CAMPUS
Two of OSU’s faculty named in world’s top 1,000 female scientists
OSU’s faculty members, Heidi Schellman and
recognized
the top female scientists for their work in particle physics and global change biology respectively. 3
CITY
Water action team restores beavers’ habitats in Corvallis
The Water Action Team of the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition is one group of volunteers that work to restore water sources around the Corvallis area. 9
The cybersecurity program at Oregon State University received a $4.8 million federal grant, most of which will be translated into 29 full-ride scholarships for
numbers of students to support that; and so they got to see firsthand that we really do have a large population of students in our cybersecurity program.”
The “investment” for the SFS program is the agreement that the 29 students awarded a full-ride scholarship will work for the government in cybersecurity after graduation, the number of years they receive the scholarship being the number of years they are required to be government employees.
Cameron McCawley, the president of the OSU Security Club, a nationally-recognized cybersecurity club, and a fourth-year computer science undergraduate, believes the grant is a wonderful opportunity for students who want to pursue cybersecurity as a career.
computer science students, as part of the National Science Foundation’s Scholarship For Service program.
OSU is the first institution in the state to be awarded money from CyberCorps, a program that provides scholarships for undergraduate and graduate cybersecurity education through the NSF.
The grant will be doled out over a five year period – undergraduates selected from an application process will receive a full scholarship that covers tuition and fees and a $24,000 stipend to cover living expenses each year, beginning in the 2023-24 academic year – and comes after a proposal was submitted by OSU to the NSF in fall 2022, said Dave Nevin, an assistant professor of practice in cybersecurity in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
“A program director from NSF came out for a preaward site visit, and one of the first things that he commented on was that he didn’t realize that OSU was so big,” Nevin said. “It’s a big investment on their behalf, and a lot of their concern [was if] the university would have the
BLACK HISTORY MONTH“By providing this sort of scholarship for service where people can get the knowledge they need about this field, and then go directly into the workforce and get experience, it’s super useful,” McCawley said.
In addition to receiving an annual stipend, undergraduate students in this program will receive $6,000 for travel to attend a job fair in Washington D.C. each year as well as other expenses, Nevin said. Graduate students in cybersecurity are also eligible for the scholarship, but Nevin did not have specific figures for them.
Nevin added that about $800,000 from the NSF was given to support OSU’s CyberClinic, a facility that gives students interested in cybersecurity hands-on experience.
“We set up the (CyberClinic) here… that is staffed by students in our cybersecurity program and they do that as part of their degree program,” Nevin said. “It’s like a teaching hospital for cybersecurity.”
McCawley is currently earning credit at the CyberClinc in place of his senior capstone.
“The money going towards the CyberClinic as well is great, because that
is probably the most hands-on experience and the most accurate experience you’re going to get compared to working in an actual role as a security analyst,” McCawley said.
As of now, the city of Tualatin and the Open Source Labs at OSU are clients of the CyberClinic, McCawley said.
Nevin and Rakesh Bobba, an associate professor at OSU focusing on cybersecurity, are co-leads at the CyberClinic, and will be a part of the team that will look over scholarship applications for the cybersecurity grant.
“(The) NSF SFS program has been around for a while… and when they’re picking schools for this award, they’re looking for innovation in cybersecurity and also the strength of the program,” Bobba said. “They really appreciated our CyberClinic program.”
Nevin said that the CyberClinic was made with the intention for students to receive credit as well as gain job experience during their time at OSU. of the pay for (cybersecurity) jobs,” Nevin said. “With just a degree, the average (salary) is probably around $60,000 a year with no experience… but if you have a year of experience that bounces that up closer to $100,000; having that year of experience is worth about $40,000 for the students.”
As the cybersecurity program at OSU grows, Nevin stresses how large of a job market there is for cybersecurity.
The total available job openings in cybersecurity amount to 755,743 in the United States, 7,425 of which are in Oregon alone, according to the Cyber Seek website.
“As long as there are organizations, they’re going to need cybersecurity people,” McCawley said. “Organizations need someone there that can help protect their data, their assets, their customers… I don’t see that (need) going away anytime soon, and I think it’s just going to continue to grow.”
SPORTS
Men’s Volleyball: Can you dig it?
The Men’s Volleyball Club at OSU hopes to expand its small community by allowing those to play the sport they love or to try something new, working towards inclusivity of a sport played around the world. 7
SEASONAL RESOURCE
By HAYDEN LOHR Campus Editor
The Snow Park Permit, Oregon State Park day use permit and Northwest Forest passes are all now available, providing access and validated parking to visitors.
With national forests representing around 8.5% of all the land in the United States, the Northwest Forest Pass allows access to numerous sites and an enormous amount of recreation, opening all of these sites to use. Rather than paying $30 for a year pass, OSU students can rent these passes for a limited time to try new recreational opportunities.
“It makes it easier to get out and about, public libraries have cultural passes which makes it easier to do things and more affordable,” Trott said.
The Valley Library is not new to renting outdoor recreation gear though. For over a year now the library has rented out a “birding kit” for prospective bird watchers who might not have the binoculars or a bird guide to get into the sport.
“I worked in a public library and we’ve had the state park passes,” said Sara Trott, the equipment coordinator at the Valley Library.
According to Trott, the public library had state park passes among other things.
Currently OSU is offering a Northwest Forest Pass, Snow Park Permit and Oregon State Park Day Use Permit.
According to Trott, the passes have just been processed, but were purchased several months ago. There are no current plans to get a national park pass, the idea for now is to stay more local.
The Northwest Forest Pass offers access to many hiking trailheads and recreation sites located within the country's ubiquitous national forests. While the Snow Park Permit provides space for those looking to engage in winter recreation without the burden of getting a ticket while on the slopes.
The Valley Library also rents out a number of other items for outdoor recreation, such as GoPros, disk golf kits and solar chargers.
To see a list of items to rent, and for more information, go to the Valley Library website.
This year the Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center’s theme for the year is “Strength in Numbers,” as they continue to create a safe space for students and hope to do events and projects that bring unity and cultures together.
“Even though it’s just a month, I like to think that it’s year round,” fourth year and Black Cultural Center Community Relations
Representative Gabi Prescott said. “One month doesn’t highlight all the history and doesn’t highlight all the excellence that happens throughout the year.”
Since 1976, every American president has officially designated February as Black History Month, making this the 47th Black History Month in the United States.
Fifth year Psychology major and BCC Community Relations Representative Isaac Savage describes what Black History Month means to him – reflecting the start of the struggles and the journey for African Americans and what those in the past have done to get where we are today, as well as how we can apply what has been learned to today’s world.
The first time Black History was
recognized and commemorated was in 1926 when the Association for the Study of African American Life and History sponsored a national Black History week, choosing the second week of February to align with Abraham Lincoln’s and Frederick Douglass’s birthdays.
According to History.com Editors in their article “Black History Month,” by the late 1960s, thanks to the civil rights movement, “a growing awareness of Black identity” allowed the week-long commemoration of Black History to the advancement that it is now, Black History Month.
“I did not know about that [Black History Week in 1926],” Savage said. “And that kind of plays into the education system, that they don’t really teach us about that type of stuff. So it’s a lot of hidden history that we don’t know much about. This is the type of stuff we should know about early on.”
Classes offered at OSU such as Black Experience, gives students the opportunity to learn more about Black History and Black excellence that may not be commonly available, in comparison to other parts of history knowledge and information.
“The sad thing isyou have Black History Month, that’s cool. You have that one
month, but you have, what, 11 other months where Black excellence can be recognized, and not just celebrity wise,” Savage said. “There’s other Black excellence that could be recognized. It could be a black student getting their degree…becoming a parent…
|that stuff should be recognized not just for one month, not just for a year, it should be recognized for a very very long time.”
The LBHBCC’s yearly theme of “Strength
|
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TUITION FORUMS
Memorial Union 213
Continued from PAGE 1
in Numbers” was collectively decided upon the beginning of the academic year, with aspirations to do events that bring unity and cultures together to create a better space for everyone.
“I feel like going into the month with our theme, it could be a battle but, we’re there for each other, and whether you have allies or not, I feel like we all look at it like – we’re almost like a family,” Prescott said.
“The Lonnie B. Harris Black Cultural Center, to me… it’s like a second home to me, especially on campus,” Savage said.
According to Prescott, students attending predominantly white institutions such as OSU are welcome to be more involved at LBHBCCto join to celebrate Black History Month.
“Just taking those types of classes that talk about the history or stepping foot in the center, coming to events, ‘can I get a tour?’ Prescott said. “Or just educating yourself in general with the internet. I feel like those are some ways and just knowing right from wrong with appropriating.”
“I think it’s very important that even
CORRECTION
we, who identify as African American, educate ourselves. But even those, who are not African American or don’t identify as African American, educate themselves as well,” Prescott said. “To know the history and acknowledge it, not just try to hide or stray away from it.”
Other ways to be involved in the
community are taking classes such as Black Experience, or classes that talk about the history of African Americans here in America, as well as stopping by the LBHBCC for a tour, or enjoying events on campus!
“We’re stronger together than we are apart,” Prescott said.
In our last print issue we made a mistakingly misquoted within the "Scott Vignos selected as new Chief Diversity Officer" article. The error has since been corrected in the online version of the story. The Barometer deeply apologizes for this error and promises to continue learning from our mistakes.
POLAR PLUNGE
Feb. 18, 10 a.m. Crystal Lake Sports Park & Boat Ramp BEAVERS GOT TALENT
Mar. 4, 6-8 p.m. Memorial Union Ballroom
Andrew May who moved to Corvallis in the summer of 2013 with his former wife, children and in-laws at the time, sits on a cement wall while speaking about homelessness on Jan. 25. As of Jan. 11, Tina Kotek has signed off on a state of emergency in regards to various counties in Oregon. However, this state of emergency does not currently apply to Benton County.
NINO PAOLI News Contributor
Governor Tina Kotek declared a 'homelessness' state of emergency in multiple Oregon counties on Jan. 10, following her signing of three executive orders to address the issue.
Though Benton County was not listed as a region that was considered in a state of emergency under Executive Order No. 23-02, the two other executive orders are aimed to reduce sheltered and unsheltered houselessness statewide, by prioritizing the issue and proposing a $130 million investment for housing production.
For Executive Order No. 23-02, it aims to address for houselessness in areas such as Portland Metro and Lane County, which have experienced at least a 50% increase in unsheltered houselessness between 2017 and 2022, according to the State of Oregon’s official website.
For Benton County and Corvallis, Executive Orders No. 23-03 and 23-04 may allow easier access to available funds that would be used to combat homelessness, or houselessness, said Patrick Rollens, public information officer for the city of Corvallis.
“A lot of different pots of money that can be used to address different components of houselessness have different reporting requirements or have more narrow applications,” Rollens said.
According to Rollens a state of emergency can loosen up some of those restrictions and enable that money to be deployed more creatively.
Though Rollens is excited to see exactly how the executive orders may help Corvallis and Benton County, entities such as the Home, Opportunity, Planning and Equity Advisory Board are already combating houselessness, as it is a major issue in the Corvallis community, Rollens said.
“Here in Corvallis, we’ve been working on these issues of houselessness for a really long time, both the city, as well as Benton County, as well as all of our local service providers,” Rollens said. “So, the announcement from the governor is
welcome news, but it’s… catching up to some of the perspectives and actions that Corvallis is already taking.”
In particular, the HOPE Advisory Board is a partnership between the city of Corvallis and Benton County aimed to address policy solutions for homelessness, Rollens said.
“(HOPE) is a cross-municipality advisory group that reviews a lot of the long term policies that are in place in the city and county, like land use laws, zoning, housing, funding opportunities — a lot of the structural issues that may have gotten us into this challenging situation,” Rollens said.
Kailee Olson and a team of representatives of HOPE fully endorse Kotek’s recent declaration of a state of emergency for homelessness.
“Benton County’s Coordinated Homeless Response Office is thrilled to see State leadership offer intentional commitment to addressing the homelessness crisis in Oregon,” HOPE representatives said. “Governor Kotek’s three executive orders demonstrate the diversity of needs to address housing and homelessness.”
The HOPE representatives appreciate that Kotek is prioritizing homelessness despite Benton County not being a region that is considered in a state of emergency. Though, the representatives echo Rollens’ sentiment in adding that the city of Corvallis is already working to combat homelessness.
“We have been working to expand the system’s capacity significantly over the past couple of years, but the challenges are also expanding quickly,” HOPE representatives said. “We continue to work hard with local homeless service providers and community partners to help those in our community who are most vulnerable.”
Although Andrew May, who has been homeless since August 2022, uses some of the resources available to the homeless community in Corvallis –refilling his propane tank on Thursdays at select locations around the city, for example – he refuses to return to the
Corvallis Men’s Shelter.
“I tried staying at the shelter for two weeks… It was very jailhouse-feeling,” May said.
Though May is skeptical about whether the money available to the city of Corvallis and Benton County for homelessness is all going to places it should be or not, he said that these funds should prioritize mental health in the homeless community.
Both Rollens and the HOPE representatives said that Benton County was given $1 million in July 2022, when it – in partnership with the City of Corvallis and Community Services Consortium – was selected as part of a state pilot program to support a Coordinated Homeless Response System in the area.
“We are currently in the strategic planning phase of the program and are engaging with community partners to support a sustainable system to move people out of homelessness,” HOPE representatives said.
Rollens, though, is more skeptical on the timeline of this matter. According to him, despite receiving a million dollars in funding from the Oregon Legislature to be specifically used for increasing shelter in Corvallis, no direct actions have been taken yet.
“I think we have some ideas of areas that could be funded, but it just sort of illustrates how challenging it is to try to push money out the door to combat issues of houselessness,” Rollens said.
Though the HOPE representatives are not sure exactly how Benton County will be directly affected by the executive orders, their hope is increased funding and a coordinated effort in Oregon to address this issue.
“Homelessness is a systemic issue that needs to be addressed at all levels of government,” HOPE representatives said. “State and federal prioritization of funding and resources to support a coordinated homelessness response will help us meet the needs of our community.”
Gas leak alerts aren’t what they seem
Wondering why you’ve been receiving emails about gas leaks from Oregon State University lately? The answer lies here. 5
During his time living in the dorms as a business administration student at Oregon State University Cascades, the college’s branch in Bend, Michael Boles developed a system. He had snowboarding equipment, his friend had climbing gear and another resident had mountain bikes. They began trading and loaning out their gear in order to experience a variety of different outdoor activities.
This system would continue to grow even after Boles and his friends moved out of the dorms, ultimately culminating in the creation of an app to expand the system: Seekqua, which aims to foster the same sense of community he experienced during his time at OSU.
“We want to be organic, we want to uplift communities and create communities on campuses,” Boles said. “We want to be somewhat of a party alternative, to provide students with an avenue where they can go and find fulfillment in real memories.”
Recently launched in December 2022, Seekqua is a peer-to-peer outdoor gear rental app where equipment owners can rent out their gear to other users. The app is primarily targeted towards tourists, students or those looking to find a new outdoor hobby.
The process of creating Seekqua began in November 2021.
In order to develop the app’s software, Boles contacted the creators of a similar Utah-based service called Kalana and obtained the code from them. The other member of Seekqua’s team, Kyle Bates, has since redesigned the software while Boles worked on the user interface. OSU student Nicolas Ettel is not an official member of the Seekqua team, but has aided Boles and Bates in marketing the app and acts as a sort of brand ambassador for it.
Seekqua has found moderate success in the month since its release, already receiving a few hundred downloads. Moving forward, Boles wants to work out the bugs within the app and help gear owners insure the equipment they rent out.
“We’re still working with insurance companies to get insurance for the gear renters and the gear owners,” Boles said. “But for now the system that we’ve come up with is we use Stripe to secure all the payments and have it backed through our system. And so, when people post their gear for rent, they’re obligated to fill out a market value price for that piece of equipment, so the idea is that if somebody were to damage it or steal it, then we can charge that person that rented it out on their credit card.”
RESEARCH AND REPRESENTATION“Until about 1970, you could just actively discriminate against women,” said Heidi Schellman, professor and retired chair of the Department of Physics at Oregon State University.
Composed by research.com, a website that ranks scientists in different fields, posts publications and publishes research, the world’s top 1,000 female scientists of 2022 include two of OSU’s faculty members, Heidi Schellman and Beverly Law.
Schellman researches particle physics which make up atoms. She is currently researching nuclear physics, specifically neutrinos and the measurement of weak interactions, specializing in designing computing systems for the measurements.
“I was that nerdy kid that knew all the dinosaurs,” Schellman said. “I had the taxonomy of the mammals down to the family level memorized when I was 12.”
Intrigued by science from a young age, Schellman went on to study mathematics at University of Oregon and Stanford University. Later on she earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. in physics, was a postdoctoral fellow at University of Chicago and Wilson fellow at Fermilab.
Law is a professor emeritus of global change biology at OSU, currently involved in science communication of her research on mitigating climate change.
Working at multiple scales from
research site trees and their physiology to soil processes to the entire ecosystem, Law’s specialty is the mitigation of climate change. She has compared research on a global scale to show where the highest carbon forests are in western United States, Oregon and Alaska.
Growing up, Law was introduced to natural sciences from her grandfather who owned the land a forest sat upon. Intrigued by the science of nutrient cycling, birds and tree species, she fell in love with the magic of science.
Later on, Law earned her bachelor’s degree at University of Florida in forest management and then went on to complete a Ph.D. in forest science at OSU.
Both Law and Schellman describe their hardships as oftentimes, they were the only women in their fields.
“One of the reasons for being a top 1,000 women (scientist) at my age is we’re only about 5% of physicists my age,” Schellman said. “Somebody my age, the odds that I’m near the top ranking of women is not that unusual, because you’re not comparing it to that many other people.”
Schellman said a woman five years older than her wouldn’t have received the chances she earned after Title IX, a federal law banning discrimination on the basis of sex in educational settings.
“I was used to being a minority, you know, when I went through, like when I swam in high school, I was the only female that swam with the boys team,” Law said.
When giving advice to current OSU
CONTRIBUTED
undergraduate students studying science, Law said it’s important to chart a course and think big.
“There are standards the college will tell you, ‘well, you have to take these classes,’” Law said. “What I’ve told my students is to cover a lot of different fields.”
According to Schellman, it’s important to acquire experience in research if your goal is to go on to graduate or medical school. However, simply holding a job for at least two years that involves creativity looks great on applications.
Schellman is currently working on research on neutrinos and students should know that Law is not currently participating in research, but she said students can learn from her past research that certain aspects of science–spatial statistics, ecosystem modeling and spatiotemporal analysis skills.
These skills are currently in high demand when analyzing climate impacts on ecosystems, identifying important climatemitigating forests, determining better climate locations for animals and helping with the role of land systems in greenhouse gas accounting.
To Law, being on this list means to rise above the crowd within the research world. It will begin to help non-scientists see the caliber of individuals based on their research.
“Life’s hard and you just gotta keep plugging along and believe in yourself,” Law said.
How important is representation and where do Black moviegoers draw the line between being represented and reliving trauma? 5
OSU archaeologists unearth oldest projectile points found to date in the Americas
A popular spot for camping in the fall was the location of significant archaeological research. 4
In western Idaho’s Salmon River Canyon, near where the state’s borders with Oregon and Washington converge, sits Cooper’s Ferry. On the surface, one may not realize the site, a popular spot for camping in the fall, was the location of significant archaeological research.
Archaeologists, however, went there to study what’s under the surface.
An archaeology team at the site, led by an Oregon State University professor, uncovered the oldest projectile points in the Americas, along with other artifacts found while teaching OSU archaeology students.
A group of 14 projectile points found at the site date back to approximately 16000 years ago, according to the team’s paper. A projectile point is the tip at the end of something like an arrow, spear or dart.
The team, whose findings were recently published in the scientific journal Science Advances, worked at Cooper’s Ferry between 2009 and 2018. In the process of working this team turned up artifacts ranging in age from 9,000 years old to 16,000 years old, according to Loren Davis, an OSU professor of Anthropology and head of the research group at Cooper’s Ferry.
The projectile points recovered at Cooper’s Ferry are thousands of years older than any other projectile point found until now in the Americas. According to Davis, the projectile points found at Cooper’s ferry are likely from darts for an atlatl, a type of device used to throw darts or spears at a target.
According to Davis, the first research done at Cooper’s Ferry took place in the 1960s, and this left plenty of unanswered questions. Afterwards, the site was left alone, and by the 1980’s vandals were digging up artifacts, according to David Sisson, an archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management, which owns the land Cooper’s Ferry sits on.
Sisson, an OSU graduate who has been with the BLM’s field office in Cottonwood, Idaho since 1978, said that the first active management of the site was to cover it up with rocks from a nearby rock slide.
“That did a pretty good job, that stopped all the digging,” Sisson said.
In 2008, Davis and Sisson met with the tribal council of the Nez Perce, on whose traditional lands Cooper’s Ferry is located, to discuss beginning a new excavation on the site.
“They wrote a letter of support for the project, and said it’d be worthwhile,” said Davis.
In 2009, work began anew, and this time plans called for a much larger excavation, which necessitated far more people to work on the project.
“You need a lot of people, and we didn’t have the funding to pay 20 people, and a professor and all the vehicles and restrooms and all that stuff that was needed,” Sisson said. “So the only way was to do that through the school.”
So, the dig was turned into an educational experience, with OSU, in partnership with the BLM, organizing an archaeology field school at Cooper’s Ferry, according to a BLM press release. The site served as a classroom for archaeology students both from OSU and other universities, As well as interns from the Nez Perce Tribe.
Students who signed up for the program
earned credits for their work, as well as learning how to live and work in the field, according to Davis.
The class at Cooper’s Ferry ran from 2009 to 2018, with Davis leading the program and Sisson coordinating the partnership between OSU and the BLM. Over those ten years, Davis estimates the field school averaged between 10 and 25 a year, and Sisson believes that around 150 people took part in total.
Beyond the projectile points, the site yielded other notable findings. The team found pits containing artifacts and bone fragments, Sisson said, and according to Davis they also found the remains of what they think may be prehistoric dwellings.
Today, the site of the excavation is marked by three interpretive panels and an information kiosk. Sisson said that there are no further plans for Cooper’s Ferry right now, and both Sisson and Davis emphasized the importance of preserving the rest of the site for future research.
“There’s an ethical obligation not to
excavate the entire site, because in the future, technology will improve, we hope, and people will be able to do archaeology in ways we can’t even dream of,” Davis said. The pit itself was filled in back in 2018, after the team had reached the bottom of the archaeologically-significant portion of the site.
“We got down to the bottom of our excavations, and we thought that we had probably collected enough of a sample to be able to satisfy our original research goals,” Davis said.
OSU’s field school program has moved on to the Oregon coast. According to Davis, last summer’s field school took place at a site near Bandon, and will return in August.
“We’re excavating there because it’s right on the edge of the ocean, and sea level, as it’s starting to rise…will destroy sites like this that are right on the edge of the beach,” Davis said.
Of everything recovered over the ten years at Cooper’s Ferry, around 65,000 items have been cataloged to date, although according
to Davis, the total number may be up to 250,000. Plans are also underway to create virtual exhibits of the recovered artifacts.
“We don’t have a big museum here at OSU, but that doesn’t mean we can’t imagine ways to share information about sites like the Cooper’s Ferry site,” Davis said.
The exhibits will eventually be displayed on the fourth floor of Fairbanks Hall. Davis said that the exhibits will be developed over the next few years.
“Students can come work with us, learn how to do 3D scanning or other kinds of creative media expressions of how to talk about artifacts and how they relate to the past. We’re trying to get a lot of different voices,” Davis said.
Sisson, meanwhile, expects that the artifacts recovered from Cooper’s Ferry will be contributing to archaeological knowledge for a long time to come.
“Studies are never really done, and people will come up with different things to do research on at some point,” Sisson said.
How important is representation and where do Black moviegoers draw the line between being represented and reliving trauma?
On Jan. 6, United Artists Releasing and Universal Pictures released a historical drama documenting the life of Emmett Till, a 14-year old boy who was kidnapped, tortured, lynched and then drowned in Mississippi in 1955.
In a promotional interview for the movie, Whoopi Goldberg, producer on the film, referred to Till’s story as “Our diary of Anne Frank,” and said that it’s something that needs to be told because nobody’s told it before.
However, a documentary and short film on him were released in 2000 and 2017, respectively.
The movie made back $9 million in the worldwide box office, on a budget of $20 million. A loss of $11 million begs the questions: who are these movies for and does anybody care? Black Oregon State University students weigh in on the importance of representation.
Tamea Mitchell, a third-year graphic design major, thinks that representation is important to a certain extent, but at some point constant reminders of events like Till’s can feel oppressing.
“There’s so much more to us than that,” Mitchell said. “I don’t try to put myself in a victim’s mentality.”
Mitchell’s favorite films are from entertainers like Spike Lee and Issa Rae. She enjoys movies like “Crooklyn,” “School Daze,” and “The Photograph” because they’re something that’s light-hearted.
“It doesn’t have to be so intense all the time,” Mitchell said.
She said that she limits watching civil rights biopics and slave movies to
Black History Month, but she’s always prepared to watch something on the “Black Panthers.”
Sydney Griswold, a third-year public health major, believes that representation is important. She thinks so, especially, for spaces where Black people, historically, have once not been invited. She praised Angela Bassett, the first Marvel actor to win a Golden Globe, and even mentioned Zendaya, a Golden Globe and two-time Emmy winner.
“It’s really big to see Black people being represented in different walks of art,” Griswold said.
Some of Griswold’s favorite shows that prioritize representation are “Black-ish,” “Proud Family,” and “That’s So Raven.” Furthermore, Griswold feels that there’s a double-edged sword to watching movies such as “Selma,” “The Help,” and “The Hate You Give.” She said that she had to turn away when watching the latter, since it was hard to watch and even made her fearful.
“There are countless stories of Black people making a difference in history that nobody talks about,” Griswold said.
“Those are stories that we want to see.”
She also mentioned the movie “Hidden Figures,” a story about three Black women who helped launch astronaut John Glenn into orbit. Even though movies like that show struggle, they also show success in spite of adversity.
Isaac Savage, a third-year psychology major and Black Cultural Center employee, feels that good representation depends on how the person being represented is portrayed. He agrees with Griswold that it’s important to understand who’s making the movies, and if stereotypes are being used in their portrayal.
Along with wanting to see more
original Black superheroes, like Static Shock, Savage also likes to watch documentaries and movies based on true stories.
He’s inspired by people like Chadwick Boseman and Damian Lillard, but also Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou.
Savage says that any stories that aren’t taught in school would be something that he and other people like him would want to know about.
Wintre Nees, a third year psychology major, believes that even though representation is important, there’s a lot of misrepresentation in movies because they’ll play into the “ghetto” and “thug” stereotypes, as mentioned by Savage earlier.
In the future, she would like to see a lot more come-up stories in Black media. As someone who was adopted, Nees feels as though there are still some stories that don’t get told. Unfortunately, the same stories get re-dramatized just so the movie studios can make money.
To her, a good indicator to help conclude whether a film leans on performative or proper representation depends on the background of the director and writer, as well as how the story is going to capture the audience.
“Get Out,” a movie released in 2017, written and directed by Jordan Peele on a budget of $4.5 million, has since made over $250 million in the worldwide box office.
Starring Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams, “Get Out,” is a movie about a Black man, Chris, spending a weekend getaway meeting his, white girlfriend’s parents. However, as the weekend progresses, things don’t quite go as planned for Chris and the family. The movie was acclaimed by critics and audiences, being nominated for two Oscars and winning one.
BUILDING MAINTENANCEWondering why you’ve been receiving emails about gas leaks from Oregon State University lately?
The answer lies here.
Many of the gas leak alerts sent by the Public Safety Department at OSU are students reporting unknown odors within a building.
According to Mike Bamberger, emergency manager for OSU, students have made reports from microwaving food like broccoli or fish that permeates the building, odors from rainfall on the ground after dry spells, sewer gas or compounds from laboratories.
These unknown odors are alerted as gas leaks through email and are treated as an emergency situation.
The last true gas leak at OSU was in the pharmacy building parking lot in October 2021, which happened on two occasions in the same month due to construction hitting the gas line.
However, since then there have been a slew of gas leak alerts on the OSU campus that turned out to be false alarms, reports made for unknown odors.
According to Tom Doyle, director of environmental health and safety, it’s important to note natural gas smells like rotten eggs due to a chemical added to odorless natural gas so individuals can correctly recognize a gas leak.
When there’s a possibility of a gas leak, the fire department, Northwest Natural and the public safety department evacuate the building and set up a perimeter, sending an alert to the OSU community or anyone with an OSU email.
Oftentimes in laboratories, there are various odors that could stem from chemicals or can be a more innocent chemical reaction.
According to Doyle, laboratory sinks can produce odors from the drain lines if they aren’t used for a long period of time. The gas from the sanitary sewer system will emerge through the line and produce a malodorous smell that can be confused with natural gas.
The most common gas leak on campus is due to construction. This occurs from a physical disturbance, like a tractor breaking a gas pipe in a construction site.
Before reporting a gas leak, both Bamberger and Doyle suggest considering whether or not the leak is inside the building or outside, whether or not gas is used as an energy source and consider the reasoning behind why there would be a gas leak in the first place.
If there’s a suspected leak in a laboratory, Doyle suggests closing the door to seal off the premises, evacuate the area and call environmental health and safety.
“The students, employees, faculty, staff, the entire community… we’re are all kinds of the eyes and ears for safety. We all need to look out for each other and identify any hazards that we see as part of our studies here or work here,” Doyle said. If there happens to be an unknown odor that’s suspected to be natural gas, Bamberger suggests making a report by calling an emergency line. Then he suggests leaving the area and encouraging others to leave the premises, too.
For OSU emergencies the contact number is 541-737-7000, environmental health and safety the number is 541-713-SAFE and a new app released by OSU public safety called RaveGuardian can be downloaded for alerts and is available to text in emergency situations.
RENOVATIONS
Over a year has passed since the Jan. 7, implosion of Reser Stadium shook the grounds of Corvallis, signaling a $162 million west side renovation of the new stadium.
The “Completing Reser Stadium Project” is nearly finished as anticipation grows for the 2023 football season.
Leading up to the start of the 2022 season, there were concerns over how the ongoing construction of Reser Stadium would impact the overall game-day experience in regards to fan attendance, parking, and how
the game itself would be affected by the half-empty grandstands.
However, the Beavers boasted a 5-1 record at home during the 2022 football season, and every home game was sold out in attendance, despite the limited parking and seating for fans attending home games.
The “Completing Reser Stadium Project” is expected to be completed well before the home opener on Sept. 9 against UC Davis.
This comes as Hoffman Construction has faced challenges during the renovations of the west side including weather and steel fabrication, according to Mark Rado,
Deadline: February 25, 2023
Submission details: beav.es/5dT
the construction superintendent with Hoffman Construction.
The primary problem was with the steel and that was supply chain issues over the past two years, which is a familiar challenge that the construction industry has faced, and this project was no different from those issues.
All the required steel is now on site and it’s a matter of finishing the rest of the remaining work.
Even with the issues, there wasn’t any concern that the construction would continue into 2023 as the project had enough
built-in time to help ease construction issues and delays.
The project is expected to be done a month before the home opener on Sept. 9 and Hoffman will be ready to help with any minor touch-ups that may arise when the west side is in operation.
“We’re going to be done sometime in August, roughly August, but we’ll be here with OSU up until game day,” said Rado. “OSU will start taking use of the space in August.”
On Jan. 17 members of the media, along
For many students, college means moving away from home for the first time, leaving friends and family behind, and starting life mostly on your own. These things combined often cause many students to experience a low point in their mental health. As such, many college students can benefit from finding ways to manage stress, depression, and other common mental health issues.
Outdoorsy people may be able to attest that being out in nature can help with their stress levels and emotional state, but, with a busy schedule, perhaps the most practical solution is to bring nature to you. Houseplants are an easy way to bring some life into a space that can otherwise be depressing, and below are some of the best plants to fit into a student’s lifestyle.
ZZ PLANT
The ZZ plant is a low-maintenance plant with very low light requirements and pots easily, making it an excellent choice for a busy lifestyle and for brightening up dark spaces. This plant is often seen bringing life to office spaces, and has an average water requirement, meaning that it doesn’t need to be worried about watering more than the average plant.
SNAKE PLANT
By GABRIELLA GRINBERGS Beaver’s Digest ContributorFrom vaudeville to silent films, through renovations and ghosts, fires and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Whiteside Theatre remains a Corvallis gem and now celebrates a full century of unique entertainment. To thank its patrons and the community, the non-profit now offers some new weekly deals for everyone to enjoy.
Over the past 100 years, the Whiteside Theatre has been host to thousands of different types of performances, which has played an intimate role in the Corvallis community and continues to prove itself to be a vital part of the town today.
According to their website, Whiteside opened the curtains for its first performance on Nov. 9, 1922: a showing of “The Old Homestead” accompanied with music by organist Lillian McElroy, who is rumored to still haunt the building to this day.
Named after the initial owners of the business, the Whiteside Theatre originally started out as a vaudeville theater, a type of comedic performance interwoven with poetry and song, with seating for up to 1200 showgoers. This performance era, however, grinded to a halt after the theater burned down in 1927, forcing the Whiteside brothers to temporarily close their doors for repairs and reopen as silent film rose into public favor.
Through the decades, the business fell to different owners and movie companies, most recently Regal Cinemas, until it was almost forced to close due to the poor condition of the building. In 2009, however, a group of local historic preservationists got Whiteside a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.
Almost five years ago, Jennifer Waters, Oregon State University graduate in communications, was hired to
transform Whiteside Theatre from a volunteer run organization to a running, multifunctioning entertainment theater.
“What I like most about [this job] is working with local programming and artists,” said Waters. “I lived in Portland for a short time and it’s been nice bringing [friends] down to perform and show them my beautiful theater.”
Waters also explained her experience keeping Whiteside open during the COVID-19 pandemic, expressing how quarantine was actually a “blessing in disguise” for the non-profit as this “forced pause” allowed her and her staff to refocus their goals.
“We depended on people coming through from Salem and Eugene,” Waters explained. “So since people weren’t traveling we had to find ways to bring in the local community.”
One particular way Whiteside’s meaningful community ties show is through a collaboration with the Daytime Drop-in Center, a community-based resource center dedicated to meeting the basic needs of locals, by offering free movies and concessions every Tuesday. This initiative began in 2021 as a way to offer those without homes an escape from the boiling summer heat and frigid winter cold. Some restaurants based in downtown Corvallis, like Squirrel’s Tavern, have occasionally joined in to offer meals for all to take advantage of this act of kindness.
“We’re hoping to get some funding this year from the Benton Community Foundation to expand the scope of the program and have more food available,” said Waters. “It's nice being able to give back to the community.”
Additionally, during the pandemic, Whiteside Theatre offered a $6 movie deal, before fees, every Wednesday.
To celebrate their hundredth year open they’ve chosen to play the highest grossing movie of each decade every month. Next
month, they will be focusing on the 1960s. If successful, the programming will be expanded to weekend showings as well. They will also be playing the three original Star Wars films next month too.
This theme of nostalgia proves to be key for the success of this long-standing Corvallis staple and has brought together a flourishing community over many, everevolving decades.
“Entertainment is different now. It’s more accessible and [people] can watch something on [their] phones. So, we have to try and figure out how to bring people in here, how to stay relevant,” said Waters. “What we have found is that link to the community and its nostalgia is what brings people back in here.”
Attracting college students is also an ongoing challenge for Whiteside. The solution lies in the theater’s free-reign authority over what goes on the stage and under the spotlight.
“We try to do fun, irreverent [performances], like Drag and Burlesque, and cater to letting people have that experience in a big college town that provides crazy entertainment” Walters said. “We play it pretty loose and free over here.”
It’s this very openness and creative control that allows for Whiteside to support artists of color and queer artists, Waters mentioned, as a way to make members of those communities within Corvallis feel welcomed and accepted.
“It’s kind of a no holds bar kind of thing, which is good,” Waters adds. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
With some having their first jobs, first kisses, first dates and even meeting their now significant others, the theater holds century-old memories for an entire town and continues to offer safety and entertainment for everyone willing to take a seat and enjoy the show.
CAT'S CHRONICLES: MONOTONY
BY CAT SMITH
Much like the ZZ plant, the snake plant needs little light and care, but it has a more distinctive appearance, with its striped foliage. Its water requirements are also fairly standard, so owners of both can water them on the same schedule with little worry.
ENGLISH IVY
Should you have a high up shelf space in need of some life, English ivy may be an excellent option. It has a preference for indirect light, although it can survive just fine in partial shade or full sunlight. Its temperature needs are quite similar to Oregon’s natural climate, preferring moderate, cool temperatures.
PEACE LILY
If you like flowers, peace lilies are an excellent option that requires little care. While they need lots of water, they can quickly bounce back from wilting should they be forgotten for a watering cycle. Their blooms are lovely white flowers, and they do best in indirect sunlight. However, like all lilies, consuming these flowers is toxic, so it is wise to keep them away from pets or young children.
BLEEDING HEART
The final plant on this list is an Oregon native; the bleeding heart. These flowers thrive in Oregon weather, so standard Pacific Northwest temperatures, 55 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, are ideal for the flower. It does require a large pot and a decent amount of water, about one inch per week. They are, like peace lilies, toxic to consume, so they are best kept out of reach of pets or children, perhaps on a high shelf or on top of a cabinet, bookshelf, or other surface that is difficult for animals to reach if they are present in the household.
HAM CREEK: HOGG BY HELEN WHITE
After being a part of the University of Pittsburgh’s 31-3 record-holding team, former Pittsburgh assistant coach, Lindsey Behonick, picked up her things alongside her family to take over the role of head coach for Oregon State volleyball.
On Nov. 16, 2022, former Oregon State head volleyball coach, Mark Barnard, announced that he would be retiring from his position as head coach following the conclusion of the 2022 volleyball season after being with the program for 18 seasons.
Since then, the school and athletic department had been looking for a candidate to take over the role until settling on Behonick.
With an incomplete roster to fill and many players to train and get up to speed in the off-season, Behonick has big plans to turn the Beavers’ previous losing records into a successful powerhouse with big goals to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
That being said, the new coach realizes that big program rebuilds, such as this, don’t happen overnight.
“Obviously, what I want to happen is to make the tournament. Do I think it’s going to happen? Probably not. There’s also just ebbs and flows with how RPI is and how fast you can really make those jumps,” Behonick said. “I would love to do it as fast as I can, but not have it jeopardize the culture of the program.”
Being the program’s twelfth head volleyball coach, traveling from a university with a large volleyball presence, there is a hope that Behonick’s new coaching style and newly hired staff will bring the Beavers into a new era of success.
“I have these ways that I want to play. I want to play fast,” Behonick said.
Coming into the new year with a new program, Behonick already has begun to shift the structure of the practices in the short eight hours the team can practice each week.
“I’m creating a gym that has some more structure than what they’ve been used to, but in a good way. I’m someone that wants to teach the all-around game,” Behonick said. “I’m already seeing improvements. I’m seeing girls in the gym that are eager to learn and that are starting to buy in and that’s what excites me.”
With senior setter Inna Balyko finishing her time at Oregon State, Behonick has already expressed her philosophy of how she plans on looking for new and talented athletes.
“I want to recruit the best players. I don’t care where they’re from as long as they’re good humans,” Behonick said. “I want to recruit players that want to be really good at volleyball, want to have a good education, and be successful outside of their time here at the university.”
As winter progresses and the air becomes painstakingly cold, community interest in sports has now switched from fall sports like football and soccer to winter sports like basketball and gymnastics.
Everyone is talking about the exciting beginning of the women’s gymnastics season and the rollercoaster of wins and losses for the men’s basketball team. What’s not being talked about is the electrifying start to the men’s volleyball season.
In Oregon, men’s volleyball is virtually nonexistent, being overshadowed by other sports and the more commonly known women’s volleyball season, which takes place during the fall. Most have yet to learn that a men’s volleyball season occurs during winter and spring, with games starting in early January and ending in late May.
The Men’s Volleyball Club at Oregon State are stepping in the right direction toward inclusivity of a sport played around the world.
The Men’s Volleyball Club hopes to expand the small community by allowing those to play the sport they love or to try something new.
Kevin Sabbe, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering and club leader of the OSU Men’s Volleyball Club, said, “I wish there were more men’s volleyball groups in Oregon. As much as we try to push it, it just doesn’t exist.”
The volleyball community in Oregon has struggled for the past 50 years trying to make the sport as popular as it is in other states, including California and Hawaii.
The OSU Men’s Volleyball Club is a student lead organization that gives members of the Oregon State community a chance to have fun out on the court and be a part of a tight-knit community of people passionate about the underloved sport. They welcome all community members and invite those with various skill levels, ages, and majors to join, expressing that each club member is a pivotal part of the team.
Jasper Delasanta, a freshman majoring in elec trical and computer engineering, began playing in early high school with his close friends who encouraged him to join.
Enamored by the sport, Delasanta actively searched for a college that offered the opportunity to play volleyball competitively, landing on Oregon State and joining the club. “There is no reason not to join,” Delasanta explained. “It is a lot of fun, and I enjoy playing tournaments and hanging out with the team.”
The club consists of two teams. There is an A team and a B team, which both travel to locations and compete in tournaments.
The A team participates in nationals and even travels to places such as San Diego. The club also offers a practice team for those who want to learn more about volleyball, develop their skills, and have fun playing an exhilarating game.
The club gets together three times a week, meeting on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. The practice goes from 7:45 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and from 6:45 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Sundays. The practice consists of a multitude of drills and scrimmages among the multiple teams.
The OSU Men’s Volleyball Club acknowledges much better the people were than me was a pretty big shock, it’s been great to see my growth while on the team.” Criswell played his whole life recreationally but only started to be coached once he joined the Oregon State club team.
Sabbe confirmed that the club was a place for support and companionship. “It is very much a social experience as it is a professional experience,” he clarified. “It is more about finding the right team than finding the best team.”
The club hopes to promote unity throughout the community and allow others to find a safe environment that is welcoming to all while still providing a good source of exercise.
Cade Nakao, a sophomore majoring in biology, agreed with the ideals of companionship, finding a “second home” and a welcoming community. “It has been a great experience to be a part of the team, and I am very thankful for the guys,” Nakoa commented. “Everyone is super motivated to improve their skills and are incredibly supportive.”
The members of the club cheer on as their team members play, yelling in excitement after a killer spike or outstanding dig and high-fiving each other even when a mistake is made.
The club members not only push each other to be better athletes but also push each other to be better community members. Criswell explained, “I was able to grow a lot as a leader.”
As the club is student-led, community members step up to take charge and create an inviting and exciting environment. Decisions are made by the team and the leading members. Criswell stated, “It gets tricky to make some of the decisions ourselves, but ultimately we make the best decisions for the club.”
Lead members of the club claimed to have learned essential skills in decisionmaking and leadership, applying such skills to their daily lives and education.
The club just recently held its first tournament of the season at Oregon State in the upper gyms of Dixon Recreation, where they faced off against teams of the Pacific Intercollegiate Volleyball Association.
Some teams they faced included Boise State University, Washington State University, Portland State University, Gonzaga University, and rivals of the Beavers, the University of Oregon.
The Oregon State Men’s Volleyball Club will compete in their second tournament on February 4th and 5th at the University of Washington, where they will put all their hard work and emotions on the court.
With community interest now pointed towards winter sports, the Oregon State Men’s Volleyball Club encourages all to take part in the exciting and rewarding experience of volleyball by supporting the team at upcoming tournaments, playing volleyball with a group of friends, or joining the volleyball club and being part of the camaraderie and community first hand.
Welcome to The DAM mailbag, this is my mailbag where I answer any questions that are on your mind about Oregon State sports. Anything that you, the reader, wanted to be answered, I will have here in this column.
Q: What does the future hold for Tinkle and his staff? -
@RYANSANDILANDS2A: Right now, the future doesn’t feel like it’s too bright for Tinkle and the staff after coming off last year’s 3-28 season. I think that Tinkle is on the hot seat, there is a chance that he could be let go but that is likely dependent on how this season finishes. The contract and the guaranteed money will also play a role in if Scott Barnes wants to pay that much money to him. I think if the team can turn things around this season, then don’t move on from Tinkle. If things don’t get better and the team craters to a record below .500, I’d re-evaluate in the offseason and then decide on retaining him and the staff.
Q: What are the plans for men’s basketball at center for next year? Even if Chol [Marial] is healthy, he doesn’t appear to be someone who can play more than 10-15 mins. - @ B7283SOSU
A: My guess based on what the coaching staff has done since Chol Marial’s injury is that they will likely go with freshman KC Ibekwe at the center position for the rest of the season and likely for next year. Now, this depends on how healthy Marial is since he’s still in a boot as of right now and I haven’t heard any progress on his recovery yet. I think if Marial stays and doesn’t
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transfer somewhere else, he may end up being a depth option and a role player going forward, but don’t think he’ll be given a lot of minutes unless injuries affect the team.
Q: Thoughts on the overall PAC12 2023 football schedule? -
PETER KUSKIEA: My thoughts on the PAC-12 2023 football schedule are that I do like the schedule that Oregon State has. I can easily see this team having eight wins before their matchups against Washington and Oregon. I also like how it gives both USC and UCLA the short end of the stick before they leave the PAC-12 Conference. There’s a likelihood we could see multiple teams with 10 or more wins when the 2023 season is finished. I don’t envy the person having to deal with the tiebreakers though, because that just sounds hectic to deal with.
Q: What are your current thoughts on the men’s ‘Rival Basketball’ game? Do you think we’ll have another surprise win?
- COLE KEADYA: Currently, I think it’s one-sided right now with the Ducks winning the past four matchups, but the games have been competitive. I think it’s possible to pull out a surprise win, you can never say never in sports as anything can happen, but it’ll be dependent on if the team can play consistently and together for an entire game.
Q: What player are you most excited to watch next season for Beaver Football? -
WES FLOWA: I could go for the cop-out
with Oregon State athletic director, Scott Barnes, and the members of the Hoffman Construction team, were invited to tour the ongoing progress of Reser Stadium.
There have been various cosmetic changes that have occurred since the last tour in Sept. 2022 including the framing of the press box and the addition of seating in the lower bowl of the west side.
The new Student Welcome Center will serve two roles once the west side of Reser Stadium is completed, as both a general information center for new prospective students and then transformed as an entrance for fans on game days who have purchased club seating on the west side of the stadium.
There will be three separate club seating areas on the west side of the stadium, which are the Coastal, Cascade, and Founders Club. The premium seating is some of the closest to the field in college football and is currently sold out for the 2023 season, according to Barnes.
A new addition to the southeast side of Reser Stadium will be the new Campus Wellness Clinic, for which construction is nearing completion and is set to open in the early summer. According to Rado, the plan is to have Student Health Services move into the building around early summer and then begin operations soon afterward.
The wellness clinic will provide health care and wellness service to students, faculty, staff, and community members in Corvallis.
In addition to Student Health Services being an occupant of the new wellness clinic, Samaritan Health Services will also occupy part of the space.
Although many of the new additions on the west side will benefit Beaver Football and the fans that come to watch football games, visiting teams at Reser Stadium will also benefit from the construction. Visiting teams won’t have to use the locker rooms in Gill Coliseum anymore, as the new visiting team locker room will be in the northwest corner
answer and say quarterback D.J. Uiagalelei and many fans would agree with that answer. However, the player I’m most excited about watching in the 2023 season for Beaver Football is linebacker Easton MascarenasArnold and the role he takes on this upcoming season as a leader on the defensive side of the ball. Mascarenas-Arnold got a lot of work in over training camp, calling defensive fronts and pressures, which I’d expect him to take those responsibilities going into spring practices. I’d expect a big season from him in 2023.
Q: What is the plan for the DBs next season? Are any coverage shifts discussed given vets are leaving? - NICK LIJIA
A: I haven’t heard anything yet about changes in coverage responsibilities or which defensive backs will be playing in the secondary next season. However, I guess that Trent Bray will likely roll with defensive backs Skyler Thomas, Alton Julian, Kitan Oladapo, Jaden Robinson and Ryan Cooper Jr. in the secondary next season. I think this would be the starting lineup to expect when spring practices start and when the spring game happens in early April. I wouldn’t expect a significant drop off from last year, their position group has a lot of depth and they can all fill the void left by the departures of the veterans that are leaving.
Q: I know Riley Sharp is switching positions from linebacker to tight end, what’s up with the position change?ANDRES DE LOS SANTOS
A: I thought that was an interesting change as well since he had a good season last year as a linebacker. I think the change is likely due to linebacker Ryan Franke coming back from a knee injury that was suffered during training camp. I guess that Sharp wouldn’t have gotten a lot of playing time had Franke stayed healthy this past season. I think now with the position change he’ll have an
of the stadium near the visitor sidelines.
Before the renovations, both teams departed the field at halftime along the same tunnel near the east side of Reser Stadium but with this change, there is less of a chance for heated post-game or halftime interactions between players and fans.
“I think we were tied at least for the worst locker room situation for visiting teams,” Barnes said on the teams using the visiting locker rooms in Gill Coliseum, “We’re treating folks how we want to be treated now.”
The visiting locker room is also right under Beaver Street, which connects both the north and south ends of the stadium and will serve concessions to fans on game days.
Beaver Street is not completed as fireproofing progress is being worked on right now, according to Rado.
Although seating capacity is expected to be less than in prior years with the new renovations of Reser Stadium, with the renovated Reser Stadium set to host around 36,000 fans, the limited seating isn’t something that Barnes is worried about, mentioning that stadiums are catering their amenities to the fans that come to watch a game on gameday.
“When you see stadium renovations all over the country, folks are downsizing. They’re enhancing the experience, more points of purchase, more restrooms and amenities, bigger seats,” said Barnes, “We think we’re really going to be in good shape with capacity, yet also have room for students and the general public, and fair price tickets.”
However, Barnes added while there are no immediate plans on addressing capacity and seating, they’re prepared to address any capacity issues should they become a concern after the renovations have been completed.
“We will always be reading the market and understanding what’s four or five years ahead of us, if that changes then we’ll be ready to look at it and innovate. If we’re not innovating and adjusting, and continue to think about the future then we’re not doing our jobs, that’s always in play with what we do.”
opportunity to see the field more, I just don’t know how the depth chart shakes out with him now being a tight end.
Q: Any thoughts on putting a video board at the other end above the terrace? -
SHAWN JENNE
A: I was in favor of it when I was calling games in the temporary press boxes last season. I do see the appeal if you’re sitting in an area where you can’t see the play sitting on the south side of the stadium. Ultimately, I think it ultimately comes down to logistics and the cost of placing another video board if Scott Barnes and Oregon State Athletics decide to do so.
Q: With the Beaver Football program undoubtedly on the rise, what will the expectation be for a successful season? Bowl game? Eight wins? Win over the Ducks? - @DANE_NORLIN
A: I don’t think there is just one thing that will dictate the 2023 Beaver football season being successful, but I do think making the PAC-12 Conference Championship game should be a good expectation and goal to have this season. I think that a bowl game and eight wins should be the minimum expectation for the team going forward. As for a win over the Ducks next season, I think it’s possible even with this game being on the road but the last time the Beavers won at Autzen was back in 2007. Maybe this year’s team finally breaks that losing streak? I think it could happen.
Q: How will NIL money affect the long-term success of Oregon State Athletics? - @C_KORTGE14
A: I think that the long-term effects of NIL remain to be seen as there are no current regulations in place by the NCAA, so it’s pretty much the wild west out there right now. As a result, Oregon State has realized that it must adapt to how things are with the NIL landscape changing. I do have concerns
ESPORTSabout how it impacts the longterm success of smaller programs like wrestling, soccer, track and field, and rowing as much of the donations will go to bigger programs like football, basketball and baseball. However, I think NIL will be beneficial to Oregon State in the long run with the Dam Nation NIL Collective, which will help Oregon State athletes look for and obtain NIL opportunities while in school.
Q: If you could go back and change the outcome of one of the three losses from the football season last year, what game would it be and why? - @ JOHILL_13
A: The one game I would pick is the game against USC as that was a winnable game, minus the four turnovers. I covered that game and in the post-game press conference, I could tell how much that loss stung for the entire team. They had a great plan on both sides of the ball, but inevitably it was the turnovers that cost the Beavers a chance to win the game against a top-10 team in the nation.
Q: Whom do you expect to replace Hjerpe this season?CALEB POWELL
A: It’s hard to replace the production that Hjerpe had on the mound with just one guy, but I think based on what head coach, Mitch Canham, mentioned during his media availability, multiple guys could potentially fill that role. There is no current rotation yet but my best guess is the leading candidates for the job are Jacob Kmatz, Jaren Hunter, Brock Townsend, Ben Ferrer or really anyone on the pitching staff. I would expect to get a better idea before the season starts.
Hey readers! Want your Oregon State Sports questions answered on The DAM mailbag? Submit them to me on Twitter @ RYAN_HARLAN7 or by email HARLANR@OREGONSTATE.EDU
With six semi-professional teams and over 1,200 members on its Discord channel, Oregon State University’s Esports Club is one of the largest organizations on campus.
Competing in popular games such as Valorant, Overwatch, and League of Legends, the club allows players to build a community around their shared interest in gaming.
According to Esports Club President, Russell Owen, his goal is to give players like himself the opportunity to enter the world of professional gaming while attending university.
Owen assumed his position as president in the Spring of 2022 after three years with the club, primarily as an Overwatch player. He now captains the Varsity Valorant team, which competes on a national level in events like the Collegiate Valorant League, Collegiate Esports Commissioners Cup, and the National Association of Collegiate Esports.
The pro teams at OSU have earned over $5,000 in tournament winnings, making the club more than just a hobby for its members.
Freshman marketing major, Carter Kirnan, is a new member of the club’s League of Legends team, having joined this past fall on the recommendation of one of his professors.
Like many of the club’s members, Kirnan has had an interest in gaming from a young age and came into OSU Esports “looking for a fun, competitive
environment” where he could make friends and pass time.
To make an OSU Esports Club team, Kirnan and other hopefuls go through a tryout process over Discord.
According to Parker Walters, a member of the Varsity Valorant team, potential players compete against each other over several days until team captains and other members decide on who takes the open roster spot.
Though roster spots for competitive teams are currently full, Owen says there are still ways to get involved with OSU Esports.
“We support people who just want to hang out and play games, and we support people who are more into journalism and media,” Owen said. “You know, a big part of Esports is, just like traditional sports, the broadcast, the media, the fire tweets, all that good stuff.”
Walters also described how the club creates a sense of community for all its members, no matter their skill level or experience.
“While I found my community being on one of the competitive rosters, there are also plenty of community events put out by the club,” Walters said. “There’s usually one put out each week or so and there are loads of people from other parts of the club wanting to have a fun night of gaming. It’s just another great way to meet people with similar gaming interests as well as people that may be competing on some of the other rosters.”
For more information about the OSU Esports Club, visit their website at https://osuesports.gg/.
HOUSELESSNESS
Govoner Kotek declares 'homelessness' state of emergency
Governor Tina Kotek declared a homelessness state of emergency in multiple Oregon counties on Jan. 10, following her signing of three executive orders to address the issue. 2
Rural Oregonians’ ability to access healthcare — a point of focus for Tina Kotek’s gubernatorial campaign — has become a topic of significant concern, experts say.
As her second month as Oregon’s governor begins, Kotek has a number of campaign promises to work on, including to “maintain and increase access to care in rural communities,” according to her campaign website.
This is important, experts say, because rural populations face more health problems and underdeveloped public health systems, when compared to their urban counterparts.
A 2019 study published in the Journal of Environmental Health Sciences found that older adults in rural parts of the United States have higher rates of chronic diseases, including diabetes and coronary heart disease, than older adults in urban areas.
The study attributes this, in part, to rural areas having higher poverty rates, larger elderly populations, lower education and a lack of transportation
and healthcare services when compared to urban areas.
According to Chunhuei Chi, director of the Oregon State University Center for Global Health, Oregon is no exception to this.
According to Chi, Oregon’s public health systems are under-developed, as a result of underfunding by the state.
Chi says public health expenditure made up only 5.42% of the US national health expenditure in 2020, and before the pandemic, it was only 2.79%.
“This systematic underfunding leads to the shortage of the most important public health infrastructure, public health personnel,” Chi said. “Further, the underfunding of public health also leads to the underdevelopment of…the public health information system.”
While this is a problem statewide, Chi says that some parts of the state are particularly affected.
“The underdeveloped public health system, while it was prevalent across the board, was most pronounced in rural health,” Chi said.
A 2020 study in the Journal of Rural Health found that access to healthcare was the number one rural healthcare
priority nationwide, which, according to Chi, applies to Oregon as well.
“Oregon’s rural health profile is very similar to the national one,” Chi said.
To this end, Oregon has made efforts in recent years to improve healthcare access in rural parts of the state.
The Oregon Office of Rural Health provides several incentives to encourage healthcare providers to work in rural areas. These include student loan repayment and forgiveness programs for healthcare providers practicing in rural parts of the state, as well as tax credits and subsidies for practitioners insurance.
25 rural Oregon hospitals are also designated as critical access hospitals, according to Chi, which allows them to receive support from the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program.
Additionally, Chi says, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services operates several programs nationally to increase funding in rural clinics.
“What we need for our rural community is a two-prong approach, improving rural population health, and improving health services in the rural areas,” Chi said.
% of national health expenditure from public funding for public health
5%
before 2020 2020
SOURCE: CHUNHUEI CHI
in Oregon are also designated as critical access hospitals which allows them to receive support from the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program.
SOURCE: CHUNHUEI CHI
By KATIE LIVERMORE News Reporter
Venturing through Corvallis means enjoying streams, creeks and other natural water features, running through town, with beavers building their dams, fish swimming in pools and birds flying overhead.
The Water Action Team of the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition is one group of volunteers that work to restore water sources around the Corvallis area to its former glory in the midst of impacts like housing development, farming and human damage.
The CSC is a nonprofit organization in Corvallis with 12 different action teams to provide sustainability co-founded in 2007 and led by Annette Mills. The teams consist of community inclusion, economic vitality, education, energy, food, health and human services, housing, land use, natural areas, transportation, waste prevention and water.
According to Dave Eckert, the leader of the water action team, the CSC has 357 partners and is a collaboration of the community. So far they’ve collaborated with Oregon State University, the city of Corvallis, local hospitals, Benton county, faith groups, businesses, nonprofits and other organizations.
“The purpose [of the CSC] is to analyze, to support and to develop sustainability practices in the community. And that revolves around social cultural sustainability, ecological sustainability, economic sustainability. Most things fall within those categories,” Eckert said.
According to Eckert, the water action team improves three municipal water systems — tap water, wastewater and stormwater — by cutting down the amount of water that flows
FEBRUARY 20 - 24
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through pipes.
“It’s quite overwhelming: the impact our three water systems have on the environment, each very differently, and each profoundly, and if we have less water flowing through those systems, we have less of a profound impact environmentally,” Eckert said.
Another goal for the water action team is to improve the functionality of natural water systems like streams, wetlands and rivers.
“One of the neat things is recognizing the smaller streams that have kind of been neglected, farmers farm over them and housing developments channelize them and put them in culverts and forget about them, and what we realize is they’re just extremely vibrant, natural areas when you let them return,” said Peter Nelson, water action team volunteer and retired professor of environmental engineering at OSU.
Cultural relevance is a vital part of restoring natural water systems for the water action team and has three parts.
This means restoration must have cultural relevance to the community, meaning it considers the lives of community members who have connection to the water source like landowners or individuals who use the land for any activity.
The restoration must also be culturally relevant to the Kalapuya tribe, so Eckert will consult members about native plants and other changes to the water source.
Corvallis water sources are home to beavers, fish, birds, pollinating insects and other animals. The last culturally relevant part of restoration is the animals that inhabit the area.
“At the top of our higher hierarchy is the
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beaver. And so we want to make sure what we’re doing is culturally relevant to the beaver communities,”
Eckert said. “We’ve got to make sure that what we’re doing provides habitat, nutrition and in the right typography for them, in the right place.”
With no meetings and a simple “go out and get something done” attitude, the water action team has worked on 13 different sites for natural water systems in the past year.
OSU students can get involved with the water action team by signing up for the email list by emailing info@sustainablecorvallis.
org to attend an event.
Last year, 175 OSU students volunteered in total through Community Engagement and Leadership, classes, clubs, athletic teams and fraternity and sorority life members. However, everyone in the community is welcome to join and volunteer to help restore Corvallis’ water systems.
“It’s amazingly intergenerational from students and young people all the way up to us retirees and in between,” Nelson said. “It’s just really been an exciting group to be involved with.”
Oregon cities and counties decide regulations for manufacturers, producers and servicers on psilocybin-based services, while at the beginning of 2023, the state announced that individuals can now pay and apply to become licensed for those services.
Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic alkaloid found in some toadstools, the sporebearing body of a fungus.
Psilocybin mushrooms refer to a group of fungi deriving from more than one common ancestor or ancestral group. Growing studies are suggesting a correlation between psilocybin use and improved mental health symptoms.
All producers, manufacturers, and service providers are required to be licensed through the Oregon Health Authority. Application fees range from $150-$500, with annual licensure fees ranging from $1,000-$10,000, depending on the license being applied for.
Although some counties don’t approve and plan to limit the service centers, Nancy Wyse, Benton County Commissioner, said that Benton-county had a 63% “yes” vote for legalizing psilocybin.
“We ended up going for time, place and manner regulations in Benton County versus referring it back to voters,” Wyse says.
Wyse claims that she and the county want to be proactive and get ahead of any potential issues that may happen. An important distinction to realize, she says, is that the city of Corvallis and Bentoncounty have their own time, place, and manner regulations, meaning they will be unincorporated.
The manufacture, production, and service zones will operate as follows:
Growing the mushrooms will be limited to farm-use zones and multipurpose agricultural zones.
Processing/manufacturing will be limited to exclusive farm-use, multipurpose agriculture zones, urban industrial zones, rural industrial zones, agricultural industrial zones, special-use airport industrial park zones.
Service centers will be limited to conditional-use in the urban commercial, rural commercial and special-use airport industrial park zones.
Wyse said that she is not an advocate or a detractor for psilocybin, but she does believe that there is a mental health
that individuals in remission have shown increased hippocampal volume relative to non-remitters, there are still differences between healthy individuals and those in remission.
“More long-term studies are needed to understand how much recovery
benefits of psilocybin, and recent studies have suggested that there are benefits to psychedelics, like for people experiencing treatment-resistant depression, according to Cservenka.
As a veteran who served seven years in the army, Chris believes that psychedelics are important. He said that psilocybin has had a positive effect on his empathy and overall mental health. Although he’s not diagnosed with PTSD, he claims that his depression and anxiety was exacerbated by his army service.
“If your thoughts are a sled, and you’re going down a hill, eventually after all day of sledding down the hill, there's a groove of ice that you can’t force the sled out of.
Mushrooms are a fresh coat of snow,”
Chris said. “It’s allowed me to work out problems, and be able to see from other people’s perspectives.”
Chris was born in Detroit, MI, where he was introduced to psilocybin by a friend at 18. He claims that he was a sheltered kid who grew up without a lot of sympathy in his life, but when he first tried psilocybin he knew it was important.
Chris said that he applied for the license to become a facilitator since that’s what he felt like his calling was. According to him, however, he was shunned away since he didn’t have a degree, and services will become obsolete in 10 years since psilocybin should be recreationally legal by then.
Anita Cservenka, Ph.D. and associate professor of neuroscience who investigates neurocognitive functioning, claims that growing studies have suggested higher rates of widespread anxiety and depression. With these symptoms, especially, being true among young people.
“While depressive and anxiety symptoms often emerge during the adolescent years, I think the pandemic exacerbated existing mental health challenges, but also brought this [mental health] to the public’s attention more,” Cservenka said.
According to Cservenka, depression has been linked with lower hippocampal volume, which is a structure important for learning and memory consolidation. Although longitudinal studies have shown
function is possible and whether these also translate to symptom improvement,” Cservenka said.
Cservenka believes that it’s important to have early prevention and intervention studies, particularly for individuals who are at highest risk for developing the disorders themselves.
“There are decades of research suggesting the high rates of heritability (around 50%) for many psychiatric disorders including depression, and substance use disorders. This has been studied extensively for individuals with alcohol use disorder, as there is a strong familial link to this disorder,” Cservenka said.
There is growing interest in the research community to understand the
He and his wife felt like they had to move from Alabama, since his wife, another military vet, tested positive for marijuana and was threatened to be kicked off her veteren’s healthcare plan, according to him. After doctors gave her an ultimatum of getting clean or getting kicked off her medication, he said that they both made the decision to pack up and move to Corvallis.
“They wanted her to be a zombie,” Chris said. “They were treating side effects with other medications, to treat side effects to that medication.”
According to Chris, he doesn’t plan on using any psilocybin-based service centers when they arrive, since he feels that he doesn’t need them to that extent, but he does plan on growing his own psilocybin mushrooms.
Andrea Myhre, the executive director of Corvallis Housing First who is also a part of the Community Advisory Committee for JSIP said although she is not on board with the idea that jails are a solution to homelessness, she believes that including the funding for navigation center and the mental health crisis center are a key to make JSIP work.
“We strive to provide housing and services to people that are needed by those folks. And we feel that by having a facility that allows for additional services, that’s what we need,” said Myhre.
FUNDING
The proposed costs for the entire JSIP program is around $180 million, out of which $110 million is covered by the bond measure and the rest is through other sources such as the state of Oregon, county, and fundraisers.
• $171 million for the Community Safety and Justice Campus which includes:
▲ $65 million for the construction of the new courthouse and the DA’s office
▲ $106 million for the construction of a new jail
• $4.5 million for the navigation center and youth mental health services
• $7.7 million for the mental health crisis center
• $383k towards the JSIP program support that includes the staff
The Benton County Board of Commissioners set the bond measure for the Justice System Improvement Program at $110 million. Benton County residents can expect to vote on this proposed measure this May.
According to Xan Augerot, vice chair of the Benton County Board of Commissioners, the JSIP’s goal is to improve outcomes in terms of individuals that are justice involved, and in terms of safety for the entire community in an equitable, effective and efficient manner.
The conceptualization of JSIP began in 2018 and the design for the proposed justice campus was finalized in April 2021. JSIP consists of programs and facilities aimed at improving the outcomes of individuals involved with the justice system.
The total proposed cost for the program is estimated at $179 million and according to Augerot, an average household in Corvallis would have to pay $150 per year on average. This number, however, would vary depending on the value of the property.
PROGRAMS
Pretrial services- for adults who are arrested to combat the high rate of people failing to appear in court. According to the 2019 Benton County Criminal Justice Assessment report, the county had 16.3% of people failing to appear in court in 2017.
One reason given by Sheriff Jef Van Arsdall, Benton County sheriff, was the lack of space in the Benton County Jail to hold people.
“Even when I started in 1997, I was trained to cite and release people versus taking them to jail, because it shuts the jail down,”
said Van Arsdall. The lack of space in the facility, according to Van Arsdall, is because the current Benton County jail was built in 1976 as a holding transfer facility with the idea of building a regional jail – which never happened.
The current jail has 40 beds, however, not all of them can be occupied in reality – owing to several reasons including different cells for men and women, and the occasional need for isolated cells. The maximum capacity that the jail has seen in the past two years is around 35-36 adults.
In addition to the beds in the facility, the county also rents out 10 beds from the Polk County Jail and according to the Van Arsdall, those beds are always occupied.
Lt. Jeremy Jewell of the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, while giving the tour of the jail pointed to several water leaks and clusters of conduit pipes that were put for installation of new electrical systems.
“Just maintaining the building is a major issue,” Jewell said.
As the facility is old, any amends to the electrical lines would require breaking of the walls and working from scratch.
Other programs: Mental health services to address the needs of people in the community that may be a danger to themselves or others.
To address this, the Behavioral Health Department and the Corvallis Police Department are jointly working to build a “core team” to respond to people in behavioral health crises with one mental health professional and one police officer.
FACILITIES
Mental Health Crisis Center- Is in downtown Corvallis for people who want mental health services. This facility is going to be open for all and is expected to
open in the latter half of 2024, if the bond measure passes.
“It could be a family member that takes someone there, it could be the person themselves that decides they really need to go, they know that they are starting to fall apart,” Augerot said.
According to Augerot, there is no such facility in the county and currently the hospital emergency room serves the function of the mental health crisis center.
“That’s the wrong place for someone in mental health crisis, that’s (the) wrong professionals in the wrong environment and very, very expensive care,” Augerot said.
The crisis center would be located on the corner of NW 4th Street and NW Van Buren Ave and will be able to accommodate 10-14 people.
Other facilities in the JSIP include the new courthouse and district attorney’s office which are not a part of the bond measure. The state of Oregon and the county will share the costs equally for their construction.
Navigation center- center acting as a “front door” for people that are unhoused –a place to go to get basic resources and to be during the day, since a lot of the shelters are only nighttime.
According to commissioner Augerot, the navigation center would have offices that will be used by other nonprofits and other agencies, which can help support the homeless community all at the same place.
In addition to the offices, the plan is also to have about six to eight emergency overnight rooms which will be reserved for people who are very fragile such as people who have had a recent surgery and are homeless or transgender or nonbinary folks who don’t fit in the men’s or women’s shelter.
Despite the inclusion of several facilities to tackle mental health and provide temporary shelter, not everyone in the community is happy.
Brandon Gelvin, a Ph.D. student at Oregon State University in law & crime policy believes that as much as the issue regarding the jail being too small and old is a legit concern – funding for law enforcement and the courts that far overshadows the amount provided for behavioral health support and social services is an ineffective way to address crime.
“If we really want to stop crime and promote public safety, we need to address the root causes of crime, which often are economic hardship, homelessness, substance addiction and other behavioral health concerns,” Gelvin said.
In addition to the funding disparity, Gelvin also believes that voters can be “tricked” into thinking they are supporting desperately needed social services in Benton County, while in actuality giving most of the relevant money to what are already some of the better funded government institutions.
On the other hand, Augerot believes that it is important to keep systems accountable and the current jail, owing to its problems – lacks it.
“We want to make sure that we have a system where we really get people the help they need. But we also hold the people that commit crimes accountable for their crimes,” Augerot said.
If the measure is approved in May, the current jail would be demolished and a parking lot – contingent on the public hearings, would be constructed. The CPD is intending on taking over the shared building once the Sheriff’s new office is constructed.
