according to monitoring by the U.S. Embassy and other institutions. That’s about 24 times higher than the level considered safe by the World Health Organization, The stench of soot hung over the city of 22 million, with the pollution obscuring visibility and prompting some citizens to question the government’s well-publicized claims of working to clean up the air.

“It is almost impossible to breathe in Beijing now,” wrote Tianxuan Ke’aiduo, a resident of Beijing’s Haidian district, on Weibo, China’s main social media platform.

“Even our right of breathing freely is deprived. I call for the government to really treat the air.”

Beijing’s pollution comes partly from vehicle exhaust, but the recent smog is more

likely the result of seasonal burning of coal – China’s main form of energy and a major source of greenhouse gases, the focus of the Paris summit.

Northern China was unusually cold in November, and once the government cranked up coal-fired boilers to provide residential heating, smog levels spiked and have continued to climb.

Beijing issued an orange alert for the smog over the weekend, the highest alert of the year. Under the designation, factories must reduce production and heavy vehicles are banned from the city, although enforcement of such measures is thought to be uneven.

According to China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, the heavy smog in Beijing extends across a vast swath of northern China, covering more than 204,000 square miles, an area larger than California. Winds predicted for Wednesday are expected to clear away some of the pollution, but until then, residents are being warned to stay inside.

Xi, China’s president and general secretary of the Communist Party, is expected to be in Paris for less than 48 hours.

He met briefly with French

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President Francois Hollande on Sunday and is expected to confer with Hollande, U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders at the conference.

On Monday, he’s scheduled to deliver a speech to the conference, reaffirming China’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Chicago

Earlier Tuesday, outside a Burger King restaurant near where McDonald was shot, speakers called on McCarthy to resign or be fired.

“Superintendent McCarthy knew about this tape a year ago, but he never said anything about it,” activist Tio Hardiman said. “The only reason they’re speaking up now is because the judge ordered the tape to be released. This is hypocritical.”

Others questioned the

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Members of the African-American community have seen mistreatment and, sadly, violence at the hands of the police for too long in the city,” the organization said in a release. “We hope that we can seize this moment to improve all aspects of policing, with a commitment toward creating better relations between the public and police.

Horoscope Today’s Birthday (12/02/15). Spread your wings this year. Follow your studies where they take you. Realize personal dreams. March eclipses herald a new domestic phase before shifts in a group project. September eclipses incite a career rise and more changes at home. Pursue truth, goodness and beauty.

To get the advantage, check the day’s rating: 10 is the easiest day, 0 the most challenging.

Aries (March 21-April 19) — Today is a 9 — Just when you thought it couldn’t get any busier, it does.

Your work is in demand today and tomorrow. Gamble? Not today.

Choose stability over illusion.

Handle a structural problem. Stay in communication. Expect some emotional impact.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) — Today is a 7 — The next two days get especially fun. Romance blossoms.

Play with friends and family. Things don’t always go as planned. Keep practicing. True your aim, and try again. Work with someone who sees your blind spot.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) — Today is a 6 — Fix up your place today and tomorrow. Your home and family require more attention. Personal

comfort must be considered ... clean house, and beautify. Don’t strain the budget. Flowers brighten things.

Create peaceful spaces. Use your practical resources.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) — Today is a 7 — You’re especially clever today and tomorrow. Catch up on studies. Write your brilliant ideas down. Practice your craft. Keep things simple, despite enthusiasm for details. Don’t overextend or get carried off by fantasy. Welcome contributions from others.

and tomorrow. Productivity behind closed doors provides welcome respite from a recent flurry.

Assumptions are challenged ... think before reacting with authority. Use your own good sense.

Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 21) — Today is a 7 — Friends come to your rescue. Team projects go well today and tomorrow. Stifle rebellious tendencies, and align with a group vision. Keep the objective in mind.

It’s easier to ride the horse in the direction it’s going.

Leo (July 23-Aug. 22) — Today is a 9 — Lucrative opportunities abound today and tomorrow. Your ideas are attracting attention. Focus on the goal with determination. You may be learning more than you wanted to know. Avoid tricks, distractions and silly arguments. Try and try again.

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21) — Today is a 7 — Work takes priority for the next few days. A challenge or test requires focused attention. Pass it, and a professional status rise is possible. Practice makes perfect.

Relax when you can, especially with warm water. Recharge batteries.

Virgo (Aug. 23-Sept. 22) — Today is a 9 — The moon is in your sign today and tomorrow for extra energy and confidence. Take care of personal practicalities. As you gain strength, you also gain options. Don’t rush into anything. Pamper yourself. Consider a new style.

Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 19) — Today is an 8 — New opportunities arise to study a subject you love.

Travel conditions improve today and tomorrow. Plan itineraries in detail before setting off. Replenish reserves, and resist the temptation to overspend. It’s not worth an upset. Follow the money trail.

Libra (Sept. 23-Oct. 22) — Today is a 6 — Peace and quiet suit your mood. Finish up old business today

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political motives behind the timing of Van Dyke being charged with murder and McCarthy pushing for the firing of Detective Dante Servin, who was unsuccessfully prosecuted for fatally shooting Rekia Boyd in 2012.

“If they felt (Van Dyke) should have been charged this morning, then they should have felt that way a year ago,” activist Quovadis Green said.

Chicago Tribune

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LEVEL 1 2 3 4

Event 12:30 p.m. - 1 p.m. Baha’i Campus Association Location: MU Talisman Room Open discussion on ‘empowerment of children and youth”

Monday, Dec. 7: Meeting: 5:30 p.m. - 7 :30 p.m. Death Cafe Corvallis Location: 2nd Street Beanery, 500 2nd St., Corvallis, OR, 97333 Death Café Corvallis exists in order to listen and talk about death. For information contact: deathcafecorvallis@gmail.com

Friday, Dec. 11: Meeting: 6 p.m. - 7 p.m. Kwanza Celebration 2015 Location: 705 North Killingsworth Street, MAHB 104, Portland, Oregon 97212

Monday, Dec. 14: Meeting: 5:30 p.m. - 7 :30 p.m. Death Cafe Corvallis Location: 2nd Street Beanery, 500 2nd St., Corvallis, OR, 97333 Death Café Corvallis exists in order to listen and talk about death. For information contact: deathcafecorvallis@gmail.com

MOnday, Dec. 21: Meeting: 5:30 p.m. - 7 :30 p.m. Death Cafe Corvallis Location: 2nd Street Beanery, 500 2nd St., Corvallis, OR, 97333 Death Café Corvallis exists in order to listen and talk about death. For information contact: deathcafecorvallis@gmail.com

MOnday, Dec. 28:

Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 18) — Today is a 7 — Revise plans to discover a win-win financial situation over the next few days. Review budgets, send invoices and pay bills. Changes necessitate revisions. Join forces with another for funding, with clear, strategic priorities. Do what you said.

Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20) — Today is an 8 — Provide support. Be more willing to share the load for the next two days. You’re building for your future. Discover romance in the process. Work together for a shared dream. It may not look like the pictures.

THURSDAY, Dec. 3:

Event: 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Student Organization Resources for Community Engagement (SORCE) Location: MU 215 A funding mechanism on campus for recognized student organizations. Our Allocation Meeting is opened to the public

Sudoku Ebenezer Ale

Event: 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.

University Events Location: CH2M Hill Alumni Center Ballroom A Conversation with Tracy Daugherty Author of “The Last Love Song” and OSU Professor Emeritus Reception and book signing to follow program

FRIDAY, Dec. 4:

McClatchy Washington Bureau

Tonight’s Brew:

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 2:

Event 5 p.m. - 7 p.m. Centro Cultural César Chávez (CCCC) Location: Centro Cultural Cesar Chavez Come join us to learn about the tradition behind Las Posadas!

There will be food, games, music, and a piñata! Open to Everyone!

Beijing commuters wait for buses amid some of the city’s worst smog this year on Nov. 30, 2015. Although most Beijing residents do not wear masks on a regular basis, more and more are wearing them on the city’s worst days for air pollution.

Continued from page 3

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Classifieds Calendar Summer Employment

Meeting: 5:30 p.m. - 7 :30 p.m. Death Cafe Corvallis Location: 2nd Street Beanery, 500 2nd St., Corvallis, OR, 97333 Death Café Corvallis exists in order to listen and talk about death. For information contact: deathcafecorvallis@gmail.com

Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit, 1 to 9. For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit www.sudoku.org.uk © 2015 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. All rights reserved.

WednesDay, December 2, 2015 • THE DAILY BAROMETER • 7

Tech gifts that keep on giving

S

Dr. Jon Dorbolo

everal holidays are clustered around Winter Solstice and some of these traditions involve gift-giving for which I have suggestions of tech-related offerings that won’t bust your budget and include ways to give learning, well-being, ideas, tools, compassion and creativity.

Give learning: Since you are involved in higher education it is relevant for you to share learning.

“The Great Courses” produces high-quality life-long learning resources. Topics from their huge catalog range from practical skills like cooking and photography to the sciences and humanities. The programs come in various video and audio formats which you purchase as single courses, all of which have outlines and previews online for you to sample.

“Lynda.com” is an excellent subscription service for learning skills in programs like Excel, Word, Photoshop, Acrobat, Quickbooks, Filemaker, Google Analytics, Audacity, WordPress and much more.

“MindTools” is a subscription service for the business-minded person with more than 1,000 bite-sized training articles, audios, videos, interviews, quizzes, and activities for upgrading knowledge of topics such as leadership, time management, decision making, strategy, communication, stress management and problem-solving.

Give well-being: You probably know people who may benefit from the contemporary approach to self-improvement though games which are online subscription services that are mobile-compatible and have free versions that you may try out online.

“Happify” is designed to help players to disrupt patterns of negative thinking, manage stress and build resilience.

“Superbetter” incentivizes players to set goals and aspirations in order to identify and overcome challenges.

“Mindbloom” uses a garden and tree metaphor to organize and track components of personal growth.

“Luminosity” helps players exercise memory, task switching, information processing, attention, reasoning, numerical calculation, verbal fluency, and is a strong option for someone whose age is impacting their cognitive strengths.

Give ideas: A book gives someone something to think about and several recent titles address issues in technology.

“What to Think About Machines That Think: Today’s Leading Thinkers on the Age of Machine Intelligence” edited by John Brockman consists of in brief well-developed essays by 187 experts from a wide range of areas who address the question “What Do You Think About Machines That Think?”

“The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” by Nicholas Carr examines the evidence for the idea that information technology is changing how humans think, mostly for the worse according to Carr.

“Pax Technica” by Philip N. Howard investigates how the emerging “internet of things” – the interconnection of everyday objects such as cars, clothes, trees through information technology – may change our economic, political and social systems, mostly for the better according to Howard.

“Turing’s Cathedral” by George Dyson tells the story of the development of the computer in the post-World War II period.

“Countdown to Zero” by Kim Zetter tells the story of the first offensive weaponized cyber-attack by the Stuxnet worm that sabotaged 20 percent of Iran’s nuclear centrifuges in 2010.

“Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction” by Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner tells the story of the future and how science is improving methods for predicting what is likely to happen next.

“Information Graphics” by Sandra Rendgen communicates the world of information through over 60 infographics which are likely to fascinate everyone.

Give Tools: When an item is both useful and affordable you have a strong gift candidate.

“Automatics Connected Car Adapter” plugs into a hidden data port, usually just under the steering column, built into most cars since 1996 and connects the car’s diagnostic system to a mobile app in order to track data such as fuel-efficiency and warning signals.

“Tile” is a little plastic square that attaches to objects like a set of keys or TV remote that can then be located using a mobile app via Bluetooth.

“Gameband + Minecraft” is a wearable bracelet that holds an executable Minecraft game as well as saved worlds and works as a watch too.

Dr. Tech’s blog: Visit jondorbolo.com for more tech tips.

“Google Cardboard VR” viewer turns anyone’s mobile phone into a mind-blowing 3D experience for $5 to $25.

Ross Dress for Less in Corvallis has a unique gadget section, inexpensive toys and nice cookware odds and ends for cheap.

Many Hands Trading in the OSU Memorial Union has lots of cool items from around the globe.

Give compassion: A charitable donation in someone’s name is very satisfying for the right person when given to a relevant agency, of which three reputable instances with online donation and notification are – “St. Jude Children’s Hospital” helps children with life-threatening illnesses.

“Linn Benton Food Share” helps hungry people in and around Corvallis.

“Heartland Humane Society” helps animals in and around Corvallis.

Give creativity: A one-of-a-kind gift that comes from your own thought and effort is priceless.

3D print original gifts using the Valley Library 3D printers and online guides.

Make a custom book or calendar out of your photos and writing using the self-publishing platforms at “Lulu, “Blurb,” and “Createspace.”

You could download space pictures from NASA and make a calender using galactic images and deep quotes.

Blurb offers an app to create a photo book out of someone’s Facebook pages.

Give back to students: At the start of the term I announced a clicker registration raffle hosted by OSU’s Information Services (IS). The time frame of the raffle was extended so that all OSU students who own a fully registered and licensed Turning NXT or Turning QT that is connected to Canvas by 5 p.m. Friday November 20, 2015 were eligible for one of the following Beaver Store gift certificates: $10, $25, $50 and $100.

On Monday, Nov. 23, Technology Across the Curriculum (TAC) employees selected 17 ONID names by random lookup from a comprehensive list of all registered clicker owners as defined above.

Those 17 ONID names were printed onto separate slips of paper which were folded and placed into a hat (actually a candy bowl from the Halloween party) and successively drawn by a neutral individual to be paired with a Beaver Store gift certificate starting with the low denominations and ending with the $100 gift certificate.

The 17 winners have been notified by ONID mail with instructions on how to claim their prizes. Prizes that go unclaimed after Friday Dec. 18 by the terms of the instructions in the notification email will be reassigned by random drawing from the list of all registered clicker owners as noted above.

Congratulations to the winners, but we at TAC think you are all winners.

Many students made the effort to register their clickers and showed much patience and civility to those of us working to help.

We appreciate your classy Beaver spirit and with you a superb end of term and restorative winter break. baro.forum@oregonstate.edu

‘Entitlement’ often confused with fairness

By Sean Bassinger Forum Editor

I

’ve heard the general argument that millenials are the so-called “entitled” generation when compared to those in the past, because we ask for so much without actually working for it.

We’re “entitled” because we want to be compensated for more than 40 hours of work a week.

We’re “entitled,” because $20,000-100,000 in college loan debt to help pay for tuition costs (around $26,295 for Oregon State University non-resident students per year) is a problem.

This doesn’t really make much sense, considering our relatives before us paid less for college tuition prices and didn’t have to take a second job on the side of a summer occupation and living costs were much lower before modern inflation.

So how is wanting to be fairly compensated for your work classified as “entitled”?

Yes, it is true that more millenials are living at home than ever before. One article from

Forbes contributor Alexandra Talty mentions how “Some experts believe that although the labor market is rebounding, other factors are making it harder for young people to live independently.”

Such factors she mentioned include debt (as listed above), stagnant wages in the workforce and costs of living.

Though market inflation continues to rise, worker wages remain at an all time low.

Another recent article from Forbes supports this claim, which outlines how workers at Walmart cost taxpayers around $6.2 billion in benefits because of resources they need to make up the difference. The assistance mentioned includes health benefits and food costs.

I’d like to examine the bigger picture for a moment, assuming that one would take advantage of the “just work during your summers and you can pay for all your college expenses” one might hear from an old-fashioned relative.

In the past, students paid less for college tuition than they currently pay now.

If they went by the calculations given for overall costs on the OSU website, a non-resident student attending here could expect to pay $78,885 a year to attend college.

That’s $315,540 for an undergraduate degree.

At the current minimum wage price of $9.25 an hour, most students who worked a summer job could expect to make around $1,480 a month, or $4,440 in the three-month summer period outside of school.

Mind you, that’s if they get scheduled for all these hours in a week.

In four summers, that’s a whopping total of $17,760, or about 18 percent of total attendance costs required if you’re a non-resident student here.

In the past, students paid less on average for college than they currently pay now.

So you work hard, study hard and manage to pay for 18 percent of your overall college costs before financial aid.

And if you complain about this, you’re “entitled?”

Allow me to be one of (hopefully) many to correct this assumption: No, you’re not entitled.

In fact, I’d say you’re more ticked off at the fact that your inflated costs aren’t matching up to your working wages.

You should be ticked off at this, being as the wages you earn is a reflectin of the time you put into any given task.

But whether or not you agree with this argument, one could assume that it’s an unfortunate reality that most “entitled” millenials won’t put in the extra work effort either way, even if given the opportunity.

Apparently this is another popular misconception.

In an article from The Atlantic, author Gillian B. White revealed that many companies with millenial employees reported seeing excellent results from workers in the millenial generation, some of whom even made it into managerial positions. Laura Olin, a social media campaigner for the Obama 2012 cam-

pagin even went so far as to say “the ones I’ve encountered have been incredibly hardworking and recognize they need to pay their dues.”

And that’s just it: The majority of us recognize there are dues we need to pay and work we need to continue.

Unfortunately, the economy – even at its so-called “recovered” state – is not what it was between the 1970s and 1990s. Housing and living costs continue to rise as wages stagnate.

Opportunities in terms of direct workforce experience continue to shrink, even as we educate ourselves and attempt to seek out new tasks within society.

This is an unfortunate reality, which is especially why it’s important to acknowledge that the checks and balances we utilized in the past may not be best for moving forward in the future.

We shouldn’t run the other way when we hear seemingly scary terms such as “shared benefits” or “socialism.”

We especially shouldn’t attempt to place blame on an entire generation – past or present – in our effort to restore order after a few terms of terrible politicians.

So the next time you see someone younger who’s down on their luck and complaining about the extra hours they have to put in for work or schoo, ask yourself: Are they still giving their all toward a greater goal?

Do they want to give back to society in an effort to help in the long run?

And most importantly, are they simply whining for the sake of doing so, or wanting to make sure future generations have a more fair shot at success based on their actual work output? baro.forum@oregonstate.edu

8 • THE DAILY BAROMETER • WednesDay, December 2, 2015

Microaggresions are a distraction

By Jonathan Zimmerman Los Angeles Times

In a 1967 interview, the AfricanAmerican novelist Ralph Ellison denounced the commonplace idea that blacks had been permanently “damaged” by slavery, segregation and institutional racism. Instead, Ellison insisted, blacks’ survival in the face of discrimination and hatred demonstrated their strength and character.

“Any people who could endure all of that brutalization and keep together, who could undergo such dismemberment and resuscitate itself ... is obviously more than the sum of its brutalization,” Ellison said. “I am not denying the negative things which have happened to us and which continue to happen, but I am compelled to reject all condescending, narrowly paternalistic interpretations of Negro American life and personality from whatever quarters they come, whether white or Negro.”

Ellison would be appalled by our current moment on American campuses, where the damage thesis has returned with a vengeance. From Yale University and Ithaca College

to the University of Missouri and Claremont McKenna College, black students and their allies are claiming that racist behavior _ and administrators’ weak response to it – are harming minorities’ psychological health. They insist that overtly racist comments as well as “microaggressions” – smaller, day-to-day slights – take a psychic toll.

“I have friends who are not going to class, who are not doing their homework, who are losing sleep, who are skipping meals, and who are having breakdowns,” wrote one student at Yale, where a professor’s email about Halloween costumes triggered protests.

I don’t doubt that African-American students – and other minorities at our colleges – experience routine prejudice and discrimination. We live in a society that is riven by racial stereotypes, distortions and fantasies.

As much as I’d like our campuses to be immune from all of that, I know that they are not.

Nevertheless, I’m troubled by the psychological idioms our students are using to describe racism, which echo the same paternalism and condescension that Ellison decried.

Equally troubling is the much-heard

argument that everyone on campus should “validate” minorities’ experience and yield to their demands, lest we harm fragile psyches even further.

Starting in the early 1900s, white social scientists – and, eventually, some black ones – insisted that African-American minds had been permanently scarred by racism. Their influence was particularly prominent in the landmark 1954 Brown v.

Board of Education decision, which declared that segregating black children “generates a feeling of inferiority ... that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone.”

Yet there was little evidence that black kids in segregated schools felt worse about themselves. In fact, Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s famous doll experiments – which were cited in the Brown decision – showed that African-American students in integrated schools were more likely to choose a white doll rather than a black one, which the Clarks took as a sign of low self-esteem.

Subsequent studies would cast doubt on the idea that African-Americans, whatever their circumstances, suffered from low self-esteem. Jason W. Osborne and other psychologists

showed in the 1990s that AfricanAmericans often scored higher on self-esteem measures than did their white counterparts.

Segregation, whether state-sponsored or de facto, is an abomination, but not because it hurts feelings. It’s an abomination because it hurts opportunity, shunting black children into sub-standard schools.

Those kinds of structural factors often get buried or lost when the talk turns to psychology, which reduces everything to a matter of emotion. If you took away every racist insult at Yale, most blacks in America would still lack the opportunity to go there or to other elite colleges. The uproar about offensive Halloween costumes (and emails about offensive costumes) is a distraction from the cruel racial disparities still very much at play in our society.

And who can measure feelings, like anger and humiliation? Unlike structural inequalities, which you can document with data, emotions are by definition subjective. They become trump cards, no matter what other facts are in evidence.

At Claremont McKenna College, a dean resigned after student protests over an email she wrote expressing

concerns about nonwhite students who did not “fit our CMC mold.”

It’s absurd to suggest that the dean thought all students should fit a “white” mold; indeed, she wrote the email to challenge precisely that proposition. But the students felt hurt by her choice of words, and that was enough.

If we let ourselves be governed by feelings, we’ll go down a rabbit hole of competing grievances and recriminations. The question will no longer be who is right or wrong or what’s most worth rectifying – in any objective, demonstrable sense – but who is experiencing the most pain and trauma.

In the process, we’ll demean minority students in the name of protection. As Ralph Ellison reminded us nearly half a century ago, the idea of damaged black minds condescends to people who are much stronger than the accumulated slights they have suffered. I support the minority students standing up to the racism that still surrounds them. But I won’t patronize them by “validating” everything they say simply because they feel it. Neither should you.

Los Angeles Times

Congress needs to reconsider perkins loan

By Thomas J. Botzman The Philadelphia Inquirer

Numbers have a way of revealing the real story beneath the rhetoric and misinformation around controversial topics.

Take the ongoing Federal Perkins Loan debate, for example. More than 1,700 institutions of higher education participate in the program, resulting in about 500,000 students in need being awarded loans to finance their college educations. This campus-based program provides funds to students with the highest level of financial need.

The federal government began its new fiscal cycle on Oct. 1. For the first time in 57 years, the proposed budget does not include the Perkins Loan program.

Although there is a wide range of programs that aim to support the nation’s neediest students, the Perkins Loan has a few unique twists that make it valuable to both students and taxpayers.

Most obviously, the Perkins Loan is a loan and not a grant. As such, the student agrees to

pay back the loan over a 10-year period following graduation. With a 5 percent fixed interest rate, repayment generates additional funds for the next generation of students. Furthermore, colleges and universities make contributions to the fund, which extends the reach of the program.

At Misericordia University, a cumulative federal contribution of $1.1 million was available for student loans during the 2014-15 academic year, $245,000 of that in new loans. Those funds were cumulatively supplemented by more than $600,000 of institutional money, which also was lent to students. Although the limit for Perkins Loans to undergraduates is $5,500 annually, most students receive about $2,000 per year.

Perkins Loan funds help fill the gap between other sources of financial aid and family contributions so students can meet the entire cost of attending a college or university of their choice.

One argument that led to the expiration of the Perkins Loan program was that other vehicles provide funds to students with significant financial need. Yes, the landscape of student-

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aid programs is complicated. It requires expertise on the part of financial aid administrators to apply assistance appropriately and justly.

It is important, nonetheless, to have an array of programs that meets the need of each individual and not just a mythical “typical” student.

The Pell Grant, for example, provides a much larger average award to a student, but it does not need to be repaid. While the Pell is a progressive and respected option, it does not return funds to be lent again and again and again. Stafford Loans, meanwhile, are not earmarked solely for students with the greatest need and do not carry a fixed interest rate.

I should also note that there have been efforts

by Congress to cut funding for Pell Grants and Stafford Loans, just as we have witnessed for the Perkins Loan program.

If the Perkins Loans are not restored, repay-

ments of loans will return to the federal government. We would then have taken a program that has worked for nearly six decades – providing a hand up for so many students – and turned it into a political football with little return to taxpayers.

Support for education at the federal level is an investment in our collective future. It is simple arithmetic to figure out that a $2,000 loan each year for four years equals $8,000. That is obviously less than the $8,000 plus 5 percent interest the student repays – not to mention the lifetime of higher earnings that provide more taxable income.

We have taken a solid program that works for everyone and replaced it with, well, nothing. That’s not solid policy, good government or a step toward building a future for all of us.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

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