Portland State Vanguard, Volume 74, Issue 20

VOLUME 74 • ISSUE 20 • FEBRUARY 18, 2020

40 UNIVERSITIES, COUNTRIES, 16

ONE WEEKEND OF NEWS PSU SET TO REMODEL SCIENCE BUILDING 1 • OPINION FRICTIONLESS SHOPPING: AMAZON GOES FULL DYSTOPIAN ARTS & CULTURE TO MONOGAMY OR TO NON-MONOGAMY

CRIME BLOTTER

Feb. 10–16

HANNA ANDERSON FEB. 10 Vandalism A non-student reported damage done to their vehicle in Blumel Residence Hall Parking at approximately 2:50 p.m.

FEB. 13 Tresspass Warning A non-student was issued a warning for trespassing in Cramer Hall at 3:09 a.m., and a PSU ID card was confiscated.

Vehicle Break-in A Portland State student reported a vehicle break-in at approximately 3:06 p.m. in Blumel Residence Hall Parking, with property taken.

FEB. 15 Traffic Accident CPSO, Portland Fire Bureau and Medical responded to a single car accident at approximately 3:20 a.m. at SW 4th and College, involving non-students who all declined medical transport.

FEB. 11 Theft A PSU reported that a non-student had stolen supplies from the restroom in the Native American Student Center at 7:43 p.m.

FEB. 12 Firearm/Disorderly Conduct At 10:31 p.m., Campus Public Safety officers and Portland Fire Bureau responded to a pulled fire alarm in St. Helens Residence Hall, with no smoke or flames.

Theft A non-student reported theft of property outside of Karl Miller Center at 6:11 p.m.

FEB. 16 Theft A non-student reported a Burglary at Great Clips under Broadway Residence Hall at approximately 9:10 a.m., with property taken.

CONTENTS COVER BY JOHN ROJAS NEWS HILL TO HALL

P. 3

ARTS & CULTURE DOORS AND THRESHOLDS: THE LAN SU GATEWAYS

P. 10

SFC PROPOSES BUDGET RECOMMENDATION FOR 2020–21 ACADEMIC YEAR

P. 4

HONORING LAS MARIPOSAS

P. 10

PSU SEEKS TO REMODEL BUILDING FOR STEM STUDENTS

P. 5

TO MONOGAMY OR NON-MONOGAMY

P. 11

HOW TO REALLY LOVE A WOMAN

P. 12

OPINION FRICTIONLESS SHOPPING: AMAZON GOES FULL DYSTOPIAN

P. 13

TROLLING FOR DOLLARS

P. 14

INTERNATIONAL US IMMIGRATION LAWS CREATE RISK FOR DEPORTEES

GERMAN POLITICIAN RESIGNS AFTER ONE DAY AFTER ELECTION FOLLOWING CRITICISM

P. 6

RE-ELECTED MALAWI PRESIDENT DENIED APPEAL AGAINST COURT’S RULINGS

P. 7

HAVE YOU HEARD? THE LEISURE EDITION

P. 14

THE UNTOLD STORY OF JAPANESE STUDENTS SPONSORED BY THE U.S. MILITARY

P. 7

SPORTS THE LAST REAL GYM

P. 15

COVER A WEEKEND OF INNOVATION AND DESIGN AT PSU

P. 8–9

EVENTS CALENDAR

P. 16

STAFF

EDIT ORI A L EDITOR IN CHIEF Dylan Jefferies MANAGING EDITOR Anthony Montes NEWS EDITORS Hanna Anderson Justin Grinnell INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Chloe Dysart ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Nick Townsend OPINION EDITOR AJ Earl ONLINE EDITOR Annie Schutz

P. 6

COPY CHIEF Hannah Welbourn

MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Owen Demetre

COPY EDITOR Sophie Concannon

PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR John Rojas

CONTRIBUTORS Jordan Cagle Christina Casanova Madison Cecil Adira Freigeist Felipe Flores Karina Ida Ayu Dwijayanti Raeana Mikel Emily Price Ian Storey Emma Wallace Karisa Yuasa PHO T O & MULTIMEDI A PHOTO EDITOR Alex Wittwer

LEAD DESIGNER Dana Townsend DESIGNERS Brandon Pahnish Sam Person DIS T RIBU TION & M A R K E TING DISTRIBUTION & MARKETING MANAGER Dylan Jefferies T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale

TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Juliana Bigelow George Olson John Rojas A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@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 Tuesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.

NEWS

FEB. 12–14 HANNA ANDERSON

FEB. 12: SALEM HIGH SCHOOL’S BATHROOM POLICY SUPPORTED

BY FEDERAL APPEALS COURT

A federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit on Feb. 12, which challenged a rural Oregon school district’s policies allowing transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. According to The Oregonian, parents of Dallas students originally filed the lawsuit, arguing the school’s policy violated students’ rights to bodily privacy under the 14th amendment. Lawyers in support of the policy argued not allowing students to use the restroom that aligns with their gender identity would be discrimination. The lawsuit was first thrown out by a lower court in 2018, which found that the policy did not violate students’ rights.

FEB. 12: ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES WRONGLY REJECTED BY SECRETARY OF STATE

Oregon’s Court of Appeals ruled Feb. 12 that Secretary of State Beverly Clarno was wrong in rejecting three proposed ballot measures, all of which sought to increase environmental protections in the state. According to Oregon Public Broadcasting, the ruling is the latest and most authoritative opinion in an ongoing legal battle over the proposals, which Clarno originally rejected for not following a single subject requirement. A Marion County judge previously ruled in her favor, which the Court of Appeals has found to be in error.

Each episode we talk to professionals about different macro-topics that relate to ongoing events.

Listen now to Situational Significance on

FEB. 12: HOUSE SPEAKER LAUNCHES PROPOSAL TO DECLARE A “HOMELESSNESS STATE OF EMERGENCY”

Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek put forward a proposal to declare a “homelessness state of emergency,” which would more easily allow Oregon cities to create new houseless shelters. Kotek testified for the bill on Feb. 12 in front of The Committee on Human Services and Housing, which voted in favor of the bill. The bill would allocate $40 million to creating new shelters, according to The Oregonian and would allow cities to bypass zoning restrictions when finding sites for shelters and other spaces for the houseless population. If passed, the ability to bypass zoning would continue until expiring in July 2021.

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FEB. 14: PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL APPROVES ROSE LANE PROJECT TO HELP TRAFFIC

Portland City Council voted unanimously on Feb. 14 to move forward with the Rose Lane Project, which would help with the speed and efficiency of public transit in the city. Led by Commissioner Chloe Eudaly, the project will allocate upwards of $10 million towards making improvements to public transit, including marking more lanes as bus only and making improvements to traffic light signals, according to Willamette Week. The goals of the project, according to OPB, are to make Portland more environmentally friendly by encouraging more commuters to choose public transit over cars and allowing those who rely on public transit to travel as quickly as those who don’t.

PSU Vanguard • FEBRUARY 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

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NEWS

SFC PROPOSES BUDGET RECOMMENDATION FOR 2020–21 ACADEMIC YEAR KARISA YUASA A new student fee proposal from Portland State’s Student Fee Committee could raise incidental fees between 13–44% and building fees between 3–30% for the 2020–21 academic year.

The SFC proposal was submitted earlier this February to Interim President Stephen Percy. If accepted, the fees would go into effect for all students starting fall 2020. The fee increase is dependent upon credit hours—for both undergraduate and graduate students taking eight or more credits, the incidental fees will increase by $33 from $263 per term to $293 per term.

“The $33 increase is actually lower than it would have been for full time students because we did a restructuring of the way the fee is done,” said Sam Swan, vice chair of the SFC. PSU student Julia Farmer said, “$33 is not that much compared to everything else we are already paying for. But if it goes up every year, it will get really expensive really fast.”

“There is that sign everywhere that shows in big print that there is a $27 million dollar surplus, so it seems a little unneeded,” said PSU student Nolan Young in regards to the American Association of University Professors flyers posted around campus.

The largest incidental fee increase will come for undergraduate students taking seven credits, in which a proposed 44%—or $82—increase per term will occur.

“Before, there was a much lower amount that people were paying between one and eight credits,” Swan said. “They were paying quite a bit less, but they have access to almost equal services on campus. So we bumped that up quite a bit and then slowly raised the fee incrementally with credits until you hit eight credits.”

“I don’t like that they’re raising fees because I’m just barely scraping by,” said PSU student Kevin Garcia. “This last payment that I did, I had 98 cents in my account after I paid the university.”

The SFC consists of seven elected students whose jobs are to allocate student fees across 32 fee-funded areas (FFA) ranging from athletics to resource centers to student media organizations.

“This was a really long process that spanned back to the summer,” Swan said. “First, we defined our funding philosophy which every SFC does every year.”

The funding philosophy is a list of priorities that is referred to throughout the year in regards to what will eventually get funding.

“At the beginning of the year our Budget Advisor informed us of the enrollment forecasts that would create a $1.2 million deficit in the Student Incidental Fee Budget for fiscal year ‘21,” the SFC stated in the memorandum addressed to Percy.

The SFC was tasked to figure out how to compensate for the loss of income while keeping up with the yearly cost increases from FFAs. During fall term, every FFA received 15 minutes to present to the SFC three budget scenarios: current service level, base budget and a 3.5% cut.

“Current service level is asking ‘how much would you need next year to do the same thing that you are doing this year?’” Swan said.

“Base budget is ‘if you got the exact same dollar amount as last year, what would you do with that?’” Swan said. “That is essentially a cut because things get more and more expensive every year with inflation.”

“The 3.5% cut is asking them ‘if you were to, outside of professional staff or legally obligated increases...absorb the 3.5% cut that encompasses enrollment decline, how would your program operate?’”

Most of the cuts organizations would be forced to make in these scenarios would directly impact students. Absorbing the budget cut would cause Student Legal Services to lose their immigration clinic, the food pantry to cut hours back by 33% and the multicultural center to eliminate multicultural graduation.

Along with budget scenarios, these presentations also included any “strategic asks” an organization had.

“A strategic ask is a program expansion,” Swan said. “A program will say ‘we want to do more programming’ or ‘we want

to add this student position’ or ‘we want to add more hours of service to students,’ so this is how much we would need to be able to do that.”

SFC members ranked each strategic ask based on their funding philosophy.

“The strategic ask is where we were really, really careful and very aware of the extra cost that this has to students,” Swan said.

This year, the SFC only approved about half of the strategic asks.

“This is not a year that we were super keen on just expanding everything because that just directly comes out of the pockets of students,” Swan said.

While keeping the proposed incidental fee increase in mind, the SFC did a similar restructuring for the building fees. The proposed building fee starts at $20 per term for students taking one credit and maxes out at $39 per term for students taking eight or more credits.

The student building fee is meant to fund non-academic or student-ran buildings such as Smith Memorial Student Union.

“We set it at $39 per term...because we are starting to try and build reserves to actually do the Smith renovation,” Swan said.

“This year, because the incidental fee is increasing so much, we’re not pursuing taking on debt or increasing this fee as well to a ridiculous amount to cover that.”

“I think there is a general lack of information about how bad Smith really is, because on the face it doesn’t look great, but it’s functional,” Swan said. “We’ve toured this building, and there is coolant leaking into pro staff offices and it’s actually very hazardous. It’s rotting from the inside out.”

The SMSU renovation has been discussed for the past five years.

“I thought Smith was new,” PSU student Inian Bordine said.

“I think there are other buildings that need more work.”

“As students, we don’t see a lot of what’s wrong,” PSU student Kaitlynn Johnson said. “But if it’s a safety hazard, then I think that is kind of the top priority.”

“This really needs to get done, but we also don’t want to do a renovation and increase fees to students when they have expressed a desire specifically to not pay for this,” Swan said.

Percy has until February 19 to respond to the fee recommendation before it is presented to the Board of Trustees’ Finance and Administration Committee for final approval.

THE SFC GATHERED TO VOTE ON THE STUDENT FEE INCREASE ON FEB. 12, 2020. ALEX WITTWER/PSU VANGUARD

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PSU Vanguard • FEBRUARY 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

NEWS

PSU SEEKS TO REMODEL BUILDING FOR STEM STUDENTS UNIVERSITY CONTINUES CITY BUILDING EFFORTS WITH NEW MONEY FOR SCIENCE BUILDING ONE

FELIPE FLORES Portland State received a $4.5 million pledge toward its effort to renovate Science Building One (SB1), built in 1967 and located on SW Mill Street.

According to a PSU press release, Christine and David Vernier, founders of Vernier Software & Technology in Beaverton pledged the amount to the Let Knowledge Serve campaign. The PSU Foundation started the campaign, a $300 million fundraising initiative, in 2018. The campaign supports high-priority projects and initiatives across the university.

Interim President Stephen Percy said in a Jan. 31 press conference, “[The building] needs a major renovation to advance our capacity to stay at a high level quality of teaching in the sciences.”

This donation represents 60% of the $8 million the university needs to qualify for a state borrowing program. Doing so would allow the university to access an additional $75 million to complete the science building update.

“In any project…we are kind of required to bring some money to the table, and we don’t want to take student tuition dollars, so we are doing private [funding],” Percy said.

The proposal for funding is currently pending approval by the state legislature. The 2020 Public University Capital Recommendations, which is endorsed by Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission, could possibly distribute its funding to seven other public universities across the state hoping to remodel and expand aging campus buildings to improve student life and culture.

Using past experiences as a basis for skepticism, Dakota Gaumer, a resident of nearby Blumel Residence Hall, said: “If PSU is renovating anything, I think it’s probably going to cost too much and [not do] what they’re saying. The PSU method is doing things almost right. Like 75% of the way and always disappointing.”

In light of these possible new construction efforts and if it would impact Blumel Hall’s livability, resident Mimi Perez, said: “Sometimes [the noise] bothers me, however the walls here are really good.”

If the SB1 project is green-lighted, the plan is to rename the building the Vernier Science Center, in honor of the couple’s decades-long commitment

ALEX WITTWER/PSU VANGUARD

to PSU and to reflect the significance of their donation to the university.

With modern capabilities and seismic and system upgrades, the building would be able to serve an estimated 4,200 students and house both academic and student programs aimed to cultivate interest in the sciences.

A conceptual rendering from Seattle-based SHKS Architects shows how the existing brutalist architecture, which is characterized by its massive blocky appearance and large-scale use of poured concrete, can be transformed after a planned $83 million modernization and expansion effort.

SB1 is a key campus facility for undergraduate students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. It is a substantial seven-story structure centered around a rectangular floor plan. It currently houses classrooms, offices and laboratories for biology, chemistry, environmental science, physics, electron microscopy and nanofabrication departments.

Prior to the construction of SB1, all science facilities and faculty were located in Lincoln Hall.

When similar upgrades were made to the new Fariborz Maseeh Hall, the arts department was displaced, requiring temporary facilities to be placed in the vacant lot on the north side of SB1.

“The [temporary buildings] that were removed brought more foot traffic in this direction.” Portland resident Tom Mclaughlin said. “[PSU] certainly has expanded to the east, on Broadway and other places with small businesses, but I notice, with the expansion of the apartment buildings, that businesses will follow.”

“I walk by [SB1] almost every day,” McLaughlin said. “I know it’s seasonal, but I don’t see much utilization of the nice patio and park that’s on the north side. I think something that brings a little of the outdoors indoors or encouraging people to have a social gathering outside the building would be good.”

In addition to the SB1 upgrade, PSU is also proposing to build a new residence hall on the corner of 12th and Market St., which is currently held by the vacant Stratford Hall. This building would include upwards of 450 beds, multiple study lounges and common areas on the ground floor.

PSU Vanguard • FEBRUARY 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

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INTERNATIONAL

U.S. IMMIGRATION LAWS CREATE RISK FOR DEPORTEES BORDER PATROL AGENTS ARREST MIGRANTS FROM CENTRAL AMERICA ALONGSIDE THE BORDER, OUTSIDE OF YUMA, AZ. COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS CHRISTINA CASANOVA Due to the tightening of immigration laws in the United States, several Salvadorans are being deported back to a life of violence they once fled their country for. Human Rights Watch has reported 138 deaths of deported Salvadorans investigated since 2013.

Several citizens have been killed on their return to the country. Sources such as the Human Rights Watch say the U.S. seems to not realize the consequences.

“Salvadorans are facing murder, rape and other violence after deportation in shockingly high numbers, while the U.S. government narrows Salvadorans’ access to asylum and turns a blind eye to the deadly results of its callous policies,” said Alison Parker, managing director of the U.S. Program at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report.

El Salvador, with over 6 million citizens and being one of the most densely populated countries in Central America, has one of the world’s highest rates of homicide and sexual violence.

Authorities are largely ineffective, according to The Guardian, who reports several instances of violence against civilians committed by soldiers. Other instances of violence are often executed by street gangs which have approximately 60,000 members across the country.

Along with 138 cases of deaths among deported Salvadorans since 2013, investigators also found 70 instances in which deportees were subjected to sexual violence, torture and other harm, usually by gangs.

Many deportees have gone missing following their return to El Salvador.

Often, the violence can be committed by not only gangs, but also people in their neighborhoods and authorities. In one instance reported

by NPR, two young men were awoken in the middle of the night, ripped from the beds and beaten by the police.

“They began beating us until we arrived at the police barracks,” a deportee named Gaspar T. said in an interview with Human Rights Watch.

6

GERMAN POLITICIAN RESIGNS ONE DAY AFTER ELECTION FOLLOWING CRITICISM KARINA IDA AYU DWIJAYANTI

Several people from El Salvador living in the U.S. previously had Temporary Protected Status, also known as TPS. This status meant Salvadorans were able to build a life in the country with limited fear of being deported.

Similarly, in 2012, the Obama administration provided 26,000 Salvadorans with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA status, which afforded some who had arrived as children with a temporary legal status. However, the Trump administration decided that TPS should end in January of 2020.

Of the estimated 1.2 million Salvadorans living in the U.S. who are not citizens, just under one-quarter are lawful permanent residents, with the remaining people lacking papers of TPS. By 2018, Salvadorans became the highest number of any other nationality seeking asylum, with approximately 101,000 pending applications in the U.S., according to HRW. The U.S. has also been pursuing policies that shift responsibility for immigration enforcement to countries like Mexico in an effort to avoid obligation for the safety of migrants and asylum seekers, such as the Migration Protection Protocols.

The Migration Protection Protocol rules that “certain foreign individuals entering or seeking admission to the U.S. from Mexico—illegally or without proper documentation—may be returned to Mexico and wait outside of the U.S. for the duration” according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Between 2014–2018, Mexico and the U.S. have deported more than 213,000 Salvadorans regardless of their need for asylum.

“The United States has to have known this was happening, because the cases were publicly reported, and more importantly because Salvadorans make it clear in asylum applications that this is their reality. But this reality is ignored or not believed by U.S. authorities,” said Elizabeth Kennedy, co-author of the report.

PSU Vanguard • FEBRUARY 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

German State Premier of Thuringia Thomas Kemmerich resigned one day after being elected amid outrage over being elected with the help of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AFD), according to BBC. Kemmermich said he would apply for the regional parliament to be dissolved in response to the thousands of protestors venting their dismay at the vote outcome by taking to the streets of Berlin, Frankfurt, and Erfurt according to Times of Israel.

A picture of Kemmerich shaking hands with AFD parliamentary party leader Bjoern Hoecke, labeled the handshake of shame, was shown throughout the front pages of several German newspapers.

On social media, people have been comparing the picture to Adolf Hitler shaking hands with German president Paul von Hindenburg in 1933, the year Hitler became chancellor.

Although the AFD has been able to gain influence when a mainstream political party accepted its support, it reminded the Germans of the country’s atrocities of World World II. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the Thuringia vote needed to be reversed and insisted her party, the Christian Democratic Union, cannot tolerate the anti-Islam and anti-immigrant right wing nationalists.

Despite the chancellor’s criticism towards the AFD for being a right wing nationalist group, Portland State Political Science Professor, Melodi E. Valdini, who specializes in European politics, said Germany is not particularly left-wing.

“In fact, the center-right party the CDU-CSU has won a plurality of legislative seats, and thus held the office of Prime Minister for the past several elections,” Valdini said.

Merkel was quoted as saying that the controversy was “a bad day for democracy.” Both the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union of Germany held crisis talks in Berlin on Feb. 9.

The AFD has been compared with other right-

OLAF KOSINSKY/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

wing nationalist movements, such as Brexit in the United Kingdom, the Party for Freedom in The Netherlands and the election of President Donald Trump in the United States.

“I don’t think that the German population is unique in their discomfort with the extreme right,” Validini said. “In almost all of the democracies in the world, the majority of citizens are uncomfortable with the far-right and the far-left.”

“People tend to like middle ground, so extremist parties rarely get substantial voter support.

And further, parties on the far-right often engage themes of xenophobia and anti-Semitism in their party platforms, and most voters are uncomfortable with that.”

HOW FAR-RIGHT IS AFD?

BBC reported the party openly focuses on Islam and migration which has been compared to the Nazi platform, as AFD co-chairman Alexander Gauland sees Islam as alien to German society.

Gauland also referenced famous German football player Jérôme Boateng with Ghanian descent in what was seen as an anti-Semitic tone, according to BBC. “[Germans] like him as a football player,” Gauland said. “But they don’t want to have Boateng as their neighbour.”

BBC also reported that AFD’s success challenges Merkel’s decision to let in around 1.3 million undocumented migrants and refuges from countries in the Middle East. Former AFD leader Frauke Petry once told the police to shoot illegal migrants “if necessary.”

Alice Weidel, an economist and one of a small number of women in prominent positions in the party, argued that the AFD is not homophobic because of her presence as a top candidate in the party.

While the AFD once suggested that the European Union’s external border must be completely shut for illegal immigrants and Schengen visas limited, the likeliness of this actually becoming a reality for Germans remains unknown.

INTERNATIONAL

RE-ELECTED MALAWI PRESIDENT DENIED APPEAL AGAINST COURT’S RULINGS EMILY PRICE

Malawi’s Constitutional Court denied Peter Mutharika an appeal on Feb. 12 against a court ruling that overturned Mutharika’s 2019 re-election.

A 500-page ruling by judges cited widespread use of unauthorized correction fluid had been used to alter figures and duplicate result sheets, as well as unsigned result forms which compromised the election results. Only 23% of the result sheets were able to be verified, so the outcome by the electoral commission "cannot be trusted as a true reflection of the will of the voters," according to an Al Jazeera report.

Malawi Electoral Commission member Mary Nkosi appeared before a special parliamentary committee and stated the results were mishandled.

"I did not see the justification [for] this, but there was an apparent rush to have the results put together and announced," Nkosi said to Al Jazeera. "It was a big let-down.”

The electoral results last year declared Mutharika the winner with 38% of votes, followed by Lazarus Chakwera with 35% and former Vice President Saulo Chilima with 20% in third.

Mgeme Kalilani, Mutharika’s spokesman, spoke to Agence FrancePresse news agency describing the 2019 ruling to be "a serious miscarriage of justice and an attack on the foundations of the country's democracy" and that the ruling was "an attack on our democratic systems and an attempt to undermine the will of the people."

Mutharika still stands by the election results.

"The election was not rigged; [it was] free, fair and credible," Mutharika said to Al Jazeera.

The international response appears to have praised Malawi for taking responsibility. "We call upon all Malawians to respect the decision of the court and to adhere to the path outlined in Malawi's constitution and electoral laws, including on the right to appeal," said Tibor Nagy, United States diplomat for Africa, as reported by Al Jazeera.

“The court has received both appeals by first respondent [the president] and second respondent [electoral commission]," said High Court Registrar Anges Patemba, according to Reuters.

A series of protests have occurred across Malawi, some demanding the resignation of electoral commission members for allegedly mismanaging the vote.

Many businesses and homes were shut in fear of violence and looting, according to The New York Times.

Chairman of the Human Rights Defenders Coalition Timothy Mtambo stated to Al Jazeera: “We think when we leave it in the hands of politicians, nothing works. We will use our own means to make sure these people are taken to account.”

Chakwera, leader of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party, praised the verdict as a win for democracy.

"It is democracy that has won. It is Malawi that has won. It is Africa that has won. And now justice has been served," he said to Al Jazeera.

This is the first time a presidential vote had been overturned in the country of Malawi. What really happened to the first election results remain unknown. Judges ordered a new election to take place within 150 days, according to BBC News.

COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

THE UNTOLD STORY OF JAPANESE STUDENTS SPONSORED BY THE U.S. MILITARY EMMA WALLACE/PSU VANGUARD

KARISA YUASA Dr. Alisa Freedman, editor-in-chief of the US-Japan Women’s Journal and Professor of Japanese literature and film at the University of Oregon, discussed the topic of her upcoming book, titled, “Cold-War Coeds: The Untold Story of Japanese Students Sponsored by the U.S. Military” on Feb. 13 in Fariborz Maseeh Hall.

Between 1949–1966, the United States Army sent 4,713 Japanese students, including 651 women, to study at American graduate schools for one year with the Government Account for Relief in Occupied Areas and Fulbright Scholarships, otherwise known as GARIOA. The scholarship covered all travel expenses to and from Japan and living expenses for the year.

“You couldn’t take a lot of money out of Japan, and the exchange rate was so high anyway that scholarships were the only way that many people could travel,” Freedman said.

Over 8,000 students applied to be part of the first cohort of GARIOA scholarship recipients in 1950, and less than 6% were accepted.

The application process required applicants to complete an application entirely in English and pass a rigorous English language exam, followed by a 30-minute interview in English. These interviews were used to gauge the applicants’ ability to “acclimate to and appreciate American life” and to decide what area of the U.S. a student should be placed in.

Finally, applicants needed to pass a health examination. Tuberculosis was common in Japan following WWII and was considered a “national disease.” For this reason, chest x-rays were required both during

the application process and right before boarding boats to the U.S. Scholarship recipients attended orientations before, during and after their arrival in the U.S. These orientations taught students about “American culture” and included skills such as the so-called ladies first mentality, gift-giving and attending dinner parties.

“The scholarships were a part of a larger program to sort of reeducate and reorient the people of Japan through ideas of American style democracy,” Freedman said.

Freedman quoted a U.S. Army report from 1950 that explained their reasoning behind the scholarship programs: “The objectives of the student program is by no means entirely scholastic. In fact, the Army is more concerned that the students take full advantage of this opportunity to learn about and observe American life than it is that they make an outstanding academic mark.”

“They took the English test to see how they would study in the U.S., but that was not the top goal, and the GARIOA students were very confused by that,” Freedman said. “[Students] thought they were going to America to get an MA. The government’s goal was that these students would get some education in America, but spend most of their time observing how great American style democracy is.”

A propaganda film was played to prospective students in Japan during the later years of the programs. The film began with a Japanese student spending all his time studying, while his American roommate spent his time with friends and ended with the Japanese student assimilating and acting more like his roommate.

Along with the differences between their expectations and reality, some students also had to navigate being the only Japanese students at their schools. They were asked constantly about Japan and to attend international nights. Japanese women were also often asked to wear kimonos.

“I’ll ask a question like, ‘Did you find yourself discriminated against?’ and they’ll say ‘Oh no, everyone was quite kind to me.’ I’ll try to rephrase the question, ‘Did anyone treat you differently because you’re Japanese?’ ‘Yes they did,’” Freedman said.

Even though the original goal for the program may have been to promote American culture, many students made the most of the educational opportunities they were given.

At a time where being a housewife was the middle class ideal, female exchange students became translators, professors and university chancellors.

“A lot of the women were taking the chance of getting an education in a different country,” said Akio Sato, a Japanese studies major who attended Freedman’s presentation. “Even though it was kind of under an insidious means, many of them were aware of that but they wanted the chance regardless because it was something for women, especially in the ‘40s and ‘50s, had such a niche role in Japan especially considering education and careers.”

“What I’m very interested in is that this is a very ideological fellowship meant for Japanese students to learn about America, but what I am learning is that America also learned a lot from these women,” Freedman said.

PSU Vanguard • FEBRUARY 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

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COVER

A weekend of

INNOVATIO & DESIG at PSU EMMA WALLACE/PSU VANGUARD

FRIDAY, FEB. 14, 2020

JUSTIN GRINNELL Portland State participated with 40 universities across 16 countries to create solutions to some of humanity’s greatest problems.

The PSU Center for Entrepreneurship hosted Invent for the Planet 2020 from Feb. 14–16 in the Fariborz Maseeh Engineering and Computer Science Building. The event was in collaboration with Texas A&M, who designed the program. “[Texas A&M] crowdsourced 14 need statements,” said Juan Barraza, director of student innovation at the Center of Entrepreneurship. “14 problems around the globe that need to be solved.”

According to Barraza, this is the second year PSU has participated in the event.

PSU students and non-students of any background or education were welcome to participate in the event. Participants were put in groups based on which need statement they wanted to work on. Over the weekend, groups were tasked with designing a solution to their need statement and creating a prototype of that solution to present in front of a panel of judges. The first place team’s presentation is sent to Texas A&M for a chance to be selected to compete as one of the top five teams from one of the 40 universities participating.

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Just after 5 p.m., following a quick presentation and some free pizza, the newly formed groups of innovators filed into the electronics prototyping lab (EPL): an engineering and computer science workspace with tools, 3D printers, oscilloscopes, soldering irons, lasers and a wazer—a water-jet laser used to cut metal.

The EPL tables and workbenches were littered with pens, notebooks and computers as the groups delved into researching their chosen problem.

According to the need statement information, “68% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by the year 2050,” and so, one group chose to find carbon reducing opportunities in city environments. Group members began the night by toiling with problems facing carbon reduction such as the duck curve—a well-known power production imbalance between a city’s peak demand of energy in a day and renewable energy production—and missed opportunities in utilizing resources.

“Where’s value going down the drain?” asked PSU student Sean Krivonogoff regarding the missed opportunities.

Krivonogoff participated in last year’s Invent for the Planet, in which his group took first place at PSU. Addressing the problem of access to clean water in rural areas, his group designed a device that boiled water over a stove to create steam then—using the peltier effect, a way to use electrical energy for cooling—condensed the steam into purified water.

A different group sought to innovate smart cities: metropolitan areas with digital amenities such as cloud services and ride-share apps. Through their research, the group discovered by improving the smart city capabilities of public transportation, they could also help reduce carbon emissions.

“It’s very time consuming,” said Lily Strayer, a student at Douglas McKay High School and smart city group member.

“What might take five minutes in a car takes 30 minutes on the bus.”

The group decided on finding a way to aggregate data from commuters to incentivise public transportation by reducing cost, creating greater accessibility and reducing wait times to below 10 minutes.

PSU Vanguard • FEBRUARY 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

In 2017, four Douglas Mckay students in the mathematics engineering science achievement (MESA) program finished first place in PSU’s Cleantech Challenge—a similar design event to Invent for the Planet. The students designed a way to turn lunchroom plastics into filament for 3D printers. Douglas McKay High School has since become a magnet school for students looking to study engineering.

As of Feb. 12, the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has infected nearly 45,000 people across 25 countries, according to the need statement information. A third group brainstormed ideas of a social media campaign geared to disseminating information on how to best detect, prevent and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. The group continued their research, hoping to shed light on similarities between COVID-19 and past viruses such as the type A flu to discover ways to stymie the pandemic.

The final two groups, each comprised of Douglas McKay students, outlined potential solutions for their respective problems: How to create a more seamless travel experience for airline passengers and how to meet growing energy demands with an emphasis on sustainability.

Around 9:30 p.m., the groups disbanded for the evening and vacated the EPL. As Invent for the Planet paused for the night in Portland, students at Habib University in Karachi, Pakistan were already working on Saturday morning to find solutions to similar need statements.

SATURDAY, FEB. 15, 2020

Groups were back at the Maseeh Engineering and Computer Science building at 8 a.m. for free breakfast and coffee before picking up their work right where they left off.

The schedule for Saturday differed from the previous day as each group pitched their conceptual solutions in a series of mentor sessions. Each session was meant to aid in a group’s design process by raising questions about their solution and giving professional insight.

Chris Clark, program manager for EPL and PSU graduate student studying computer engineering, was a technical mentor, advising on the availability and feasibility of certain technologies that groups wanted to implement in their solution. As a group pitched their ideas, Clark explained readily available technologies through whiteboard sketches, ranging from the potentiality and ethics of acquiring public transportation data to the capabilities of GPS. Clark has also done work with the MESA program and with introducing students in low-income communities to STEM programs. “I love what they’re doing,” Clark said, referring to the Douglas McKay students participating in the event.

COVER

ON GN Following the technical mentor session, groups transitioned to a session with Dr. Kelly Cowan, PhD in engineering technology management and professor at PSU. Cowan’s insight narrowed in on the business aspect of a group’s solution: how to incentivise the idea, how to identify a market, how to identify capital issues and how does this product differ from those already available in the market.

Cowan’s business ideas not only considered a solution’s feasibility but also its impact on the world. “Everybody has to look through the lens of sustainability,” Cowan said in an interview.

The third mentor was Dr. Kanika Agrawal, PhD in electrical engineering and employee for a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Hitachi. Agrawal assisted groups in taking their ideas and focusing them into solutions with specificity, filling a niche market.

“You have a lot of great ideas,” Agrawal said to the carbon reduction group. “But they’re still at the 50,000 foot view.”

After receiving feedback from their mentors, some groups left with more questions than answers, such as the smart city group who felt as though they had hit a barrier but were undeterred and continued to pursue utilizing big data to improve public transit.

For others, the critical feedback provided clarity: “I think it did help a lot, because we’re more sure of what our project is,” said Lizbeth Mayoral Rodriguez, a Douglas McKay student and COVID-19 group member. “Before we thought it was going to be an Instagram account, but now we’re certain it’s gonna be an app.”

Mayoral Rodriguez’s group pivoted away from a social media campaign to a mobile app that provides a real-time, interactive map of known virus outbreaks in a user’s area, among other pertinent COVID-19 information.

LILY STRAYER (CENTER) OF DOUGLAS MCKAY HIGH SCHOOL WAS ONE OF THE DOZENS OF CONTRIBUTORS TO THE EVENT THAT SPANNED THE WEEKEND. EMMA WALLACE/PSU VANGUARD

SUNDAY, FEB. 16, 2020

“We were kind of lost,” said Juan Munguia Gutierrez, a seamless air travel group member and Douglas McKay student, about going into the mentor sessions. “And we were going in a direction we didn’t want to go to.” “[The mentors] were kind of hard on us, asking a lot of questions and really testing us,” Munguia Gutierrez continued. “They really helped us.” The seamless air travel group set their sights on a mobile app designed to assist airline passengers in navigating through unfamiliar airports using text to speech technology, specifically for those passengers facing language barriers.

The energy demand and sustainability group’s designs for a hybrid airplane were met with some skepticism by mentors.

But after some deliberation, they decided to move forward with the idea.

Their hybrid airplane design involves repurposing a preexisting emergency system: “[Planes] have a thing called a RAT—a ram air turbine—which kicks open and starts spinning and that generates power,” said Misael Torres, a Douglas McKay student. “What if we repurpose it...and use it to power the cockpit.” The group’s research leads them to think their design could eliminate power consumption in airplanes by 10–15%.

For the carbon reduction group, Saturday afternoon was spent bouncing from different carbon reducing opportunity ideas: alternative heating and cooling systems in apartment buildings, solar powered window shades and urban moss walls. But each idea suffered issues of feasibility, practicality and overall effectiveness which led the group to abandon carbon reduction entirely and switch their focus toward finding innovative parenting solutions. To make matters worse, a member became ill and had to drop out of the competition.

The former carbon reduction group, now innovative parenting group, decided to design a mobile app called “Sitter Swipe”: a last minute babysitter service with swipe-based features similar to that of the popular dating app Tinder.

The second half of the day was dedicated for groups to create a prototype of their design. After more than 12 hours of work, Invent for the Planet once again had shut down for the night in Portland as innovation moved on to another part of the world.

It was another early start and free breakfast on Sunday morning, the final day of the event. Groups scrambled to polish their presentations for the judges as well as finalized any fabrication needed for their prototypes. Taped to walls and spread over tables, sheets of white poster paper were scribbled with notes, outlines and design layouts in thick marker.

The smart city group tested its prototype infrared sensor—a device they planned to one day implement on public transportation as an electronic turnstile. The sensor’s purpose was to collect passenger arrival and departure data in an effort to optimize public transit locations.

The groups seamless air travel, innovative parenting and COVID-19 all refined the look and design of their respective mobile apps. Each digital prototype displayed a user interface—displaying what an app’s pages would look like—as well as showed the core functionalities available to the user.

A brief panic ensued for the energy demand and sustainability group as their prototype hybrid airplane failed to function.

The prototype was a model plane with a row of small lights wired to a computer fan. The fan represented an airplane’s RAT which, when blown with compressed air, created an electrical current, supplying power to the little model plane’s cabin lights. But, despite functioning Saturday afternoon, the lights were not illuminating.

It was only after some troubleshooting and the quick solder of a few wires that the problem was fixed and the panic subsided.

Groups ran through practice presentations before and after lunch, each making their own mistakes: stumbling over or forgetting rehearsed lines, stiff postures and awkward closing statements. But feedback was given and improvements were made.

By 2 p.m., every Invent for the Planet participant filled room 93 of Maseeh Engineering and Computer Science building to present in front of the judges.

As they spoke before the judges, each group was poised and enthusiastic about the problem they chose and the solution they designed to address it. Any prior issues groups faced with their prototypes were now nonexistent and each operated without flaw. The energy demand and sustainability group was even able to utilize the EPL’s air compressor to give a live demonstration of their model plane. After the presentations, groups ate dinner while waiting for the judges to make their decision.

After their deliberation, the judges were ready to give the results and shared what they thought each group did well and identified areas that need improvement. As for the groups that placed: energy demand and sustainability came in third, smart cities came in second and seamless air travel came in first.

In an interview after the event, seamless air travel group members were asked if they were ever confident they were going to win after seeing the other groups’ presentations. Jose Ceja, a Douglas McKay student felt confident going into the judge’s decision, saying: “I felt like ours was the only one that wasn’t already made.” Munguia Gutierrez didn’t share his fellow member’s confidence.

For some, Invent for the Planet wasn’t about the competition, but rather an opportunity for growth. Lucas Clark, a PSU student and smart cities group member, said the event was “a good opportunity to come in and test myself.”

PSU Vanguard • FEBRUARY 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

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ARTS & CULTURE

DOORS AND THRESHOLDS A GATEWAY FOR NEW BEGINNINGS

ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: DAN LUCAS

FELIPE FLORES Think about how the Addams Family house makes you feel: a 19th century Victorian mansion. Compare that to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air house, a 20th century colonial two-story. Both have grand entries; both carry the idea of being someone’s home, yet one seems to tell more about the personalities inside than the other.

In the first case, the gloomy mansion with black wrought iron gates adjacent to a cemetery says the people inside might be a little eccentric.

Just taking a guess on that one.

A door is defined as any combination of materials— wood, stone, metal, glass, paper—that is installed to swing, fold, slide, or roll to close an opening.

Doors can represent an opening or closing of opportunities: a marker from one stage in life to another or a door to another world.

When doors, stretched and pulled to fit a form or function, synthesize with gates and thresholds, its symbolic features amplify, working in unison to create an intensity that transforms its transitional space.

This ability to focus on things in scale re-orientates us and recompresses our perspectives.

A place containing a multiplex of transitional spaces is the Lan Su Chinese Garden, located in Portland’s downtown Pearl District.

Displaying a number of tree-lined structures, dozens of koi fish, gardens, teahouses, 51 leak windows and more; this piece of architecture is capable of being a spiritual utopia.

The Lan Su Garden’s mission statement is “to cultivate an oasis of tranquil beauty and harmony—to inspire, engage and educate our global community in the appreciation of a richly authentic Chinese culture.”

HONORING LAS MARIPOSAS ADIRA FREIGEIST

Few in the United States may know about the oppressive regime of Dominican President Rafael Trujillo, or the story of the Mirabal sisters who stood up for their country, defended their beliefs and fought for the freedom they and all Dominicans deserved. A new play from the Milagro theater group told their story.

En el Tiempo de las Mariposas, a play by Caridad Svich, tells the story of the Mirabal sisters, Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa “Mate,” through the eyes of the sole surviving sister, Adele “Dede.”

It begins in 1994; a much older “Dede” speaks of the day she and her sisters caught their first butterfly in 1938, moving the audience through the years to her sister’s untimely deaths on Nov. 25, 1960.

The play stressed that these young women stood up against tyranny during a time when it was unacceptable to do so, especially for women. No matter the cost, whether that be the death of their father, being sent to jail, placed on house arrest or having their husbands put in prison for their actions, they stood their ground. They knew that it would take sacrifice and the action of many Dominicans to bring peace and freedom back to their country.

Ultimately, their courage to refuse a life of servitude under Trujillo cost them their lives. As Minerva, Patria and “Mate” made the journey to see their husbands in prison, they came upon a blockade in the road, and immediately sensed their demise. On the orders of Trujillo, the young women and their driver were separated in sugar cane fields and bludgeoned to death. Their car, along with their bodies, was pushed off a cliff, attempting to make their death appear as an accident.

Each actress was passionate about their role in the play for several reasons. Yesenia Lopez, who played the part of Minerva, said, “It’s so powerful, these women are power-

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MILAGRO THEATER PRODUCTION TELLS STORY OF DOMINICAN MARTYRS

ful. What they did, it takes guts, it takes a lot of strength and a lot of resistance from them. They did everything they could in their power to try to make the country a better place for everyone.”

For Lopez, “it’s an honor to portray one of these significant role models.”

For Ana Pardo, who played Adele “Dede” Mejor, she was particularly drawn to the role because of similarities to her lived experiences as a child. Pardo was born in the U.S. but grew up in Venezuela.

For Paulina Jaeger, who played the role of Patria, it was her love of Spanish that initially piqued her interest. But ultimately, it was that “this is about sisters and really powerful real things, and that kept me very happy being here.”

Much of the feedback received from the audience centered on how the story connects to what is happening right now in the U.S. Yolanda Porter, who played Mujer Americana, said that “we need to raise our voices, we need to be heard and tell our stories, and [although] that happened in the ‘60s, it’s like hello, it’s 2020 and it’s still the same thing.” “[We need to] speak up, use our voice and be powerful,” Lopez said.

McVicker added, “You just look around and you keep looking for hope, I think. I think we’re all looking for Mariposas; we want to see something that we can believe in and hope for.”

“We have to be Mariposas, each one of us, in our own way, in whatever way we can,” Porter said. “That is why this show is important. We have to do something.”

For each of these women, it was expressed that we need “more Mariposas” in this world.

The deaths of Las Mariposas added to the increasing public rage against Rafael Trujillo, leading to his assasination

PSU Vanguard • FEBRUARY 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

This cultivation, in part, is built within its doors, thresholds and openings, as the architect-built solutions go beyond just the architecture.

An example of this is Lan Su’s Moon gate, located in the scholar’s courtyard.

Drifting past the Lounge House, you enter the scholar’s courtyard. The moon gate is visible—appearing to rise out of the earth—like the moon rises in the sky, celebrating the cycles of life and death: rising and falling.

Everything about it carries a spiritual meaning beyond just a door. From the depth of its passage, to the balanced rectangular tiles, to the scroll shaped plaque place atop—which reads “Listen to the fragrance.”

Coupled with traditional ceremonies, its concentric shape is embraced as the “ideal symbol of family harmony and unity.” Extending beyond its physical space to “reunite with loved ones who are far away,” according to the Lan Su’s information on the Autumn Moon Festival.

Lan Su’s website narrative creates a vivid image. “It’s 16th century China, and you’re standing in the [courtyard]. The garden around you is spiritual...a peaceful and soothing place designed to help…escape the problems of everyday life by connecting with nature.”

With infinite paths, each space leads to self-discovery and an abundance of experiences. This personal awareness coupled with Lan Su’s metropolitan environment and graceful architecture yields dividends of dynamic growth “by the minute, by the hour and with the seasons.”

The next time you come across a door, think of what it represents. Is this a “first day of work” door?

Is this an “end of a relationship” door? If you try, you can hear the melody that radiates on the other side.

six months after the deaths of the Mirabal sisters. To recognize the Mirabal sisters and their sacrifice, the United Nations established Nov. 25 as the International Violence Against Women day. The day remains symbolic of the strength, resistance and power these women contributed to Dominican history.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: PAULINA JAEGER, YOLANDA PORTER, YESENIA LOPEZ, EVANGEL MCVICKER, ANA PARDO. ADIRA FREIGEIST/PSU VANGUARD

ARTS & CULTURE

TO M N GAMY OR TO N N-M N GAMY NICK TOWNSEND

Who someone chooses to love and how they love them isn’t a topic that many are comfortable talking about in public. Four people with experience talking about sexuality and relationships took to the stage to have a productive conversation about monogamy, non-monogamy and how people structure love as part of a new series of events centering civil discourse.

The evening was titled Polyamory and Monogamy and held at the Clinton Street Theater on Feb. 11. Organized by OutSpoken, a group created by computer scientist and author Steven Parton, the event was the first in what Parton hopes to be a regular series of evening conversations designed to engage speakers and audiences in dialogue to bridge what Parton calls “tribalistic gaps.”

On stage were four speakers, two on each side, with Parton moderating in the middle. On the non-monogamy side sat Margaret Jacobson and Kerry Cohen. The monogamy side was represented by Dr. Jane Guyn and Sebastian Rogers. Although grouped by their stance on monogamy, each speaker argued from a radically different position.

Jacobson is in a non-monogamous partnership with their current husband but also claims a second partner. They raise their two kids with their ex-husband.

Cohen and her ex-husband raise their kids in a non-romantic domestic partnership, and they each have a separate partner on their own. She’s also a psychologist and relationship expert.

On the monogamy side, Guyn is a PhD sex therapist who has been married to one man for 40 years and counsels individuals in both monogamous and non-monogamous partnerships.

Rogers is a born-again Christian who has been actively monogamous “since [he] found god fifteen years ago.”

“Before that I was serially monogamous, but internally less than faithful. I was practicing monogamy the wrong way,” he said.

Parton opened the evening by explaining the reasoning for producing the event. “We have too much agreement and not enough disagreement, and it’s actually led to more tribalism and animosity.” Noting the loose connection between the evening’s theme and political discourse, Parton said, “Honestly, it just was about looking at days coming up and seeing Valentine’s Day on the calendar and thinking that could be a good launching point. More than anything, it’s about how we don’t like talking to people who aren’t exactly like us anymore.”

Rogers was given the first opening statement, freely admitting to the audience that he was speaking from a religious perspective. His argument weaved explicitly Christian statements such as, “Monogamy is iconography; it represents the truth of God and his sacrifice” with statements that found more agreement among his fellow speakers and the audience. He argued the foundation of non-monogamy was honesty and consent and conceded that “if you’re not honest with someone, you’re not really known. And if you’re not known, you’re not really in a relationship,” generating snaps and nods from the crowd.

Non-monogamy rebutted next. “I believe in monogamy, but we’re just given this one model and there’s no way to fit everyone into this mold,” Cohen said.

Jacobson echoed a similar sentiment in their discussion, saying, “I don’t believe we should just stick with one thing that we inherited. We’re just one country. There are plenty of places where monogamy isn’t the norm or didn’t used to be.”

Both of the non-monogamy speakers stressed that adherence to a strict model of relationship is harmful to individuals and society.

Guyn spoke primarily from her personal experience being married for four decades, along with expertise from her professional career. Unlike Rogers, she has no religious attachment to monogamy and instead argued that individuals are responsible for their own relationships and can’t find satisfaction simply by avoiding monogamy.

“I think that there’s ways to have satisfying relationships regardless of container,” Guyn said before the talk. “I’ve been having sex with one man since the Reagan era. That doesn’t mean it’s not hot...it’s about taking responsibility for your own turn on.”

Guyn found common cause with the two people on the non-monogamy side who both expressed a relationship model based on appreciation of the self.

“Non-monogamy has been a wonderful thing because my biggest relationship now is with myself,” Jacobson expressed. “I want to meet my own needs first then see what people can add to my own life.”

Jacobson also agreed that trust and consent are the basis of nonmonogamy, but used that to rebuke the assertion that non-monogamy is only about sexual urges, “People think like ‘oh you’re living that crazy lifestyle.’ It’s not having a lot of sex, it’s a lot of processing! That’s why it’s not for everybody.” Jacobson explained that they have to balance the needs of multiple individuals and what they may be going through, while also raising their kids alongside their ex-husband. Cohen agreed that non-monogamy can be too much for more introverted people.

Few minds were changed at the end of the evening, but none of the speakers went on stage with the intention of winning followers for their side. Sometimes it’s enough to just be heard and understood.

DANA TOWNSEND

PSU Vanguard • FEBRUARY 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

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ARTS & CULTURE

HOW TO

REALLY, REALLY? REALLY! LOVE A WOMAN

AN EROTIC VALENTINE’S DAY COMEDY ON PAYING LIP SERVICE TO THE DIVINE

RAEANA MIKEL

DANA TOWNSEND

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In celebration of the one-year anniversary of her premiere at the Clinton Street Theatre, Eleanor O’Brien of Dance Naked Productions returned to the stage where How to Really, Really? Really! Love a Woman was born. O’Brien’s passionate energy flooded the theatre as she fiercely performed the sex-positive solo show on the very fitting Valentine’s Day evening.

She opened the erotic comedy special with an acknowledgement to the Clinton Street Theater and its continued support for the LGBTQ+ community, with applause from the audience made up of members of Sex Positive Portland, Stand Up Smut and other local inclusive groups. After thanking the owners for donating the space for O’Brien to fundraise for her upcoming performance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, she warned the audience, “Now, this show is gonna get a LOT more explicit!”

As the lights dimmed and the curtains opened, O’Brien’s impressive spirit and vulnerability captivated the audience as she dove into topics such as Goddess worship, the Divine Feminine and how they have inspired her sexual encounters so far.

O’Brien called out, “Who here has worshipped some pussy today?!” as a bowl of Hershey kisses made its way around the audience for those who had paid their service to the Divine.

Another bowl of packets of lube was passed as an offering for those who had worshipped their own pussies at some point that day—a reverse tithing of sorts, because, “as you know, the Goddess helps those who help themselves!”

PSU Vanguard • FEBRUARY 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

In the first attempt of incorporating her new GIF-making skills into her performance, images of prehistoric goddesses, ancient cave art depicting worship of a female figure, labia, breasts and female divine figures adorned the screen.

O’Brien admitted to the audience, “I used to think that the whole Goddess Movement was just sorta cheesy, faux-feminist, Pier 1-manufactured bullshit.” This was until she came to what she refers to as her Great Awakening, in which she learned of the history of united worship of the Goddess.

She began to touch on the massive cultural shift from worshipping the Divine Feminine to denying the acknowledgment of the power of female pleasure on a large scale.

“I’m talking about the life-changing magic of going down and paying lip service to the Divine,” O’Brien said. “I’m talking about eating pussy.”

O’Brien dove into the postitive and negative personal experiences of oral sex she had received over the years with intimate detail. She eventually came to describe her first sexual encounter with a woman and how great of an impact it had on her spirituality and on her worship of the Goddess.

O’Brien also spoke on heavy topics in today’s society such as the stigma surrounding sex and female pleasure, the impact this stigma has on how we express and suppress our sexuality as a culture and unpacking sexual trauma. She expressed the shame and embarrassment she has experienced surrounding her own body and sexuality throughout her life as a woman.

“Like many of you, I grew up in a time before the ‘Great Awakening,’” O’Brien said “When I was growing up, the cultural message around sex and relationships could pretty much be summed up in three words: Boy gets girl. Boy asks, girl resists. Boy pushes, girl gives in.” “‘No’ means ‘maybe.’ ‘Maybe’ means ‘yes.’ ‘Yes’ is never a girl's first answer, and ‘no’ is just something to overcome.”

O’Brien mentioned the impact the #MeToo movement has had on our society and the desperate need we have to acknowledge something is fundamentally wrong with the ways we approach sexuality as a whole. She calls for a shifting of the paradigms we are exposed to and a reclamation of our bodies, pleasure and the importance of consent in all encounters.

After the show, a panel of sex-positive community members were invited to the stage to answer audience questions.

On the panel was Sally Eck, a professor of Women’s Studies at Portland State.

Among the questions asked was, “are clitoral or vaginal orgasms more common?” While several of the board members suggested clitoral orgasms were personally the answer to their big O’s, there was not a one-size-fits-all answer, as everyone’s body responds differently to a variety of stimuli. One panel member mentioned that the debate is obsolete due to new findings discovering that parts of the clitoris extend around the vagina, making the answer unclear.

As the questions continued to pour in, the curtains closed and lights turned on—no pun intended—signaling the racy night was coming to an end. As valentines, singles and groups alike poured out of the theatre, O’Brien left the audience with one request—“Now go home and practice!”

OPINION

FRICTIONLESS SHOPPING:

AMAZON GOES

FULL DYSTOPIAN IAN STOREY No courtesy clerks, no greeters and best of all, no cashiers: Amazon presents AmazonGo, where shopping is “frictionless.”

Google defines frictionless shopping as purchases made from a smartphone app, bringing shoppers inside the smartphone. Not exactly the stuff of dreams but instead a logical endpoint, the triumph of not filling a need but fulfilling needs we didn’t yet know we had.

“Time and Space died yesterday. We are already living in the absolute, since we have already created eternal, omnipresent speed!”—Amazon’s “frictionless” vision wholeheartedly embraces the ramblings of the Futurist manifesto. The company has concocted a way to speed up the consuming ritual by cutting out the “friction.”

Friction in the tech company’s lexicon, of course, means people.

I made it a point to visit the AmazonGo store in Seattle for the same reason that anyone does: to satiate my curiosity. The draw behind this store is that a shopper can walk in, pick up a sandwich

BRANDON PAHNISH

and walk out. Whatever they pick up will be automatically charged to the card in their pocket without said card ever having to leave their pocket. Does it really work?

I had a sandwich wrapped in plastic and then cardboard and then more plastic and a plastic bottle of water too; it’s just as they say.

Every shopper came for the same reason, to gawk at the absurdity of it and share pics on social media. However, unlike Powell’s books or

other one-of-a-kind sites where selfie takers frequent, Amazon and companies like it are hoping to make this kind of thing normal.

Blocks away, the antithesis to AmazonGo lies against a hill and has for decades. As we entered and then left Amazon’s machine with unimaginable smoothness, we decided to stretch our legs a little and walk to Pike Place Market. Flowers were on display, and we negotiated space through crowds of people flowing through the old market the way humans do when they come together, like water. The fishmongers throw fish and with each slippery heave and catch a group of children clap and yell with boisterous delight. To the side, a seasoned fish thrower coaches the new guy on their product from the Pacific Northwest.

The place has a smell. The floor is lumpy at some points and slippery at others. My friend and I found a grocery store at the end of the building and closely inspected its beer selection. We took turns exclaiming our own takes on one of craft beer’s most incredible victories: the introduction of spruce tips to ale. All of this had the effect of postponing our trip to the cash register.

“Friction” if you want to call it that.

Needless to say, there’s more going on in Pike’s than eating and drinking. AmazonGo and Pike Place Market can both exist on the streets of our cities, and to be sure, in some instances, Amazon’s feed bag makes more sense than Pike Place Market. But in my opinion, one is far more beneficial than the other and in ways that are hard to quantify.

Why does tech get away with calling human interaction “friction”?

That same day, the story broke that Microsoft will be teaming up with Albertson’s to provide a “frictionless” shopping experience. Online shopping shows exponential growth.

Make no mistake, people want convenience.

But what if we’re sleepwalking into it?

The jaded view of Pike Place is as something akin to Amazon’s perfected consumer ritual and to write it off as yet another form of consumerism. That may be, but I challenge the skeptic to not feel something more than eating and drinking when a fishmonger heaves a slippery fish to another and with each miraculous catch a group of school children roars with joy.

Pike Place has a story; its uses are many and its frictions spurn yet more stories. People have found ways to pull narratives out of AmazonGo’s closest cousin, the convenience store, yet when you compare the two, the convenience store seems alien, it has more in common with the marketplace than the frictionless grocery store.

The difference is at AmazonGo, there is no one to tell you to leave; but why would you stay?

PSU Vanguard • FEBRUARY 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

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OPINION

TROLLING FOR DOLLARS RIGHT-WING CELEBRITIES TURN OUTRAGE INTO SALARIES

KATHRYN BRAVO Kaitlin Bennett and other right-wing YouTube celebrities are making careers on staging outrage and spreading deliberate hate on college campuses.

Imagine one day walking through campus and seeing a woman with an M-4 rifle strapped to her back. Strange, right? Well, that’s what Kaitlin Bennett did after she graduated from Kent State University to protest their gun-free campus policies. After going viral on Twitter and being forever dubbed the “Kent State Gun Girl,” Bennett continued to express her disapproval for liberal politics by joining the infamous Alex Jones and his team at InfoWars.

Bennett once again started trending on Twitter for talking to random students on college campuses. In a video titled “College students have no morals” for her Youtube channel called Liberty Hangout, Bennett is seen going up to college students and asking questions like “Should we take money out of the school budget to put tampons in the men’s bathroom for men who have periods?” or “Should we put urinals in the women’s bathrooms for women who have penises?” referring to issues some people have with trans men and women using whichever bathroom matches their identity.

Knowing that she was obviously trying to get a reaction out of them, many of the students replied with comments like “yes, absolutely,” and “if there’s money in the budget, I don’t see why not.”

Shocked that a lot of people didn’t seem to be phased by the idea of being inclusive towards people in the LGBTQ+ community, Bennett decided to switch up her tactics and claimed, “We don’t live in a racist society. I see different colors of people all around me, everyday.”

After that comment, a bewildered student responded by stating that “mass incarceration, the prison industrial complex and the military industrial complex are perpetuated on the notion that black and brown bodies are less than white bodies.”

That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Bennett being disrespectful and hateful toward certain people. But it begs the question: are Bennett and other right-wing YouTube stars really making a living off of staging outrage and spreading hate on college campuses?

Why hasn’t Bennett brought her tour over to the West Coast? How would students react if one day she decided to come and walk around Portland State asking homophobic and racist questions?

One could only imagine what Bennett’s reaction would be when she saw the 70 all-gender bathrooms located throughout campus.

The only real goal on her agenda is to try and spark a reaction out of liberal students to get content for her YouTube channel so she can make more money. She has moved past using her questions as a means for genuine discussion and has turned into a full on internet troll.

DANA TOWNSEND

HAVE YOU HEARD?

THE LEISURE EDITION

DANA TOWNSEND

14

AJ EARL

Hey, Vikings! Have you heard about all the delays in hotly anticipated big name video game releases? Final Fantasy VII, Cyberpunk 2077—the stars are no longer aligned for timely releases! And we were so so good this time, even. Alas, that’s the way it goes I suppose. I could go on and on about waiting and waiting for releases (Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls) but that doesn’t make releases happen sooner! Anyway…

Did you know that there is a movement to make video games more inclusive and accessible? Websites such as accessible.games have worked to create guides for best practices, and major console creators such as Microsoft have released accessible, adaptive controllers. Making a concerted effort to include all gamers regardless of ability should be a top-level concern for studios, producers and other devs. This process isn’t just limited to game-specific technologies, even virtual reality tech needs a little bit of help when it comes to accessibility.

If you want to play video games, there’s no better place than the Viking Gameroom, by the way. Located in the basement of Smith Memorial Student Union, the Gameroom has a variety of rentables for your gaming enjoyment. There’s also a fighting game club called, you guessed it, the Fighting Game Club. Portland State’s competitive gaming scene is fairly robust, and Vanguard has covered players in years past. Tournaments around Smash Brothers, Tekken and other fighting games have always been huge so it’s no surprise to see such contests at PSU. Have you heard that Final Fantasy XIV is the top massively multiplayer online role-playing game in the ranking list in my

PSU Vanguard • FEBRUARY 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

head? I’m a bit biased; I love FFXIV. I play on Behemoth and Coeurl. Accessibility in this game is fantastic, including colorblindness settings and various methods of sound and subtitle enhancement. A colorblindness setting might not seem important, but color is a major tool for displaying information in video games: life/health bars, warning icons and even the names above friend and foe.

Moving on, have you heard that PSU’s Campus Rec Center is celebrating 10 years of offering a place to work out with classmates? It’s true! As a part of this celebration, Campus Rec is offering a deal on personal training until the end of the month of February and an indoor triathlon on Feb. 27.

Meanwhile, Outdoor Programs at Campus Rec continue to offer more chances to get out into the wild this term, including an upcoming trip to Smith Rock in Central Oregon.

Campus Rec also has an amazing inclusive recreation program. Try hand-operated cardio, or request velcro straps to help you with certain weight training equipment or hop in the pool gently with a lift. LGBTQ+ rec programs and those for women and veterans are organized under inclusive rec.

Wheelchair sports are also scheduled regularly, with open inclusive sports hours held each week.

Finally, here’s a reminder that taking some time away from work and study is important for well-being. Ohio State University points out that leisure time has mental health benefits, including decreased depression. Harvard Medical School suggests that activities like gardening, golfing and other moderate fitness activities are powerful in combating risk of heart disease.

SPORTS

THE LAST REAL GYM

IF ROCKY WERE FROM PORTLAND, HE’D WORK OUT AT LOPRINZI’S

IRON AND STEEL ARE SHOVED INTO EVERY CORNER OF THE SPACE. IF THERE’S ROOM, THERE’S IRON. HERE, A PULLY-BENCH STANDS OUTSIDE THE WOMEN’S RESTROOM AND OUTSIDE THE UPSTAIRS LOFT. ALEX WITTWER/PSU VANGUARD

IAN STOREY “75 pounds here feels like 200 pounds anywhere else.” This is a common refrain from a member of Loprinzi’s Gym, one of America’s oldest fitness centers.

“It’s what makes this place different,” he said. “That and the smell.”

He was right; it doesn’t smell like the plastic of 24 Hour Fitness, but it doesn’t reek of sweat either.

That smell is something congealed in the cracks of the building’s mint green cement floors. A solution of lifter’s chalk, Bengay, flecks of iron, chunks of rubber and sweaty patina mixed together by bodies roaming through stale air. Loprinzi’s smells like the last real gym.

Founded in 1948 by Portland fitness royalty, Loprinzi’s gets its name from “Portland’s fittest family.” The Loprinzi’s were the sons and daughters of an Italian produce salesman, and many of them would go on to become Portland fitness icons in their own rights. In fact, the fitness wing of the Multnomah Athletic Club was named after Joe Loprinzi to commemorate his work and dedication to sport and health.

Helmed by Joe’s brother, Sam Loprinzi, the gym was built from the ground up. One of the first athletic clubs in the United States, Sam and his family would even construct some of the machines and weight sets at Loprinzi’s themselves.

A STATIONARY BIKE USED FOR EXERCISE SITS IN THE LOFT THAT ONCE WAS THE LOPRINZI’S BEDROOM. ALEX WITTWER/PSU VANGUARD

The old house-turned-gym hosts swimming classes, dance, karate and anything else that can be dreamed up in the service of good health.

Bob Hill has owned Loprinzi’s for the last 25 years and has seen to it that the gym remains unchanged. “I used to come here and work out with Sam when I was in high school,” Hill said. “There’s something about working out here. It’s a community and a history. We don’t have contracts or initiation fees. We are a gym dedicated folks come to work at.”

Loprinizi’s walls house the world’s first mass-produced Nautilus exercise machines and a collection of free weights that today look more like cartoon novelties than actual muscle-building tools.

The old Nautilus bench—bright red cushions with silver and rusted bars set at an incline angle—was unlike any other. Some of the metallic sheen has flaked off, but all things considered, it still looked good.

The walls themselves are adorned with photos of history’s professional bodybuilders, each with an autograph, and some alongside the gym’s original owner, Sam Loprinzi himself. Among them is none other than Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Today, Hill and his family continue to preserve Portland’s fitness legacy as a landmark and a one-ofa-kind place to work out.

HERE, THE IRON DOESN’T LIE TO YOU. IT IS UNMOVING UNLESS YOU MOVE IT AND UNBENDING UNLESS YOU WILL IT TO BEND. A MAN DOES TRICEP EXERCISES ON A BENCH. ALEX WITTWER/PSU VANGUARD

A MAN PREPARES TO DEADLIFT 300 LBS. UNLIKE MODERN GYMS WHICH FILL THEIR ROOMS WITH EXPENSIVE AND BYZANTINE-LIKE MACHINES, LAPRINZI’S IS FILLED WITH RAW IRON AND STEEL BARS—A TESTAMENT TO THE ART OF EXERCISE. ALEX WITTWER/PSU VANGUARD

PSU Vanguard • FEBRUARY 18, 2020 • psuvanguard.com

15

Jordan Cagle

FEB 18–24 ART

MUSIC

FILM & THEATRE

COMMUNITY

TUE FEB 18 WED FEB 19 THU FEB 20 FRI FEB 21 SAT FEB 22 SUN FEB 23 MON FEB 24

ART AND RACE MATTERS PORTLAND ART MUSEUM 10 A.M.–5 P.M. $17–20 A series of works from Robert Colescott that explore Black representation in fine art through the ‘70s and ‘80s.

SON DE CUBA PORTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE ROCK CREEK CAMPUS 7:30 P.M. FREE Experience Music series shines a light on the sounds of Son de Cuba.

‘HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH’ ELLYN BYE STUDIO AT THE ARMORY 7:30 P.M. $25 AND UP Off-Broadway musical turned hit independent film makes its way back to Portland.

WOMEN AND TRANS BIKE NIGHT! BIKE FARM 4:30–7 P.M. FREE Fix your own bike in a female friendly environment.

HAVE A SEAT UNIONKNOTT 8 A.M.–8 P.M. FREE Larry Yes, Portland-based artist and folk singer/songwriter, brings us a collection of new work.

YOLA ALADDIN THEATER 8 P.M. $22–24 English country, soul and roots rock singer/songwriter Yola Carter comes to Portland.

‘ALYAM, ALYAM / OH THE DAYS!’ PCC CASCADE 7 P.M. FREE The first ever Moroccan film to be selected at the Cannes Film Festival is presented at PCC as the African Film Heritage Series continues.

CITY COUNCIL MEETING CITY HALL 9:30 A.M. FREE Ted will be there.

ABSENCE OF MYTH UPFOR GALLERY 11 A.M.–6 P.M. FREE A series of works spanning across different disciplines from Singapore/ London-based artist Iyvone Khoo.

LED ZEPPELIN 2 STAR THEATER 9 P.M. $15 Zeppelin is back, baby.

‘GAO, RESISTANCE OF A PEOPLE’ PCC CASCADE 7 P.M. FREE Documentary following the resistance of young freedom fighters as they liberate their city from armed Islamist occupiers.

BLACK CELEBRATION MONTH: ALGORITHMS OF OPPRESSION REED COLLEGE, VOLLUM LECTURE HALL 6:30 P.M. Dr. Safiya Noble talks about how tech often discriminates against people of color, and especially women of color.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE SAID: HALLIE FORD FELLOWS OF THE VISUAL ARTS DISJECTA NOON–5 P.M. FREE A collection of work from Oregon artists who have won the Hallie Ford Fellowship.

KARL DENSON’S TINY UNIVERSE CRYSTAL BALLROOM 8 P.M. $25–30 Jazz saxophonist, flutist, and vocalist is back in Portland.

‘MABATA BATA’ PCC CASCADE 7 P.M. FREE A film that follows a young boy with dreams of going to school but is unable to as he has to take care of his Uncles oxen herd. Magical events ensue.

TGIF 9 BALL TOURNAMENT LOCAL 66 BAR AND GRILL 7 P.M. FREE • 21+ So, you think you are good at pool?

GREEN FLASH WHERE THE GRASS GROWS GREENER AMPERSAND GALLERY & FINE BOOKS 11 A.M.–5 P.M. FREE Ten new pieces from Portland artist Dennis Foster.

BONE THUGS-N-HARMONY ROSELAND THEATER 8 P.M. $26–40 • 21+ What more needs to be said?

‘NIGERIAN PRINCE’ PCC CASCADE 7 P.M. FREE Nigerian-American high schooler Eze is sent to live with his aunt in Lagos, Nigeria where he can hopefully get out of trouble and in touch with his African roots.

IGNITING VOICES: CELEBRATING TRANS & NONBINARY STORIES & LIVES ELIOT CENTER 3–6 P.M. $30 SLIDING SCALE Trans/nonbinary people share true stories from their lives. There will be a community marketplace after the event.

EBULLIENCE GALLERY 114 12 P.M.—6 P.M. FREE Work from artists involved in the Portland Art and Learning Studio.

NEW HERE THE RANGER STATION 8 P.M. $5 • 21+ Great indie-folk music headed up by queer singer/songwriter Mackenzie Hilmes.

‘DE CIERTA MANERA’ FIFTH AVENUE CINEMA 3 P.M. $5 GENERAL ADMISSION / FREE FOR STUDENTS 1959 film written and directed by Sara Gomez, one of the few films written and directed by a black woman in this time.

KARAOKE NIGHT TRIPLE NICKEL 8 P.M. FREE • 21+ Show them what you got!

HEATHER GOODWIND CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 12 P.M–12 A.M. FREE A series of new paintings from Portland based artist Heather Goodwind.

OMAR SOSA, YILIAN CANIZARES: AGUAS TRIO THE OLD CHURCH 7:30 P.M. $25 Afro-Cuban/Western classical music/jazz brought to you by pianist Omar Sosa and violinist-vocalist Yilian Canizares.

‘THE WIZ’ HOLLYWOOD THEATRE 7:00—9:45 P.M. FREE TICKETS AVAILABLE “Public office is the last refuge of the incompetent!”

THE MOVIE QUIZ HOLLYWOOD THEATRE 9:30 P.M. FREE Come and put your movie knowledge to the test.