PORTLAND STATE VANGUARD
VOLUME 73 • ISSUE 13 • JANUARY 22, 2019
ARTS & CULTURE PETER MURPHY IS A TRAD GOTH IDOL• OPINION EARLY 2000S HITS BRING OUT NOSTALGIA• COVER SFC TACKLES $545,000 DEBT CAUSED BY CLERICAL ERROR
CONTENTS COVER BY ROBBY DAY NEWS #METOO MOVEMENT HIGHLIGHTS SURVIVORS ON DAY OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MARCH DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION REDEFINES SEXUAL MISCONDUCT UNDER TITLE IX
P. 4 P. 5
IS HUAWEI SPYING FOR CHINA?
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ARTS & CULTURE JAMES HERBERT, HORROR PAPERBACK MASTER
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40 YEARS OF BAUHAUS
P. 12–13
COVER CLERICAL ERROR, HIGHER WAGES DRIVE PROPOSAL FOR STUDENT FEE INCREASE
P. 8–9
INTERNATIONAL THIS WEEK AROUND THE WORLD
OPINION SORRY MS. JACKSON
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P. 6
DO NOT DISTURB
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TURKEY DISCUSSES FATE OF THE KURDS FOLLOWING U.S. MILITARY WITHDRAWAL
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EVENTS CALENDAR
P. 16
STAFF
ONLINE EDITOR Sangi Lama
EDIT ORI A L EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Nada Sewidan
COPY CHIEF Hannah Welbourn
MANAGING EDITOR Marta Yousif NEWS EDITORS Chris May Anamika Vaughan INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Lukas Amsden ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Cervanté Pope OPINION EDITOR Taylar Rivers
COPY EDITOR A.M. LaVey Contributors Sabrina Achar-Winkels Josie Allison Sophie Concannon Chloe Dysart Cam Howard Andrew Gaines Ellie Josephson Shayla Naswood Emily Price Marena Riggan
PHO T O & MULTIMEDI A PHOTO EDITOR Bo Koering MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Emma Josephson ONLINE EDITOR Sangi Lama PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Savannah Quarum LEAD DESIGNER Colin Davis DESIGNERS Robby Day Lisa Dorn Danielle Emeka Keyali Smith
DIS T RIBU TION & M A R K E TING DISTRIBUTION & MARKETING MANAGER Chris May T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Damaris Dusciuc Long V. Nguyen Annie Ton A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher
To contact Portland State Vanguard, email info @psuvanguard.com MIS SION S TAT EMEN T Vanguard’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market. A BOU T Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student
Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print every Tuesday and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com Follow us on Facebook and Twitter @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.
NEWS
JAN. 14–19 SOPHIE CONCANNON
IS DEMOCRACY WORKING FOR STUDENTS?
JAN. 14: LOS ANGELES TEACHERS ENTER FIFTH DAY OF STRIKE FOR CONTRACT RENEGOTIATIONS Over 32,000 teachers in Los Angeles County—the second biggest school district in the United States—began a strike for reduced class sizes, a pause on the surge of new charter schools and more educators, nurses and support staff. The district board has refused to close schools despite a student/teacher ratio reaching 250-1. In an interview with The New York Times, President of United Teachers Los Angeles Alex Caputo-Pearl said they “need to see a bigger commitment to reinvesting in neighborhood public schools” before ending the strike, which continues into the weekend with no resolution on the horizon.
JAN. 17: ADMINISTRATION UNDERREPORTED CHILD SEPARATION AT BORDER, PURSUED DELIBERATE ASYLUM DETERRENCE POLICY A new report by The New York Times states the U.S. government may be concealing or may be unaware of the total number of children forcibly separated from their guardians at the southern border. A separate report by NBC News revealed a White House policy draft from 2017 outlining steps to implement a deliberate family separation policy designed to deter asylum seekers. Nearly 3,000 children have been separated under the “zero tolerance” executive order last year, and there is no formal tracking system between the departments responsible for the children, so hundreds may have gone unrecorded. An additional 700 children were separated in the months before the executive order.
JAN. 17: TED WHEELER ENDORSES NEW RENT CONTROL POLICIES Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler endorsed a statewide rent control bill to be considered in the 2019 session of the Oregon legislature, according to Portland Tribune. The bill will limit annual rent increases to seven percent in buildings 15 years or older, and prohibit “no-cause evictions for tenants who have lived in their building for at least a year,” according to Willamette Week. The Oregon legislature will reconvene on Jan. 22, where the bill— widely regarded as controversial—will make its first appearance in front of the supermajority of Democrats in the Oregon Legislature House and Senate.
JAN. 19: WOMEN’S MARCH MARKS THIRD ANNUAL GLOBAL PROTEST The International Women’s March took place in 31 states within the U.S. and 14 countries across the world. The march tradition began in January 2017 as an open protest to the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump but has continued as a symbol of intersectional feminism and prioritizing federal policy changes, according to the 2019 Women’s March agenda. The branch of the International Women’s March set to take place in Portland was rescheduled for March 3 of 2019 in order to not overlap with MLK weekend. A set of smaller protests occurred on Jan. 19 focused around issues of gender and sexual assault.
CHLOE DYSART
CROWD LISTENS ON AS STUDENTS, LABOR ORGANIZERS, POLITICAL ACTIVISTS AND COMMUNITY MEMBERS ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT THE STATE OF DEMOCRACY, JAN. 17. SHAYLA NASWOOD/PSU VANGUARD
With national midterm elections in the rearview and elections for student government on the horizon, a panel of students, labor organizers, political activists and community members gathered on Jan. 17 at Smith Memorial Student Union to discuss how democracy is working—or isn’t. One place democracy isn’t working is on campus, said Associated Students of Portland State University Senator Alexander Reed. “We have a Board of Trustees whose members are appointed by the governor and approved by the Oregon Senate. There’s no student voice anywhere in that, and then the board members can make decisions against the wishes of the students, staff and faculty.” PSU’s Board of Trustees was established in 2013 after the passage of Oregon Senate Bill 270, giving state higher education institutions increased autonomy by vesting the boards with legal power and authority to govern their respective universities. While the board has one student trustee, Antonio Leiva, he and other members are not supposed to serve as representatives of individual groups. “In the bylaws it says I am a representative of the school now,” Leiva said in an interview shortly after being appointed. “So I have to vote for what is going to help the school as a whole.” Reed cited one example of a controversial decision by the board: the 2014 resolution to arm Campus Public Safety Officers. “Students, staff and faculty all came out saying, ‘We do not want armed security officers,’” Reed said. “And yet we still [have] them.” PSU administrators are currently awaiting the results of a comprehensive review of the university’s Campus Public Safety policies, a review initiated after the fatal shooting of Jason Washington by CPSO officers in June of last year.
The panel was put on by the non-profit organization Change Takes Courage, founded by Emma Brent over a year ago. The organization’s mission is to help people develop habits of political engagement. For Brent, engagement is “having people show up to events like this to get educated about how government works, how it fails to work and more specific issues like income inequality and how public policy relates to that.” Engagement has been a serious issue for student government in recent years. During last year’s elections, only 3.5 percent of the student body voted, and for the last two elections, candidates for ASPSU president and vice president both ran unopposed. Included in the responsibilities of student government is the allocation of over $3 million in student fees. The Student Fee Committee is currently proposing a raise in the student incidental fee of $22.60 to raise the salaries of some student workers and to fill a half-million dollar budget gap which resulted from a clerical error in the estimation of student fee revenues. When asked about how students can have their voice heard, Kaitlyn Dey, a panelist and member of the PSU Student Union, said “Students should continue to do the work they’re doing now, demanding to be heard by the Board of Trustees and the administration.” Dey, who is also involved in the Disarm PSU campaign, joined a 10-day occupation of PSU’s Campus Public Safety Office and delivered over 6,000 signatures to the Board of Trustees during an Oct. 4 meeting calling for campus and community input on safety policies at PSU. Change Takes Courage plans to continue to engage people in political conversations on campus, as well as around the city of Portland. Their next event is a pub talk at Portland Public House on March 4.
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 22, 2019 • psuvanguard.com
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NEWS
#METOO MOVEMENT HIGHLIGHTS SURVIVORS ON DAY OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S MARCH SOPHIE CONCANNON
Coordinators and volunteers spoke out against gender oppression and sexual assault during the #MeToo Speak Out and Women’s March on Saturday, Jan. 19 at Terry D. Schrunk Plaza in Southwest Portland. The march was organized by Socialist Alternative Portland, Portland State International Socialist Organization and Portland Democratic Socialists of America. The goal of protesting was to organize sexual assault survivor solidarity represented by the campaign #MeToo in the workplace, as well as to build a socialist form of feminism that is sex worker and transgender inclusive. The goals are not limited to sexual assault, as #MeToo is among a list of motivations for protesting, along with intersectionality and inclusion. One of the morning’s first volunteers T. Chicome spoke to recognize the rights and existence of indigenous women, which she said are overshadowed by a movement that often does little to acknowledge stolen indigenous land and the rights of indigenous peoples. “There usually aren’t that many indigenous people at these rallies, so I’m throwing myself out here so our people can have a voice,” Chicome said as she described balancing her indigenous identity with the grim statistics facing women. “Indigenous women are more likely to be murdered and raped in this country still today.” Indigenous women are reported missing or murdered at higher rates, but their informa-
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tion is only logged into federal or state databases two percent of the time, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute. Chicome said when she was 17, she joined the military and was sent to the Persian Gulf War “like a lot of people in indigenous communities.” “80 percent of women in the military are raped or severely sexually harassed,” Chicome said in her speech. “Sexual harassment and rape in the military is so bad, and when [people] disrespect #MeToo, they’re disrespecting United States veterans—the ones they say they care so much about.” 58 percent of the women in the military who reported their sexual assault were served reprisals or experienced retaliation. “These people want receipts? Our receipts are in the jails, people locked away in psych wards, people trapped in addiction—those are our fucking receipts. Veterans killing themselves every day are our receipts.” Chicome emphasizes a common theme throughout the protest—many survivors touch on how they have been disserviced by society or even the #MeToo movement itself. Salem, a working stripper, illuminated some of these experiences. “I still don’t know how to talk about the bulk of the violence and sexual assault in sex work,” Salem said. She recalled a joke circulating in middle school that brought her to tears. “If you rape a prostitute, is it actually rape or just shoplifting?”
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 22, 2019 • psuvanguard.com
PARTICIPANTS SPEAK OUT BEFORE THE #METOO MARCH, JAN. 19. ELLIE JOSEPHSON/PSU VANGUARD
“[I was angry because] I didn’t yet understand the systematic dehumanization of sex workers,” Salem continued. “There’s a kind of numbness surrounding sexual assault that I’ve developed as a sex worker, because when sex workers are sexually assaulted, it’s not called assault; it’s called part of the job.” Salem said her coworkers have had similar experiences. “The management at the club I work at know about these actions and has done nothing,” she said. “I go to work every day wondering if this will be the shift when a customer rapes me. As a sex worker, it hurts that my consent is valued so much less.” Many of the speeches also focused on the political aspect of the #MeToo movement. Camille White-Avian, a participant in the “Red for Ed” movement and the #MeToo movement as well as a member of the International Socialist Organization, spoke of the failings of the U.S. justice system to protect and vindicate survivors of sexual assault. On Cyntoia Brown, a survivor of sexual assault granted clemency after being imprisoned for 15 years, White-Avian said, “This is a huge win—[it’s] not justice, though. If it weren’t for people calling and fighting for her case for years and years, she wouldn’t have even gotten parole, and it’s up to us to continue fighting. [We have] to make sure that young women and all people can defend themselves from violence and not be blamed.”
Activist and member of Multnomah County Democrats Rachelle Dixon mentioned the small but significant steps political activism is creating toward reform, referencing HB 2625, introduced by indigenous female Rep. Tawna Sanchez, D–Ore. The bill is an effort to protect indigenous women in Oregon, but Dixon said it is not enough. “I don’t think anybody should vote for anybody who can’t answer the question ‘what are you doing about the concerns of women?’” Dixon said. “Don’t just give your vote away—make them earn it. We still need to make our leaders accountable. We need a political solution.” The socialist organizations present also protested against Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s appointment to the Supreme Court in 2018 and the presence of sexual harassment in politics. As White-Avian said, they “favor a political solution.” “I’m tired, I’m sad, I’m scared but mostly I am angry. I can turn that anger into motivation to help build a socialist feminist movement that includes sex workers—a movement that fights for all of us,” Salem said. “We stand, especially as socialists, for the right of self-defense, be that against sexual violence, racist violence, sexist violence, transphobic violence and against imperial violence,” White-Avian finished, reminding the audience that fighting back is not only necessary, it is a right.
NEWS
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION REDEFINES SEXUAL MISCONDUCT UNDER TITLE IX ANAMIKA VAUGHAN Betsy DeVos’ Department of Education released a 150page document containing new regulations for Title IX, a clause to protect students and federal employees against sexual discrimination. In response to the proposed changes—which include redefining sexual harassment, mandated in-person cross examinations and a looser response timeframe—Title IX administrators, political leaders and students have expressed concerns that the changes could make campuses less safe. “My fear is [the current administration] is going to be creating even more barriers for survivors coming forward,” said Julie Caron, Portland State’s Title IX coordinator, during an Oct. 15 roundtable discussion organized by Sen. Ron Wyden, D–Oregon. Public universities such as PSU are required to follow these federal guidelines for responding to cases of sexual discrimination. A majority of campus assaults occur inside student housing, and 90 percent of cases of sexual violence go unreported, according to local school leaders. LGBTQ students also experience sexual violence and discrimination at a disproportionately high rate. Students with the Associated Students of Portland State’s Equal Rights Advocacy Committee launched “Five Days of Action,” a series of events covering the history of Title IX, letter writing, as well as panel discussions and training. Julieta Castro, ASPSU’s Equal Rights Advocacy director, collaborated with the Queer Resource Center, the Women’s Resource Center, the PSU Student Union, students from the food pantry and Illuminate, PSU’s bystander intervention program. “We worked all of winter break saying, ‘What do we do now, do we react in ways that feel powerful, that are really authentic to our campus and that are really going to benefit our students?’” Castro said. There are three of the five days of action left: a “Supporting Trans and Gender Non-conforming Survivors” panel on Jan. 22, a “Trauma Basic Advocacy” training on Jan. 23 and a final event, “Healing and Art Outside of Institutions” on Jan. 24.
PROPOSED CHANGES The new proposed rules change the definition of sexual harassment to “unwelcome conduct on the basis of sex that is so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it effectively denies a person equal access to the recipient’s education program or activity.” The old definition of sexual harassment was defined as “unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and other verbal, nonverbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.” One aspect of this new definition was the substitution of the ‘or’ for an ‘and.’ “Now we have severe, persistent and objectively offensive all together,” Caron said. “To me, it seems hard to get beyond a sexual assault with that definition.” Caron also noted a shift in emphasis from “interfering or interrupting” with someone’s education to “denying” them access, a legal distinction with potentially significant impacts. “Does that mean someone has to drop out of school in order to address this?” Caron said. “Because Title IX’s essence from the very beginning was to make sure that people can continue to access their education, and we don’t want to wait until somebody drops out of school in order to
timeline of 60 days for investigations to take place and now only require institutions be “reasonably prompt.” Other changes include revisions to the appeals process, new requirements for live hearings, changes in the training requirements for advocates, investigators and adjudicators as
SECRETARY OF EDUCATION, BETSY DEVOS. COURTESY OF WHITEHOUSE.GOV address something.” The new rules also now require the use of cross examination of each party during the hearings process in order for each party’s testimony to be considered. “It specifically says in the proposed regulations that if a party refuses to answer to cross examination then none of their testimony or evidence will be considered,” Caron said. “In the courts, somebody can take the Fifth and testimony can come in otherwise. If somebody won’t answer a question, I think that should go to credibility. It shouldn’t go to [not considering anything].” An additional proposed rule change redefines the scope of investigations to be limited to sexual misconduct that happens on campus or in an education program within the United States. “We already had some jurisdictional statements that said [complaints] really need to be student to student to get into Title IX, but now they’re saying that it has to be on campus or in an educational program and within the U.S.,” Caron said. Any sexual misconduct that occurs, for example, at a party in Beaverton between two PSU students may no longer be covered by Title IX, and complaints would have to be filed with law enforcement. “They also say within the U.S., so our study abroad programs wouldn’t be part of that,” Caron said. The new rule changes no longer recommend a preponderance of evidence model, but now give institutions the option of using the more demanding clear and convincing evidence model. Preponderance of evidence only requires that the evidence suggest that it is more likely than not the sexual misconduct took place. Caron said PSU will continue using the preponderance of evidence model. In addition, the new rules have removed the hard and fast
“Now we have severe, persistent and objectively offensive all together. To me, it seems hard to get beyond a sexual assault with that definition.” –Julie Caron, PSU Title IX Coordinator well as changes to other aspects of the complaint and investigation process. These new regulations differ from “Dear colleague” letters written by past administrations which acted more like guidelines that universities were expected to follow. “What the Department of Education is doing now with the notice and comment [means] it’s becoming actual regulations which have the full effect of law,” Caron said. “So the only way to undo this—if it does go through—is either for Congress to pass laws that will make them invalid or for there to be a new notice and comment period for new regulations.” The comment period for responses to the proposed changes has already received at least 56,406 comments. Comments to the Department of Education regarding these new regulations can be submitted until at least Jan. 28. Instructions can be found at knowyourix.org
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 22, 2019 • psuvanguard.com
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INTERNATIONAL
THIS WEEK 4
around the
WORLD
Jan. 14–Jan. 20
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1
Jan. 14–18
ZIMBABWE
In response to a hike in fuel prices, protests began throughout Zimbabwe on Jan. 14 in what has been dubbed the “stay-at-home” protests, according to The Guardian. The country’s inflation reached 31 percent in November while experiencing shortages in basic supplies including medicine, Reuters reports. Additionally, fuel prices increased from $1.32 a liter to $3.31 overnight. Between Jan. 14 and Jan. 18, 400 to 600 protesters were arrested, and security forces are suspected of killing 12 people. In response to the protests, the government has imposed a complete internet shutdown, according to Al Jazeera.
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Jan. 15–18
NAIROBI, KENYA
At least 21 people were killed in an attack led by the Somali-based militant group al-Shabab in a siege on the DusitD2 hotel on Jan. 15. The siege lasted some 20 hours, leaving one police officer and five attackers dead. According to Al Jazeera, bomb experts searched the hotel on Jan. 16 in an effort to clear the complex of any remaining explosives, and Kenya Red Cross reported all missing people had been
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accounted for. Star News reports six people including a Canadian national appeared in court as suspected accomplices in the attack on Jan. 18. 3 Jan. 17
BRAZIL
Nearly 10 months after the March 2018 assassination of prominent human rights activist Marielle Franco, The Intercept released an update on Jan. 17 reporting a suspect has been named in connection with the case. While a state judge has issued a gag order prohibiting the release of the suspect’s name, six witnesses to the murder have come forward identifying a former police officer in special operations, known as Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais in Portuguese. According to the investigation, the suspect was dismissed from the military police force in Rio de Janeiro for active involvement in organized crime including murder for hire. However, at least two others within BOPE are suspected to have been involved as well, as cited in the police report. 4
Jan. 18–20
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
About 170 migrants and asylum seekers are suspected to have perished in the Mediterranean
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 22, 2019 • psuvanguard.com
Sea off the coasts of Libya and Morocco after two separate vessels capsized. Sky News reports one of the vessels departed Libya on Jan. 18 carrying some 120 passengers, according to survivor accounts. After about 11 hours at sea, the vessel began to sink. Originally, only three passengers were found. However, the Germanbased organization Sea-Watch verified on Jan. 20 that 47 additional people were rescued from a vessel north of Libya. The UN reported an additional 53 people have perished in the Alborán Sea, with only one known survivor who was rescued by a fishing boat after being stranded in open waters for more than 24 hours. Moroccan and Spanish rescue operations conducted searches in an effort to find more survivors but have thus been unsuccessful. 5
Jan. 17
CONGO
Following a contentious presidential election previously held on Dec. 30, the Congolese electoral commission (CENI) confirmed Felix Tshisekedi as the rightful winner, dismissing the challenge from the opposition led by Martin Fayulu. According to Quartz Africa, the election was challenged after various independent polls estimated Fayulu to have won 60 percent of the vote. However, CENI claims Fayulu won only 35 percent instead,
with Tshisekedi winning a majority at 38 percent. Fayulu has called the findings a “constitutional coup d’etat,” according to Reuters. 6
Ongoing
TURKISH, LEVANTINE AND EGYPTIAN COASTS
A severe winter storm has hit the coastlines between Turkey and Egypt, causing flooding in refugee camps along the Syrian-Turkish border and heavy snow in the camps of Lebanon. Since the storm began around Jan. 10, UNICEF has been working to supply some 10,000 refugees with aid. However, they estimate another 70,000 are at risk from severe weather. Additionally, Al Jazeera reported two casualties due to the storm, including a Syrian girl in Lebanon who was killed after being swept away in the Zahrani River, and whose brother is also missing. The storm is forecasted to move east into Iraq, Iran and the Arab Gulf states.
About 170 migrants and asylum seekers are suspected to have perished in the Mediterranean Sea off the coasts of Libya and Morocco after two separate vessels capsized.
INTERNATIONAL
TURKEY DISCUSSES FATE OF THE KURDS FOLLOWING U.S. MILITARY WITHDRAWAL
JOSIE ALLISON Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told journalists in Abu Dhabi he was optimistic an agreement will be met between Ankara and Washington which will protect Kurdish groups without undermining Turkey’s ability to defend itself. These statements came during a tour of the Middle East to alleviate concerns over President Donald Trump’s announcement in December that the United States would withdraw troops fighting the Islamic State in Syria. Trump delivered different rationales to justify the withdrawal, claiming first IS has been sufficiently crippled and later asserting it was to save American lives and dollars. The departure from Syria would leave the U.S.–backed Kurdish troops to defend themselves against IS and the Turkish government who considers these groups terrorists. Kurdish allies described the decision as a blatant betrayal. Syrian Democratic Force, trained and armed by the U.S. to fight IS, stated, “the war against Islamic State has not ended and Islamic State has not been defeated,” as reported by The Guardian. “Any withdrawal would create a political and military vacuum in the area leaving its people between the claws of hostile parties.” The Kurdish Democratic Union Party (SFP) is predominantly comprised of Kurds who are members of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Ankara officially recognizes the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which they label a terrorist organization. Without U.S. presence, the Turkish government is faced with the fear of a Kurdish breakaway state. Washington is stuck with its obligation to protect its Kurdish allies after the withdrawal. National Security Advisor John Bolton attempted to facilitate the withdrawal process in a meeting with
PRESIDENT OF THE SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC BASHAR AL-ASSAD (LEFT) AND PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN (RIGHT) MEET IN 2017 WITH SERVICE PERSONNEL WHO ARE A PART OF AN ANTI-TERRORIST OPERATION. COURTESY OF KREMLIN.RU Turkish officials. He proposed terms for the pull-out which included the complete defeat of IS and the assured security for Kurdish fighters. Bolton aimed to ensure the protection of Turkey’s southeastern region and Syria’s northern borders, where many Kurdish troops have quelled IS. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected Bolton’s proposal as “unacceptable.” Turkey has long threatened an attack to subdue Kurdish groups in the south, and the U.S.’s withdrawal from Syria would leave the Kurds vulnerable to this possibility. Pompeo claimed he spoke with Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, telling journalists in Abu Dhabi he was confident a consensus could be met that would offer protection to the Kurds while allowing Ankara the right to “defend their country from terrorists,” although he gave no details as to what this protection would look like. Kurdish journalist Arin Sheikmos told Associated Press the Kurds “have every right to be afraid. If the Americans pull out and leave us to the Turks or the [Syrian] regime, our destiny will be like the Kurds of Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991. Neither the regime nor Iran nor Turkey will accept our presence here.” The decision seemed to blindside military officials and experts. Jennifer Griffin, Fox News’ national security correspondent, tweeted “I am told that [U.S. Central Command], in particular, Gen. Joseph Votel, the head of U.S. Central Command, feels ‘punched in the gut’ by the decision to withdraw troops from Syria. U.S. military commanders were shocked by the President’s decision but now are making plans to withdraw.” Many foreign policy critics and specialists assert Trump’s decision would pave the way for a foreseeable IS comeback
while handing Syrian territory to Russia and Iran on a golden platter. Trump has dismissed the criticism, claiming the U.S. is leaving Russia, Iran and Syria to deal with IS. Trump tweeted, “Why are we fighting our enemy, Syria, by staying & killing ISIS for them?” European allies weren’t conferred with before the decision, and many have contradicted Trump’s claims that IS has been defeated. Vladimir Putin praised Trump’s decision to withdraw, stating U.S. troops were not needed and that IS had been subdued. The Russian military intervened upon request in Syria in 2015. Syria has long been Russia’s reliable foothold in the region. Putin has been a close ally and supporter of Syrian President Bashar al Assad and has sought to secure Assad’s regime throughout the Syrian crisis so as to maintain Russian influence in the region. On the Russian TV station Dozhd, Konstantin von Eggert, a political commentator stated, “For now, it is really good news for Putin. Putin’s main goal from day one of his intervention was to establish himself as the global authority and to prevent regime change. In this, he has succeeded.” “This was a decision that was made with lots of consultation between all the senior-level officials, including myself, with the president. So yes...I had more than a heads-up,” Pompeo told a radio show, despite Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’s abrupt resignation. Concerns about the repercussions of the U.S.’s withdrawal range from humanitarian crises, to a resurgence of terrorists, to Iranian empowerment. As reported in The Guardian, the SDF summarizes the widespread sentiment that Trump’s decision would have “dangerous implications for international stability.”
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 22, 2019 • psuvanguard.com
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C0VER
CLERICAL ERROR, HIGHER WAGES DRIVE PROPOSAL FOR STUDENT FEE INCREASE ANAMIKA VAUGHAN Portland State’s Student Fee Committee presented their 2019–20 budget on Jan. 7 to the Associated Students of Portland State senate, proposing an increase of $22.60 in the student incidental fee for those taking eight credits or more. Of the total $22.60 increase, $10.80 will go toward funding increases in student wages to $15 an hour, and $9.60 will go toward paying off a $545,000 debt that has accrued over several years due to a previously unnoticed miscalculation by the Finance and Administration Department. “There’s a figure that translates a $1 increase in the fee to the amount of revenue generated by increasing the fee by $1,” said SFC Chair Donald Thompson III. “The presumption has been that a $1 increase for all the students would accrue about $70,000. However, that is an assumption, a relationship that has been drawn from years ago.” Since that number was first calculated and supplied to the SFC by the Finance and Administration Department, student enrollment has been on a consistent decline. “The relationship that $1 per all the students
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equals so many revenue dollars has shifted,” Thompson said. A budget analyst who began assisting the SFC this year notified the committee that because of current attendance levels, a $1 increase for all students would now translate to around $3,000 less than originally assumed. Investigation into how this clerical error persisted for years is ongoing. Two members of the Associated Students of PSU have confirmed the person originally in charge of supplying the SFC that number no longer works for the Finance and Administration Department. “If I ever were speculating, I would imagine that it’s just a bureaucratic thing where that number was enshrined,” Thompson said. “It’s like you copy and paste a template from year to year. You give the same message and the same presentation from year to year to year and somebody gave it to you and nobody ever checks the accuracy of that.” To avoid these kinds of errors going forward, the Finance and Administration Department will be utilizing a computer formula to calculate the total revenue that can be collected from a $1 increase.
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 22, 2019 • psuvanguard.com
“We’ve changed it so there is the removal of human error from the calculation itself,” Thompson said. “I still think the system needs some refinement, but as long as it’s not somebody who every year decides what the number is and then decides they will say the same thing next year, I think it will be more precise every year.”
THE BUDGET PROCESS The SFC began working on this budget proposal during the first week of the 2018 fall term. “We wanted to say that we wanted to approach all the work we did in a holistic sense; we didn’t want to do any piecemeal solutions,” Thompson said. “We wanted to make sure that if we were going to identify a problem and address that problem that it was addressed completely so that the next SFC who inherits our positions is capable of making decisions free of these constraints that we’ve begun to encounter.” They were notified of the error at the end of November, by which time the SFC had already begun finalizing their budget allocations and were moving to a final vote.
After an additional six hours of deliberation and consideration, the SFC decided to keep their original budget package intact and add the additional $9.60 on top. “[We] thought it would be philosophically inconsistent to make any recommendation other than dealing with the problem ASAP so that it doesn’t become a problem for future SFCs,” Thompson said. One possible alternative proposal is to pay down the debt over the next several years. “But right now, it’s in the court of the senate and the committees to see if they have some kind of recommendation regarding that. If they don’t bring us back the recommendation, our recommendation carries at this point.” Included in these budget allocations was a proposed 27.2 percent increase to the student food pantry in order to increase their hours to five hours a day and fund more frequent trips to the food bank. In addition, the SFC also wants to fund improvements to childcare centers, better furnishings in the lactation rooms and a new cultural coordinator for Middle Eastern North American Southeast Asian students.
WHERE DOES YOUR $240/TERM GO? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39
ATHLETICS CAMPUS REC EMSA EQUIPMENT RESERVE JIM SELLS KPSU ORGANIZATIONAL BUDGET COUNCIL ADMIN REC CLUBS COUNCIL SPEAKERS BOARD STUDENT ACTIVITIES AND LEADERSHIP PROGRAM STUDENT COMMUNITY AND ENGAGEMENT CENTER STUDENT MEDIA OPERATIONS STUDENT SUSTAINABILITY CENTER WOMEN’S RESOURCE CENTER STUDENT EDUCATIONAL TRAVEL ORGANIZATIONAL BUDGET COUNCIL RESERVE PACIFIC SENTINEL PATHOS PORTLAND STATE PROFESSIONAL SOUND PSU.TV QUEER RESOURCE CENTER RESOURCE CENTER FOR STUDENTS WITH CHILDREN SALP MINOR EQUIPMENT RESERVE SMITH MEMORIAL STUDENT UNION STUDENT LEGAL SERVICES VANGUARD VETERANS RESOURCE CENTER MULTICULTURAL CENTER NATIVE AMERICAN CENTER LA CASA LATINA CULTURAL CENTER ADMIN 5TH AVENUE CINEMA ASPSU ASPSU CHILDREN’S CENTER FOOD PANTRY HELEN GORDON CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTER LEADERSHIP FELLOWS LITTLE VIKINGS LITTMAN + WHITE ART GALLERIES
COVER
TOP PROPOSED INCREASES CULTURAL CENTERS (TOTAL): 22.3%
Will be hiring a new coordinator to serve Middle Eastern, North African and Southeast Asian students
LITTLE VIKINGS: 52.8% FOOD PANTRY: 27.2%
Want to increase hours to 5 hours a week, plus more trips to the Oregon Food Bank.
GRAPHIC DESIGN: 25.1% PACIFIC SENTINEL: 24.7%
TOP PROPOSED DECREASES EMSA EQUIPMENT RESERVE: 100% Shutting down
JIM SELLS: 12.9% OBC ADMIN: 9.6% REC CLUBS COUNCIL: 7.9% ATHLETICS: 4.5%
STUDENT FEE BREAKDOWN $22.60 FEE INCREASE BREAKDOWN
$240
All of the proposed cuts to budgets were voluntary; the SFC did not ask any of the feefunded areas to take cuts in their budgets or to reduce services.
ASPSU RESPONSE AND STUDENT AGENCY ASPSU will be holding a special senate meeting Wednesday, Jan. 23 to provide comments, questions and recommendations to the SFC. The senate has until Jan. 29 to provide written comments to the SFC, after which time the SFC will have a week to respond to those recommendations and produce a revised proposal.
+$22.60
ASPSU President Luis Balderas-Villagrana said the student government has received some questions on the fee increase and how the current gap might be filled. “We don’t know how the senators will vote,” Balderas-Villagrana said. “[I] think it is necessary for them to have the ability to really look at the budget and make their own assessments.” ASPSU can approve the revised version to be sent to the University Administration, or they can reject the revised copy and send two versions: the SFC and ASPSU version. In 2016, a referendum was passed on campus by students demanding an immediate increase in student wages to $15 an hour.
$10.80
$9.60
$15/HR MIN WAGE FOR SOME
FOR PAYING DOWN DEBT
“Students said ‘we want to see $15 now on our campus and the administration hasn’t responded,” said Camilo Assad, ASPSU legislative affairs director. “So where we do have limited agency we want to ensure we can do that.” Increasing the student fee would create a pool to fund voluntary student wage increases for fee-funded areas, but that money would be coming out of student pockets instead of from the state, Assad said. “We’re stuck in a difficult position where we should have this autonomy as students of how we are going to fund things [and] what our priorities are.”
“The referendum was passed in 2016,” Balderas-Villagrana said. “We have to take action now. We cannot wait until 2020 whenever the state law comes in.” Balderas-Villagrana emphasized that his administration is always seeking input from students on these issues. “It’s an open dialogue.” Students can provide their input to the SFC and to the ASPSU senate by attending their upcoming special senate meeting, by talking to the student senators either in their ASPSU office or around campus or by sending an email to askaspsu@pdx.edu.
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 22, 2019 • psuvanguard.com
9
INTERNATIONAL
IS HUAWEI SPYING FOR CHINA? LUKAS AMSDEN AND EMILY PRICE
Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is at the center of another geopolitical scandal after an employee was charged with spying for the Chinese government in Poland. The company responded by promptly firing Huawei Executive Wang Weijing, who served as director of sales at the Polish branch. Wang Weijing was charged alongside Piotr Durbajlo, former deputy director at the Internal Security Agency, Poland’s domestic counterintelligence agency. Durbajlo worked in the department of information security where he was in charge of creating cyber security systems for governments and had unrestricted security access to NATO systems. The case has raised concerns over whether Huawei can be trusted with supplying foreign countries with telecommunication networks. Huawei released a statement that it “complies with all applicable laws and regulations in the countries where it operates, and [it requires] every employee to abide by the laws and regulations in the countries where they are based.” However, experts concerned with Huawei’s relationship with Beijing have warned the Chinese government could pressure the company to sabotage networks, support hacks and use its equipment for spying. Just last month, Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s chief financial offi-
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cer was arrested and faces extradition to the United States. Her father—Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei, a former engineer in the People’s Liberation army and Communist Party member since 1978—has denied accusations that Huawei might be used as a proxy for the Chinese government.
SAVANNAH QUARUM Huawei claims to have won a quarter of the world’s 5G network contracts but has also faced bans on the grounds of security risks. The company’s telecommunication technologies were banned in the U.S. after Washington deemed the network company a threat to national security.
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 22, 2019 • psuvanguard.com
Other members of the Five Eyes (Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand) are following suit. Huawei’s networks have already been banned in New Zealand and Australia while the UK is reevaluating its relationship with the company. Gavin Williamson, defense secretary of the UK, told the British newspaper The Times, “I have grave, very deep concerns about Huawei providing the 5G network in Britain. It’s something we’d have to look at very closely.” In response to Williamson’s statement, Ministry of National Defense spokesman Wu Qian addressed the issue at a press conference, calling the suggestions the Chinese government might compromise Huawei technologies as groundless. Zhengfei assembled an international press conference at Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen, China where he adamantly denied that Huawei might spy, hack or sabotage foreign networks on behalf of Beijing. “When it comes to cyber security and privacy protection we are committed to be sided with our customers,” Zhengfei said. “We will never harm any nation or any individual.” The Company invited the media to visit its 5G and cybersecurity research labs in Dongguan, Guangdong as part of its mitigation efforts as reported by BBC.
ARTS & CULTURE
LISA DORN
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT THE BEST HORROR YOU HAVEN’T READ
JAMES HERBERT, HORROR PAPERBACK MASTER ANDREW GAINES There’s something wonderful about a long, slow-burn horror story. Authors such as Peter Straub and Stephen King excel at this—giving you a rich world and detailed characters with horror that is usually tied to basic human fears and anxieties. There’s something even more wonderful about sub-300 -page works that hit you like a truck and beat you over the head with their ideas. James Herbert was one of the all-time greatest authors at doing this. Though his work in horror was widely varied (and largely good) I keep coming back to the first two books he wrote—1974’s The Rats and 1975’s The Fog. These books have no time for subtlety and even less time for good taste. They’re blisteringly fastpaced, end within a page or two of the last kill and have simple concepts that allow him to go wild with catastrophic set pieces. They’re also wonderfully simple in their premises. You can probably guess what The Rats and The Fog contain in them. Both books follow two-fisted, establishment-wary men of ac-
tion as they fight their way through a conflict that overtakes London. In The Rats, it’s waves upon waves of flesh-craving rats that carry a deadly disease. In The Fog, it’s a meteorological anomaly that drives everyone who passes through it insane. With the reader on board for the premise within the opening chapter, Herbert uses the remaining pages to efficiently and consistently up the stakes. First, one or two people die. Then, small groups begin to perish, but soon we’re getting trains flooded with rats and a fog-crazy pilot flying a loaded 747 into an apartment complex while our hero drives a “devastation vehicle” through the lunatic hordes of London. There’s a direct link between books like this and the trashy horror cinema I tend to love—both offer cheap thrills and outrageous violence—but The Rats and The Fog are also far more well-produced than your average B-level horror film. Herbert clearly found a structure that worked well for him and he sticks to it, leaving the main plot aside at key points of tension to fo-
cus on side stories about other characters who are pages away from being ultra-murdered. Over the course of a chapter, he fills in a few details for each of these doomed characters, be the WWII veteran school teachers, jilted lovers or simple farmers, and when they’re fleshed out enough, he offs them in spectacular fashion. These brutal asides—completely unrelated to the main plot in any way aside from the threat—really sell the specific brand of carnage each book carries. Herbert would go on to work in other sub-genres of horror, even branching out into crime fiction with the only vaguely supernatural-tinged The Jonah. They’re all largely excellent—I’d highly recommend the lost-on-an-island horror thriller Moon—but it’s The Rats and The Fog that I keep coming back to. They’re so entertaining, so fast and so gleefully mean-spirited that there’s nothing quite like them in the world of horror fiction.
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 22, 2019 • psuvanguard.com
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ARTS & CULTURE
THE LEADERS IN GOTH CELEBRATE DECADES OF INFLUENCE WITH A SOLD OUT SHOW CERVANTÉ POPE
PETER MURPHY OF BAUHAUS PERFORMING, JAN. 18. CERVANTÉ POPE/PSU VANGUARD
Peter Murphy has been and forever will be As the lights dimmed and fog began to smother the stage, David J. reverberated the silent for the whole song and the crowd still a badass. The Bauhaus frontman performs with introductory notes of “Double Dare,” causing the hisses and murmurs of excitement would have eaten it up. Murphy is known an air of panache and individual finesse that’s bein the crowd to grow into incomprehensible roars. Murphy then sauntered onto for his up-and-down eccentricism during come characteristic of the band itself. the stage donning a bedazzled jacket nearly resembling the Chaquetilla-style cut performances that fans devour and praise, As the essential fathers of goth rock, Murphy blazers worn by Spanish bullfighters. His face a pale white and accented by bright mesmerized by the stardom and legacy. The and the rest of Bauhaus—which originally inpink blush and blunt black eyeliner, he looks like a vampiric marionette bobPortland production was no different, garnercluded bassist David J., guitarist Daniel Ash and bling about the stage. It added animation to his already surprisingly spry deliving minutes upon minutes of extended cheers drummer Kevin Haskins—generated an influery of “A God in an Alcove,” “Spy in the Cab” and the rest of In the Flat Field. of adoration long after “Kick in the Eye,” their ence that has far surpassed surface level sway. As It became obvious as the show went on how particular Murphy is about cover of Dead Can Dance’s “Severance” and a bitpioneers of goth as an aesthetic and lifestyle, they how his performances are executed—he kicked equipment cords out of his tersweet goodbye from the two original members. essentially became the poster children for goth way in a brattish manner and had two fans, who were dressed head-to-toe David J. silently radiated appreciation for the rock that many all-black rocking, darkly brooding in Bauhaus worshipping attire, escorted to the back of the venue by secuscreaming room of fans, while Murphy focused on souls idolized and replicated. rity for being a disruptive distraction. shit-talking the unpreparedness of the stage crew Many of those glum souls flooded Roseland Suddenly, the music suspensefully slowed as Murphy came to a halt and sound production before making jokes about his Theater last week, immersing the venue in a sea mid-note and posed with his arms out in a Jesus-on-the-cross stance. sexuality and eventually going on to thank Portland of black in reverence of one-half of the impactful A blurry figure came into view, removing Murphy’s jacket for him as well. group. It was everything you imagine a goth party to and draping him in another, marking the transition into another When you’ve got as large of a following as Peter be and more. era of music for the band in a diva-ish fashion. Murphy and David J. do in their solo careers and toAs part of this 40-year “Ruby Celebration” anniversary They began to play one of their most well known hits, “Bela gether as Bauhaus, such smugness is not only accepted, tour, vocalist Peter Murphy and bassist David J. played Lugosi’s Dead,” as the whole roomed joined in a low-tone singbut expected. The crowd, still drunk off the set and althe entirety of their 1980 debut album In the Flat Field to a-long with him. Same with “She’s in Parties,” which Murphy coholic, stumbled out onto NW 6th Street with eyeliner a room packed with trad goths clinging to the connection allowed the crowd to put more effort in vocally than he did. running and lipstick smeared, ready to search for an enthey’ve gotten from Bauhaus throughout the years. But no one cared. Peter Murphy could have literally stayed joyment more satisfying than that ruby celebration.
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PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 22, 2019 • psuvanguard.com
ARTS & CULTURE August 1979–Bauhaus released their most well known track “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.”
1978–The band forms as Bauhaus 1919 in Northampton, England. They got their name from the first year of operation for the German art school Bauhaus, though they soon after dropped the “1919” from their name.
1981–“Kick in the Eye” and “The Passion of Lovers” become their first pop chart hits.
October 1981–The band incorporate more instruments and production in the release of their sophomore album Mask.
March 1982–They release their EP Kick in the Eye/Searching for Satori. The 7” record also included the tracks “Harry”and “Earwax,” while the 12” record included a fourth track titled “In Fear of Dub.”
January 1980 –Their track “Dark Entries” comes out on the prominent British post-punk label 4AD.
October 1980 – Bauhaus drops their debut album In the Flat Field. Prominent English music magazine NME aptly described it as “Gothick-Romantick pseudo-decadence.” 1983–Peter Murphy falls sick and misses recording of fourth album Burning from the Inside, forcing bassist David J. and guitarist Daniel Ash to take on lead vocals for most of the songs.
October 1982–Their third album The Sky’s Gone Out drops.
2008–Go Away White is October 2018–“Ruby Celebration” tour be- released as the final collective effort of the original gins with only Peter Murphy and David J. members, specifically statdoing UK and Europe ing there would be no intentour dates. The tour tions of touring in support of the album or as a full was then extended to band again. include U.S. dates.
November 1990– Release of their double-disc live album Gotham, with the only studio-recorded track being their cover of Dead Can Dance’s “Severance.”
July 1998–All four members reunite for the “Resurrection” tour.
July 1983–Bauhaus breaks up. Murphy then started a fairly successful solo career, while the other members started Tones On Tail and Love and Rockets, with solo careers themselves.
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 22, 2019 • psuvanguard.com
13
OPINION
SORRY MS. JACKSON EARLY 2000S HITS BRING OUT NOSTALGIA TAYLAR RIVERS Music brings our brain to a state of nostalgia, especially the 2000s music of our adolescence. Even though the music industry is more diverse than ever, we still find ourselves hitting replay on the tracks of the last decade—“Ms. Jackson” by Outkast, “Complicated” by Avril Lavigne and any song by Alicia Keys. Nothing was off limits in the early 2000s; it was the time to be experimental. The age of “scandalous” popstars, punk-rock blondes with pink hair extensions and my personal favorite, chart-topping R&B hits such as “Say My Name” by Destiny’s Child and “Foolish” by Ashanti. Associating music with good moments is common, creating a source of nostalgia, but why does the nostalgia run so deep? Nostalgia is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past.” Research done by Nature Neuroscience shows music can arouse feelings of euphoria and craving, similar to tangible rewards involving the release of dopamine. These sporadic releases of dopamine are what make us feel pleasure and satisfaction when listening to music. This occurrence applies to music in a general sense, but your brain can react differently to tracks from certain eras. The spark of neural activity that spawns from jamming to our favorite song resonates in everybody. Between the ages of 12 and 22, our brains undergo rapid neurological development—and the music we love during that decade seems to get wired into our lobes for good, according to researchers at Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital. These unforgettable tunes spark our brain activity and keep us locked in lasting nostalgia well after our teenage years. When we begin
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to associate songs with neural functions, our brains naturally develop a long-term memory that is paired with high strung emotions due to our hormones. These hormones tell our cerebrums that everything we are encountering and remembering is important—particularly music that shapes our adolescence. According to a study conducted by the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, our brains shift certain songs in a position to hold disproportionate power over our emotions. Our neurons will actually “synchronize with the beat of the music.” The study concludes the rhythm of songs activate your parietal cortex, which helps operate your ability to experience different stimuli. Listening to a song that hails from the past specifically triggers your prefrontal cortex, which maintains information relevant to your personal life and relationships. “A sense of shared subjectivity with the music can arise. In descriptions of their most intense experiences of music, people often talk about a sense that the boundary between the music and themselves has dissolved,” said Professor Elizabeth Margulis, author of On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind, in an interview with Mic. The songs that once seemed like the rambling of teenage thoughts or the radical sounds of young adults are sentimental for a reason: When we listen to them it is more than just relatability. It’s an experience with the sounds that were there for us. Musical nostalgia isn’t just a cultural phenomenon; it’s a neural experience. Regardless of how mature we develop, our brains will continue to link the music of our past with memories. Our brain won’t let us forget the adolescent days of unnecessary attitude and ridiculous hairstyles.
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 22, 2019 • psuvanguard.com
DANIELLE EMEKA
OPINION
DO NOT DISTURB TOO MUCH SCREEN TIME LEADS TO SLEEP DEPRIVATION
LISA DORN
CAM HOWARD AND TAYLAR RIVERS The current generation experiences attention-seeking demands from modern technology that thrusts them into sleep deprivation, most notably the blue light phenomenon. Recent generations are surrounded by social applications from smartphones, laptops, tablets among other technologies, and with its rise and necessity, it’s near impossible to avoid blue lights radiating from screens. The downside of this unavoidable routine is that it’s interfering with your body’s functionality. Sleep helps the body perform vital functions such as regulating hormones, healing blood vessels and providing needed energy, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in three Americans suffer from lack of sleep, meaning they get less than seven hours of sleep a night. A recent study published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information found about 60 percent of university students suffer from lack of sleep, and the CDC reported that 30 percent of American adults—40.6 million— are sleeping six or fewer hours a day. Blue light from electronics sends signals to your brain that are most disruptive at night. The proliferation of electronics with screens, as well as energy-efficient lighting, is increasing
our exposure to blue wavelengths, especially after sundown. Harvard Medical School conducted an experiment comparing the effects of 6.5 hours of exposure to blue light to exposure to green light of comparable brightness. The blue light suppresses melatonin for about twice as long as the green light and shifts circadian rhythms by twice as much—3 hours vs. 1.5 hours. Long durations of exposure to blue light stops the natural production of melatonin. Defined by WebMD, “melatonin is a hormone made by the pineal gland...a pea-sized gland found just above the middle of your brain [that] helps your body know when it’s time to sleep and wake up.” Lack of melatonin is detrimental to your sleep schedule, and according to Harvard, blue light is furthering the issue. In addition to the blue light phenomenon, sleep deprivation effects, in general, are reaching deadly territory. The CDC reports about 6,000 deaths per year can be contributed to sleep deprivation. To put that in perspective, the CDC also reports that the death toll for drunk driving is just over 10,000 per year. If you experience little to no sleep, tend to sleep at the wrong time, aren’t getting the right type of sleep or have a sleep disor-
der, your sleep schedule might be lacking in quality. Sleep deprivation results in fatigue throughout the day, making it harder to focus at work or in classes and lowers your ability to retain information. As the day progresses and your energy depletes, high irritability and feelings of anxiousness arise due to a decrease in the regulatory function of the amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for fight-or-flight tendencies. Running on low fumes, we find ourselves less able to problem solve or properly assess situations. These setbacks make being actively involved in daily life exceptionally hard. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute also links sleep deprivation to multiple health issues including heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney disease, obesity, strokes, diabetes and depression. There are many things that contribute to sleep deprivation, and not all of them are under our control. Blue light is one cause of sleep deprivation we can control. Limiting interaction with technology before bed and ensuring your body is being taken care of are our first initiatives in helping prevent sleep deprivation.
PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 22, 2019 • psuvanguard.com
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Cervanté Pope
JAN 22–JAN 28 ART
MUSIC
FILM & THEATRE
COMMUNITY
TUES JAN 22 WED JAN 23 THU JAN 24 FRI JAN 25
“MY LEFT, YOU’RE RIGHT” GALLERY @ THE JUPITER OPEN 24 HOURS. • FREE
PARTY DAMAGE DJS KELLY’S OLYMPIAN 8 P.M. • FREE • 21+
THE CHARMER LIVING ROOM THEATER 2:50, 4:50, 7:30, 9:50 P.M. • $11 ($8 with
Q CENTER RUMMAGE SALE Q CENTER NOON–8 P.M. • FREE
Eugene-based artist and curator Christopher St. John has debuted a collection of new ceramic-centric pieces based on animals and the beauty of our biosphere.
Every Tuesday a Party Damage Records DJ takes over the venue. Since the Duster show is sold out, let DJ Kittybot’s tunes soothe you.
student ID) This mindfuck of a drama is centered around a young Iranian man who tries to secure Danish citizenship by marrying a woman in Denmark, but he’s in for more than he bargained for.
The Q Center is doing some spring cleaning in the winter time. Nothing will be over $20 and they’ll take cash or card!
“AS IF I WAS A THING I COULD DO IN THE DARK” DISJECTA FRI–SUN • NOON–5 P.M. • FREE
STRAWBERRY MOUNTAIN, A CERTAIN SMILE, HOLLOW SIDEWALKS THE LIQUOR STORE 9 P.M. Strawberry Mountain brings creative psych-pop from their split Seattle and New York homes, topped off with the sweet, sweet indie of two local favorites.
EL ÁNGEL REGAL FOX TOWER 10 5 P.M. • $1.1.95 This half-true account of murderous criminal “The Angel of Death” was Argentina’s Academy submission for this year’s Best Foreign Film.
MW8 COMMUNITY CLEANUP MW8 11 A.M.–1 P.M. • FREE
“PINOPUENTEROS” OPENING RECEPTION WILLIAMSON KNIGHT 6–8 P.M. • FREE
THE FUR COATS, DYKERITZ, FRISKIES HOLOCENE 8:30 P.M. • $8 • 21+
ST JOHNS VILLAGE FAIR WAYFINDING ACADEMY 5:30–$7:30 P.M. • FREE
Come welcome the newest collection of handcrafted sculptures on Mexican identity by André Filipek, on display until March 2.
The psychedelic soul-pop of The Fur Coats will definitely make you groove.
BUYER & CELLAR ELLEN BYE STUDIO AT THE ARMORY TUE–SUN AT 7:30 P.M. • MATINEES: SAT AND SUN AT 2P.M., THU AT NOON • $25–57 ($18.50 WITH STUDENT ID) • 13+
“EXAGGERATED STORIES” ADAMS AND OLLMAN WED–SAT • 11 A.M.–5 P.M., AND BY APPOINTMENT • FREE
EROTIC CITY THE FIXIN’ TO 9 P.M. • $10 • 21+
Curated by Suzy Halajian, this collection of work by Dylan Hira makes great use of location while tackling the concept of physical and mental borders.
Joanna Bloom reworks trophies and bowls in her first solo exhibition.
Erotic City is a Prince tribute band that makes you feel just the slightest bit better about being in a world without Prince.
If you love theatrics, malls and Barbra Streisand, you need this comedic performance in your life. You’ve got until March 3 to experience it.
Student housing community MW8 is asking for help in cleaning up around the property and the rest of Portland State.
This interactive event looks at what it’s like to live in a community village. Donations of warm hats, gloves, socks, blankets and sleeping bags are encouraged and will go to homeless outreach workers in the neighborhood.
SAT JAN 26
THE CUTTING ROOM BOXVOX DANCE CENTER JAN 25–26: 7:30 P.M., JAN 31, FEB 1–2: 7:30 P.M., FEB 2: 2 P.M. • $30 Watch some of the most talented dancers in town recreate some of your favorite movie scenes with incredibly artistic choreography.
SOCIAL JUSTICE MOVIE NIGHT ST. CHARLES CHURCH 6 P.M. • $5 SUGGESTED DONATION
VIGIL TO ABOLISH ICE ICE DETENTION CENTER 2–5 P.M. • FREE
Food and drinks will be provided at this screening of the documentary 13th, which looks into an unfair loophole in the 13th Amendment. All funds received will be donated to the St. Charles Social Justice Committee.
SUN JAN 27 MON JAN 28
“BY TURNS DIFFUSE AND BLINDING” FOURTEEN30 CONTEMPORARY FRI AND SAT NOON–5 P.M. AND BY APPOINTMENT • FREE The newest muted color exhibition by artist Rachel Labine is on display until Feb. 23.
LOX, DRAGGING AN OX THROUGH WATER, SAD HORSE FIRKIN TAVERN 8 P.M FREE • (DONATIONS HIGHLY ENCOURAGED) • 21+
HERE ON THIS BRIDGE: THE -ISM PROJECT LINCOLN PERFORMANCE HALL JAN 26: 7:30 P.M., JAN 27: 2 P.M., FEB 8: 7:30 P.M., FEB 9: 7:30 PM, FEB 10: 2 P.M. • $10–20
Head down to the Firkin and watch three great local acts in support of the Burgerville Workers Union and their fight for fair workers’ rights. A portion of bar proceeds will go to the cause.
Part of the Fertile Ground festival, the newest Theatre Diaspora piece includes six monologues about intersectionality. There will be time for community dialogue afterward as well.
“A LIE NATION, ALIENATION: NEW PAINTINGS” STUMPTOWN COFFEE (DOWNTOWN) MON–SAT: 7 A.M.–9 P.M., SUN: 7 A.M.–6 P.M. • FREE
TRAVIS SCOTT MODA CENTER 8 P.M. • $26 AND UP
AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD WHITSELL AUDITORIUM 7 P.M. • $10 ($8 WITH STUDENT ID)
Get into full-blown sicko mode for Travis Scott’s second show in Portland in the last few months.
Named one of Roger Ebert’s top ten films of all time, watch Don Lope de Aguirre go mad on his quest for El Dorado.
WEEP WAVE MUSIC MILLENNIUM 6 P.M. • FREE
ENTANGLEMENTS #3 – A PORTLAND HISTORY PLAY SUNNYSIDE COMMUNITY HOUSE 7:45 P.M. • $5-10
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE — INTO THE ARCTIC KINGDOM NEWMARK THEATRE 7:30 P.M. • $27.25–47.25
An ever-developing visual essay about Portland and all of its secrets, performed by Kendra Prat and part of the Fertile Ground festival.
Hosted by National Geographic photographer Florian Schulz, the latest installment in this ongoing lecture series takes a close look at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Arctic kingdom.
Colorful and abstract, these works by Chiloquin artist Ka’ila Farrell-Smith pair well with coffee.
“HUMAN NATURE” C3 INITIATIVE WED–SAT • NOON–6 P.M. AND BY APPOINTMENT UNTIL MARCH 2 This is group exhibition by the gallery’s resident artists—Elisabeth Horan, Michael Namkung, Yoonhee Choi and Collin Richard—using handmade paper as a medium.
Seattle garage rockers Weep Wave are doing a free in-store performance of their newest album S.A.D.
This vigil will be a part of an ICE resistance rally and include a performance by ICEBreakers.
CRYSTAL BALLROOM’S 105TH BIRTHDAY FREE-FOR-ALL CRYSTAL BALLROOM 2 P.M. • FREE Music, cocktail tasting and an overall history of this historic venue are some of the offerings at this more than centennial birthday celebration.