Daily Vanguard May 26, 2010 by Portland State Vanguard

WEDNESDAY, MAY 26, 2010 • PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY • VOLUME 64, ISSUE 115

Event of the day A free showing of the film Made in LA will be shown as part of the Roots Festival. The documentary follows the story of three Latina immigrants working in Los Angeles garment sweatshops while struggling to win basic labor protections from a trendy clothing retailer. The film will be followed by a discussion.

When: 5:30 p.m. Where: SMSU Multicultural Center

WWW.DAILYVANGUARD.COM • FREE

INSIDE NEWS

Agents for a day

Are fountains folly? Portland State fountains rarely run and are expensive to maintain PAGE 2

ARTS

Mixing art and life Free Life Center emphasizes creativity in art PAGE 4 Robert Britt/Portland State Vanguard

Knock, knock: From left to right (in the vests) are accounting students Matthew Prentice, Catherine Willey, Patrick Mok and Carla Ikehara.

Accounting students play the part of IRS special agents in Adrian Project Tearin’ it up Laurelwood NW Public House reopens after renovations PAGE 5

OPINION

Operation goes too far Explicit material given to elementary students PAGE 6

Robert Britt Vanguard staff

“Police with a warrant—open up,” Matthew Prentice shouted outside of a classroom door in the School of Business Administration last Friday afternoon. Moments later, the door with a sign that read “Cheaters Bar ‘N Grill” opened and Prentice pushed past the man opening the door.

ASPSU changes hiring method to mirror professional practice

Prentice led a team of “federal agents” in body armor inside to serve a search warrant on the bar’s owner, who was accused of hiding earnings from the IRS. Prentice, a senior majoring in accounting, and the rest of the team were very familiar with the man who opened the door. They had been following him all day—building a mock case against him through investigation and surveillance. The team even used undercover work, complete with hidden cameras and microwave transmitters. The scenario was just one of several that about 30 Portland State

accounting students ran through that day as part of an IRS outreach program dubbed the “Adrian Project.” Led by IRS Special Agent Debra Meyer, the event immersed students in the life of agents working for the IRS Criminal Investigation unit, a specialized arm of the IRS that investigates white-collar crimes. “We make the students agents for a day,” Meyer said. “Today we have five ongoing investigations: a drug dealer, a bar owner that’s skimming, a questionable refund, a fraudulent tax preparer and a gambler not reporting winnings.”

Meyer, a Portland State alumna and IRS agent since 1987, said the program is designed to spread the word about what IRS criminal investigators do and also lets students know that working for the IRS doesn’t necessarily mean sitting behind a desk all day. About 150 accounting majors graduate from the School of Business Administration each year, many of whom want to become certified public accountants, but not all of them. In a city the size of Portland, there are not enough entry-level jobs to absorb all of the school’s graduates anyway, said Dr. Elizabeth Almer, accounting area director with the School of Business Administration. “So increasingly we are trying to open up doors to government jobs for our students. This is a terrific avenue,” she said. When Meyer first approached Almer about bringing the project to PSU, Almer said she was immediately on board and that the event was an “incredibly positive student experience.” In an evaluation, students unanimously rated their experience with the program as being a five out of five. “It not only showed them these alternative careers they may not have thought about, but it provided them with a day of skills enhancement in areas that can benefit them in their careers going forward,” said Almer, who is also the adviser for the accounting student group Beta Alpha Psi. Through the program, students learned about interviewing techniques, background checks and various tax laws. “Even if they don’t go into the IRS, those types of skills are things they would be using in their accounting careers,” Almer said. Catherine Willey, senior, enjoyed playing the part of a federal agent for the day.

AGENTS continued on page three

Hiring by committee

Amy Staples Vanguard staff

In a departure from recent years, ASPSU President-elect Katie Markey and Vice President-elect Selina Poulsen, have decided to hire their administration by committee. According to Markey, hiring committees were formed for each position. Currently, a committee is working on hiring for the chief of staff position. Once an individual is chosen for the position, he or she will be on subsequent hiring committees to help fill the remaining positions. Poulsen is chairing the hiring committees, though Markey makes the final decisions based on the input provided by the committees. After exploring different hiring options, Markey said they decided on hiringby-committee since professional organizations and universities follow a similar process. “I’m really relying on Selina and the hiring committee to use their expertise and their perspective to give me good feedback,” she said.

In the past, the president- and vice president-elect would hire the chief of staff, possibly with input from others close to student government, according to Markey. From there, the president, vice president and chief of staff would form the group responsible for filling the remaining cabinet positions. Markey and Poulsen wanted to do the process differently this year in order to open ASPSU up to the whole campus, Markey said. “Over the past few years, ASPSU has been—and this has been said by a lot of people—very much the same people,” she said. According to Poulsen, she and Markey did not want the “process to take place behind closed doors where the [it] could not be fully explained.” “Starting off our administration by asking for participation from a variety of communities on campus allows for a true representation of

ASPSU continued on page three

Liana Shewey/Portland State Vanguard

It takes a school: ASPSU President-elect Katie Markey is forming hiring committees

for the executive staff.

Vanguard 2 | News May 26, 2010

Sarah J. Christensen Editor-in-Chief Virginia Vickery News Editor Theodora Karatzas Arts & Culture Editor

NEWS

Are fountains folly?

Richard D. Oxley Opinion Editor Robert Britt Sports Editor Bryan Morgan Production Manager Marni Cohen Photo Editor Zach Chastaine Online Editor Kristin Pugmire Copy Chief Kristin Pugmire Calendar Editor Jae Specht Advertising Manager William Prior Marketing Manager Judson Randall Adviser Ann Roman Advertising Adviser Illustrator Kira Meyrick Associate News Editor Corie Charnley Production Assistants Stephanie Case, Justin Flood, Shannon Vincent Post-production Assistant Adiana Lizarraga Contributors Stacy Austin, Will Blackford, Bianca Blankenship, Leah Bodenhamer, Meaghan Daniels, Sarah Engels, Sarah Esterman, Amy Fylan, Courtney Graham, Natalia Grozina, Patrick Guild, Joe Hannan, Rosemary Hanson, Steve Haske, Carrie Johnston, Tamara K. Kennedy, J. Logue, James MacKenzie, Daniel Ostlund, Tanya Shiffer, Wendy Shortman, Robert Seitzinger, Catrice Stanley, Amy Staples, Nilesh Tendolkar, Robin Tinker, Vinh Tran, Andrea Vedder, Katherine Vetrano, Allison Whited, Roger Wightman Photographers Drew Martig, Michael Pascual, Liana Shewey, Adam Wickham Copy Editors Noah Emmet, Amanda Gordon Advertising Sales Sam Gressett, Iris Meyers, Ana SanRoman, Wesley Van Der Veen Advertising Designer Beth Hansen Distributor Cody Bakken The Vanguard is chartered to publish four days a week as an independent student newspaper by the PSU Publications Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers, and do not necessarily represent those of the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. One copy of the Vanguard is provided free of charge to all community members, additional copies or subcription issues may incur a 25 cent charge. The Vanguard is printed on 40 percent post-consumer recycled paper. Copyright © 2010 Portland State University Vanguard 1825 SW Broadway, Smith Memorial Student Union, Rm. S-26, Portland, Ore., 97201

Portland State fountains rarely run and are expensive to maintain Joe Hannan Vanguard staff

Although they are beautiful when in operation, the several fountains around Portland State’s campus are rarely on and constantly leak. Some require expensive maintenance costs. For some fountains to operate, such as the Farewell To Orpheus fountain in the South Park Blocks, the university could face $100,000 in refurbishment costs to meet city standards of sanitation, according to a Facilities and Planning employee who wished to remain anonymous. However, other fountains—like the three-part fountain found in the Urban Plaza— leak and are in constant need of repair. The Urban Plaza fountains have not been running since construction began on the area in the fall of 2009. When tested, the fountains were found to have leaks and broken parts. The needed pumps that help circulate water have been ordered and the fountains will be repaired soon, the employee said. PSU maintains four fountains on a campus: the Walk of Heroines fountain in front of Hoffman Hall,

Farewell To Orpheus: Refurbishment costs could run up to $100,000 to meet city standards.

the fountain outside of the Student Health and Counseling building, a three-part fountain in the Urban Plaza and the Farewell To Orpheus fountain. The employee said that the fountains take a lot of maintenance and require so much work that FAP does not have the staff to keep up. It costs up to $300,000 per fountain to

keep them running every year. The employee said that the amount of money invested does not seem to be worth the end result, which is more maintenance and money. “We have to add chlorine, check carbon dioxide levels and clean them,” he said. “We must treat fountains like a swimming pool.”

All photos by Michael Pascual/Portland State Vanguard

Maintenance costs are not the only setbacks FAC faces to keep the fountains running. The Walk of the Heroines fountain has been vandalized a number of times in the past month. The employee said that dirt and flowers were put into the fountain, resulting in thousands of dollars in damage repairs.

CAMPUS CONNECTIONS News for students, by students

State award to help track educational achievement The National Center for Education Statistics awarded the Oregon Department of Education a $10.5 million grant to help create and implement a statewide database tracking students’ progress from pre-kindergarten through higher education. The database will resemble a giant transcript recording how individual students progress throughout their primary, secondary and higher education and will be used for teachers to better understand how to close the achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students. All schools across the country aim to close the achievement gap in order to meet the federal standards of 2001’s No Child Left Behind act.

“This is great news for Oregon students,” State Superintendent Susan Castillo said in a press release. “This grant allows us to continue our momentum towards building a system to track student progress and help our teachers improve instruction. This is critical in our work in closing the achievement gap.” The grant will supplement the progress already made to create the student information database by helping create connections between early childhood data and data collected on through higher education. The data collected in the database will also be used for matching struggling students with appropriate teachers. “We’ve been trying to track students for years to mark their progress,” education department spokesperson Susanne Smith said. “It’s really important when we’re trying to close the achievement

gap between white students and disadvantaged students. [Disadvantaged students] have higher drop-out rates [and] do poorly. In order to know what they need academically, you have to know where they are in the system.” Smith further explained that the database allows teachers to track how students do over a span of several grades and that it also ties pre-Kindergarten education on through higher education. Smith also said this database could potentially make applying for college easier when it comes to transcripts, because it would be accessed from a single database instead of the registrar’s office receiving one transcript at a time from schools, which Smith described as “time-consuming.” “Right now, the system doesn’t talk to each other very well,” Smith said. “If we were all in one system, it would be seamless.”

Smith also noted that privacy would be held to high standards.   “Anytime you talk to students, you want to make sure that there is privacy and confidentiality,” she said. “This [grant] allows us to create a system that ensures that we’re protecting a student’s privacy and confidentiality.” Oregon was one of 20 states to receive the grant. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico applied for a grant from NCES. Funding for the NCES grant came from President Barack Obama’s $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. NCES awarded a total of $250 million to 20 states. Oregon’s proposed student progress database is set to begin comprehensively tracking students in three years.

–Kaitlin Flanigan, Oregon Daily Emerald

AGENTS |

from page one

Students enjoyed their day as federal IRS agents

Vanguard News | 3 May 26, 2010

News Editor: “As soon as I learned about the project I signed up right away,” Willey said while wearing body armor with “Police” and “IRS CI” emblazoned on the front. “I think it’s been really interesting, learning about all the stuff the IRS has to offer—all the different job opportunities.” Senior Patrick Mok also enjoyed playing the part of law enforcement. “It’s pretty fun,” he said. “And informative, as far as how special agents operate.”

ASPSU |

Special Agent Dan Wardlaw said that one of the main purposes behind Project Adrian is to inform people of what IRS agents do. “The more we make people aware of what we do, the more we can deter crime,” he said. “And deterring crime is better than waiting for crime to occur.” The IRS’s CI unit began in 1919 as the Intelligence Unit, and found fame in the ’30s when it convicted Al Capone for tax evasion and assisted in the solving of the kidnapping of the

from page one

A variety of constituencies are represented in the process PSU and an objective opinion to be formed of each candidate,” she said. Markey said that she and Poulsen go over the applications together, but Poulsen schedules the interviews. The various committees meet and use a rubric created by Markey to guide the interview process. After completing interviews, the committee chooses its top two or three candidates and passes the choices along to Markey, who makes the final decision.

The committee works to evaluate how well the candidates work in a team, as well as how the applicant performs in the interview. ASPSU adviser Domanic Thomas sat on the hiring committee for the chief of staff position for the new administration. “[Markey and Poulsen] went out of their way to professionalize the process and I am very pleased,” he said. In addition, candidates who apply for a position receive valuable

Virginia Vickery 503-725-5690 news@dailyvanguard.com

Robert Britt/Portland State Vanguard

Adrian Project: Students recieve training in handcuffing suspects.

Lindbergh baby. In 1978, the name changed to its present designation, and according to information released by the IRS, in its nearly 100-year existence the unit’s conviction rate for federal prosecutions has never fallen below 90 percent.

Yesterday, an investigation conducted by the local IRS CI unit resulted in the sentencing of Portland resident Reggie Allan Maier, 30, to imprisonment for his role in an identity fraud scheme involving his father and four others.

feedback on their interview, according to Thomas. “I consider a vital part of professional development [to be] to speak with students honestly about how they can prepare themselves better the next time around for these and professional positions,” he said. The hiring committees were organized based on the position and availability of committee members, according to Markey. “We wanted it to be a wide range that really covered PSU and not just student government,” she said. The Women’s Resource Center, the Disability Resource Center, Campus Recreation, advising and Residence Life are all organizations on campus that have promised to send a member to sit on the committee, Markey said. “We’re trying to make sure that

the constituents and the people the position works with the most have a representative on the hiring committee,” she said. Applications are still being accepted for the legislative affairs director, multicultural affairs director and the equal rights advocate until tomorrow, May 27, at 5 p.m. Poulsen said applications are available online and in the ASPSU office on the first floor of Smith Memorial Student Union. Applications must be accompanied by a cover letter and résumé. Markey said that they are still looking for people to sit on committees. “You don’t need political science experience or student government experience. We just need students who care,” she said. “We’re excited to have diverse people involved.”

Correction In the article titled, “New Hires,” The Review’s incoming Editor-in-Chief Jacqueline Treiber’s name was misspelled. In addition, The Review does not address world issues, as reported, but will draw upon more national and international writers. The publication will be geared more towards poetry, but will include fiction and creative nonfiction. Treiber has had copy editing experience, as well as experience with professional and creative writing. The Vanguard regrets its error.

Vanguard 4 | Arts & Culture May 26, 2010

Arts Editor: Theodora Karatzas 503-725-5694 arts@dailyvanguard.com

Big, fat list of shows: Wednesday’s live music lineup Imaginary Airship, Felecia and the Dinosaur, Tim Karplus Band Ash St. Saloon, 9:30 p.m., $5, 21+ Blake Mackey, September 11th Quartet Berbati’s Pan, 9 p.m., free, 21+ Mark Mallman, Mere Mention, Wax Fingers Doug Fir, 9 p.m., $6, 21+ Aan, Jen Moon, Le Fleur Ella St. Social Club, 9 p.m., $5, 21+ Caribou, Toro Y Moi Hawthorne Theater, 8 p.m., $13.50 advance, $15 door, all ages Inside Voices, E.B. Harris and the Afterlife Revival, Pioneer, Tasche De La Rocha, Weaver, Old Friend Holocene, 9 p.m., $5, 21+ Bobby Bare Jr., Kelly Blair Bauman Mississippi Studios, 9 p.m., $12, 21+ In Defence, Puke N Rally, Krix, Chase The Shakes Plan B, 9 p.m., $5, 21+ Future Islands, Fake Drugs, Lower Dens Rotture, 9 p.m., $6, 21+ Water and Bodies, The Forecast, Queens Club, Bright Midnight, Starparty Satyricon, 7:30 p.m., all ages

ARTS & CULTURE Mixing art and life Free life center emphasizes creativity in art Scott Ostlund Vanguard staff

You may have heard of Seth Neefus and Mark Warren Jacques because of their work at the Together Gallery in the Alberta Arts District. Or maybe their names were floated by in one of the local Portland art circles. Either way, local art connoisseurs and new audiences alike will be excited as Neefus and Jacques come to Holocene for a new creative project called Free Life Center. The duo is set to play with musical guests Inside Voices, E.B. Harris and The Afterlife Revival, Pioneer, Tasche de la Rocha, Weaver and Old Friend (the musical project of Neefus and Jacques). The Free Life Center is an opportunity for the artists to bring their creation to the audience. Instead of touring from studio to studio, Neefus and Jacques will create a one of a kind free-standing installation that shows multifaceted art and opens creative avenues. According to Leslie Miller of Pacific Northwest College of Art, the construct is made of “modular materials that can be adapted to suit a variety of configurations,” with each configuration showing a different step in their journey. The space will allow the artists to display at both indoor and outdoor venues on the tour. Evan Harris of E.B. Harris and The Afterlife Revival, who will perform at tonight’s launch, says that the Free Life Center tour will create a great experience for anyone and everyone as they participate in an impressive art project. “I’ve known Mark and Seth for a couple years, and I’ve shown at the gallery a few times,” Harris said. “They are both very talented artists and very ambitious...they’ve built a gallery that they can move around the country, so they can share their

Bit.Trip Runner is a great end to the series, but it’ll put you through your paces Steve Haske Vanguard staff

Gamers that consider themselves knowledgeable about indie console efforts are probably familiar with Gaijin’s Bit.Trip series and, most likely, have been following them avidly since the first of the tetralogy launched in 2009. Here’s a quick primer if you’re not in the above group: Bit.Trip essentially takes the basic mechanics of rhythm games while creating pixelated, retro-chic homages to

Image courtesy of Nintendo

vision with others. It’s such a great idea, they’re bringing their art to the people, but still bringing people to their art.” Harris and his band are looking forward to tonight’s show, and with only one performance under their belt, Harris feels they have an opportunity to get truly plugged into the Portland music community while keeping the show entertaining and fun. “The Afterlife Revival is an extension of my visual art,” Harris said. “So in short, I’m trying to paint a picture with sound, the way I do with a brush. I’ve got a talented group of musicians to back me. They help provide the colors I need to invoke the feeling I’m trying to convey. Providing...cello, viola, violin, trumpet and guitar, we do our best to sing our hearts out.” As proven by Harris as well as Neefus and Jacques, tonight’s show at the Holocene is particularly inspiring because of the multidimensional artists performing. If you arrive for the music you may find yourself remembering the visual experience, yet if your heart connects with the paintings of Neefus or Jacques, it may end up being a new musical outlet that peaks your creativity. The Free Life Center tour launch is an independent opportunity of art that doesn’t come about often. It is a one of a kind chance to plug in to a deeper art community than is evident on first Fridays, local art shows or well known studios around the Rose City. By attending tonight’s launch at Holocene, you will find out the impact a group of artists can have on a community. Join Portland in sending this tour off with support as it shows the other tour destinations what the Northwest does so well: create.

Free Life Center tour launch party Holocene 1001 SE Morrison Tonight, 8 p.m. $5 21+ different eras of gaming. The series’ debut, Bit.Trip Beat, took the essence of Pong and revamped it for the modern age (it was a hell of a lot faster and more frenetic). Core evolved the series into something resembling a tube shooter, and Void took elements of music games and schmups (“bullet hell” horizontal shooters). Given the series’ evolutionary track, then, my money (along with several other people’s) was that Runner, the close of the series, would be a platformer. As it turns out, it wasn’t too far from the truth. Runner has all the components of 2D platforming, but with the trademark on-rails, rhythm-based gameplay that’s been the series’ signature. Bit.Trip has always been about movement—whether lining up a paddle to a single-pixel ball or navigating a pixelated black hole through a level—so Runner’s focus on bipedal motion shouldn’t be a surprise. That said, the game starts in motion and there’s no way to slow down. Since music and rhythm are infused into the series’ design tenets, performing various basic maneuvers (jumping, sliding,

All images courtesy of Free Life Center

Free your mind: Work by Mark Warren Jacques (top) and the large scale freestanding installation that makes up the Free Life Center (middle and bottom).

kicking through obstacles and springboarding from vaulting objects) creates a musical tone. Picking up gold ensures that the right sounds are generated, completing the level’s music, and picking up plus signs enhances the soundtrack from simple clicks and beeps to full-fledged chiptune techno tracks. It’s an addictive part of Runner’s formula, but if you screw up, your rhythm will be off. Unlike in previous entries of the series, though, Runner really takes a hardcore stance on difficulty. Beat, Core and Void all had combo systems dictating both musical rhythm (screw up and you’d only hear the tonal skeleton or metronome beat of a level) as well as health. If you made too many mistakes, you had to start over. Runner works a little bit differently. You’re free to miss gold—that just affects your score and bonus level eligibility—but get hit even once in a level and you’re snapped right back to the beginning. Levels aren’t all that long to begin with, but since the game requires (pretty much) nothing less than perfection of you, Runner can be a game that really requires both skill and patience.

When you’re dashing through a level avoiding any and all obstacles flying at you at not-exactly-slow speeds, trial-and-error becomes a big part of the gameplay. Previous Bit.Trips have been like this, but given that you could make more than one mistake before succumbing to your end, it wasn’t as tough. Runner’s far less abstract world lends itself more to allowing fewer mistakes, but things move at just as fast of a clip. It’s a surprising turn Gaijin took with this final installment, but I suppose if the series is indeed an homage to games of yesteryear, it’s one that seems fitting. Core still reigns supreme as my favorite entry in the series, but if you’re game (and good enough), Runner, much like the rest of the series, should be a no-brainer.

Bit.Trip Runner Aksys Games Wii $8

Vanguard Arts & Culture | 5 April 26, May 21, 2010 2010

Laurelwood NW Public House reopens after renovations

This week at the 5th Ave. Cinema

Bianca Blankenship

Northwest brews: Laurelwood provides a great place for beer lovers to go and enjoy a tasty brew and some delecatable snacks.

After four months of renovation and a torn-up Northwest 23rd Avenue, Laurelwood NW Public House is open again. Those who frequented the pub on Northwest 23rd and Kearney Street before will be happy to find that, aside from the updated menu, little has changed. Results of the renovation are new wood flooring, fresh paint and some kitchen upgrades. The space has otherwise remained the same. It’s still a cozy place to saddle up to the bar—or a table—for drinks, food and friendly service. The big remodeling lies in the menu. The old menu has been replaced by a new one created by Executive Chef Scott Clagett, who has been with Laurelwood only a few months now. The old menu hosted a number of entrees, which mostly went unordered. As a mainly beer-oriented destination, the NW Public House rarely sold entrees and instead served mostly appetizers. The new menu is an array of “tapas”-style foods, as manager Wade Schaible puts it. The smaller plates are a more convenient and more common choice for patrons stopping by for a beer or two. It includes a variety of appetizers, such as poutine and short rib empanadas. Though there is less emphasis on full meals, entrees are still available, only with fewer choices. Happy hour is one time when Laurelwood has plenty to offer its patrons. The menu runs from $2-8 plates and ranges from simple to swanky. Customers can choose from low-budget plates of olives and peanuts to fancier selections like the meat and cheese plate, which includes a rabbit pâté, fennel salami, fruit chutney and more.

Schaible’s favorite choice of the new selection is the short ribs braised in Laurelwood’s Space Stout with roasted shallots, gnocchi, greens and a Rogue River bleu cheese sauce. The four-month renovation took place on adjacent sections of Northwest 23rd Avenue and its sidewalks were ripped apart for construction. The construction process, which took longer than originally projected, caused many problems for businesses on site, sometimes leaving only two feet of walkway for bystanders to use. Some local businesses even shut down as a result. Meanwhile, Laurelwood was ripping out its own floors and revamping its food menu. The Public House was lucky to have remained closed during that time, as business would certainly have been slow. The reopening of the pub last week brought in a large crowd. Most were relieved to find that the space inside has largely remained the same. It still offers a full bar and a relaxed hangout for day or night. NW Public House’s main attraction naturally continues to be the Laurelwood beer. A seasonal release accompanies the newly opened space: Organic Deranger Imperial Red Ale. At 100 IBU, the Deranger is bitter and hoppy but surprisingly balanced. The brew also packs a bigger punch than Laurelwood’s other beer options, ranking at 8.1% ABV. It’s the only beer they serve in a smaller glass. “We call it the stupid juice,” Schaible said, noting that regular patrons seem to tumble off the barstool after a few Derangers. At least there’s plenty of good food for sobering up after that tumble.

Vanguard staff

Visuals: A Community Film Festival

All photos courtesy of Laurelwood

Come watch films submitted by those inside and outside the Portland State University community. With shorts ranging from “my first art film” style projects, to the inevitable skate video, to the creative use of animation, creativity is sure to abound. Support local film and enjoy a cinematic foray off the beaten path of the typical Hollywood blockbuster.

Friday, May 28 at 7 p.m. Fifth Avenue Cinema, 510 SW Hall Free for PSU students. $2 all other students and seniors. $3 general admission. Admission includes free popcorn for all. —5thavenuecinema.org

Vanguard 6 | Opinion May 26, 2010

Opinion Editor: Richard D. Oxley 503-725-5692 opinion@dailyvanguard.com

OPINION Explicit material given to elementary students Robin Tinker

Operation goes too far

Vanguard staff

What do you think? There are problems that affect universities across the country and Portland State University is no exception. Students are all too familiar with the possible outcomes when the university is forced to stretch thin a budget on a campus aiming to please over 27,000 students. Students at the university-level seem to be struggling to find footing or reason for even attending school. Jobs are still hard to come by, even at entry level. The fear of spending thousands of dollars on a college education for a future working at Pita Pit is a very real concern.

Llewellyn Elementary School in southeast Portland made headlines recently for sending home inappropriate reading material courtesy of the Portland Police Department. An annual booklet called “Operation Safe Summer” was given to the school district by the PPD to pass out to the kids. Apparently no one at the school read page 24 before it got into the hands of young children. The booklet is an effort to encourage safe, active and fun activities for kids during the summer to keep them occupied and presumably out of trouble—at least,

pages 1–23 fit that description. The activities in the booklet include events at the Oregon Zoo, the library, Portland Children’s Museum as well as others put on by Portland Parks and Recreation. Joe Alvaro, a father of a 10-year-old child who received the booklet, complained about explicit sexual descriptions appearing on the last page, according to reports on KATU. Page 24, now removed from the booklet, was a warning for parents and older students about Oregon Measure 11 crimes. Measure 11 states that children over the age of 15 who commit certain violent

Frustrations grow as some students struggle with advising and are sometimes left with skeptical decisions to make about the future of their education. Sometimes required or important classes are cancelled unexpectedly. Students aren’t the only ones feeling the stress of the, well, stress. Professors feel the pinch and are taking on extra classes to make their paychecks big enough to get by.

police. What training do they have in age appropriateness? It is unpleasant to think about, but children are victims and perpetrators of violent crimes all the time and it is important that they know about such matters in case they need to take action. Interestingly, no one put up a stink about the violence that was illustrated on page 24—only the sex. Why is the uproar always about sex instead of violence? Why do we shield our children more from something that they will all participate in someday than something we ideally would hope they would never have to deal with? Americans have some skewed perceptions. Schools are supposed to be, and should be, held accountable for what is distributed to students. Was it unexpected that the PPD included Measure 11 in the “Operation Safe Summer” booklet this year? Yes, and I am sure it caught the schools by surprise. However, it is the job of law enforcement to inform the public about crime and crime prevention, which is what they were doing. It is also possible that young children should know about Measure 11 crimes. The responsibility of ageappropriate censorship belongs to those who are entrusted with educating our children, not with police. The school should have reviewed the booklet and either asked for page 24 to be taken out or made less explicit. The PPD should have cooperated with whatever the school district suggested.

time I just don’t see the relevance of the classes I have to take. This term, I’m taking 21 credits, which, as any student can tell you, is essentially social suicide. With rushing from class to class, meeting with other students outside of class to discuss group projects, and the relentless torrent of homework, I spend most of my time getting “educated.” No time for my friends, no time for the ladies and no time to research accommodations for next year. The one thing keeping me sane through all this is the existence of intramural sports and the occasional evening of basketball. Thankfully, my hard work appears to be paying off this term, and I’m projected to finish with a socially acceptable, nice healthy 3.4 GPA. This is important because no matter how irrational the college system is, it’s still a very significant distinction when an individual is being considered for a future job. The U.S. Census Bureau has determined that on average, a college graduate makes $52,200 a year, while a high school graduate makes only $30,400. That’s a difference of $21,800. However, not even that increased salary is guaranteed nowadays. The economic downturn has ensured that the job market stays stagnant, meaning that instead of being able to pick and chose their jobs upon graduation, college students are pitted against each other in a death match of competing resumes. The line separating me from a successful journalism career and a lifetime of bagging groceries at Safeway isn’t as wide as you’d think. I could have that expensive piece of paper framed on my wall and still be flipping burgers at the local Carl’s Jr.

Despite the success on the grade front and the steady progress I’m making toward the all-important graduation, this is easily the most unhappy I’ve been in my two years at the University. My classes are a joke, consisting of pointless questions designed to determine how much of the irrelevant information that’s been force-fed to us we’ve managed to retain. I’m not preparing to join the industry of journalism, I’m paying the salaries of faculty that have been there, done that and bought the T-shirt. The professors aren’t trying to educate me; they’re merely going through the motions so they can earn their paycheck and provide for their own families. The University doesn’t care about me or my journey through higher education; it’s too busy raising parking ticket prices to fund a stadium that will be the new home of a still sub-par basketball team. College is no longer in the business of education; it’s in the business of big business. Rather than focusing on getting the students the tools they need to succeed in the corporate world, it’s instead degenerated into a series of hoops that the average student has to jump through, completing a sequence of random and pointless actions for a piece of paper that supposedly makes them more qualified than a high school graduate. Is this really what being a college student in the 21st century is all about?

Kira Meyrick/Portland State Vanguard

Guest Opinion

Nobody seems totally sure who, if anyone, is to blame anymore, but everyone agrees that a tune-up could probably do the system some good. Write us a letter and tell us what you think should be done to improve the university system.

The devaluation of education Thomas Kyle-Milward Daily Emerald

Letters to the editor are gladly accepted and should be no longer than 300 words in length. Submissions may be edited for brevity and vulgarity. E-mail letters to opinion@ dailyvanguard.com.

crimes will be tried as adults and states mandatory sentences for each crime committed. According to www. crimevictimsunited.org, the 24 crimes listed in the measure include arson, robbery, assault, sexual abuse, murder, rape and kidnapping. Page 24 of “Operation Safe Summer” included warnings about committing these types of crimes and allowing others to commit them as well as short descriptions of what the crimes are. The propriety of this for grade school children is questionable—and it is also questionable how much of the language they could even comprehend. Since blaming the police bureau for everything is the trend lately, many people jumped on board and pointed their fingers at the PPD. However, this time the blame should fall on the school. Matt Shelby, a spokesman for the Portland Public School System, told The Oregonian that the principals of each school decide whether to distribute materials and to which grade levels. Obviously, no one of authority at Llewellyn Elementary paged through the booklet to see what exactly was being passed out to the children—something that would have probably taken about five minutes. Shelby also said that the district does not review material given for students by a city agency and was quoted as saying, “I think we think that...the Police Bureau would understand age-appropriate content.” Really? Because it seems like that would be a job for school administrators and educators, not

When I was a child, my parents were always there with a nugget of wisdom or piece of advice to help me through difficult times or struggles. They impressed upon me that no matter what the current hardship was, life would get better down the line. One of the more frequent things my mum would say to me whenever I was complaining about the latest high-school injustice was that “your college years will be the best years of your life.” As the end of my second year approaches, that promise has so far rung surprisingly hollow. For me, it’s been a long, senseless grind toward a distant light at the end of the tunnel—the blinders keep me focused on that diploma. It’s a pre-programmed course, set to take me over the same path that the multitudes before me have traveled. I’m nestled into a bogus environment, created for the sole purpose of taking the money of

students while teaching them next to nothing. The nirvana of open minds and fascinating subject matter I had hoped and expected to discover turns out to be just a mindless stepping stone. My family was a close-knit group when I was growing up, and I consider myself a “family man.” I regret not being there for my little sister’s basketball games and being unable to take Mum out for breakfast on Mother’s Day. So I stay in touch the way any other distant relative would, via phone conversations and e-mail. Apart from drinking in the sounds of much-loved voices, every call I get from my parents or the rest of the real world seems to consist of mostly gloomy news: John lost his job; the Smiths are getting divorced; Bill was taken by cancer. Locked into the perfect little dream world that is the college experience, being funded by a scholarship that I was lucky to receive, I’m removed from the realities of life and the troubles and concerns of my community. All that matters is collecting the expected, predetermined marks that will eventually allow me to graduate. I’m an average student. I have decent smarts, but 90 percent of the

*This article was originally printed in the Daily Emerald. It is reprinted here in its original form.

etc.

CALENDAR

The New York Times Syndication Sales Corporation 500 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 For Release Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Read the Vanguard

Edited by Will Shortz Across 1 Resell quickly, as a house 5 No longer insure 9 Native to 13 Passed-down stories 14 Voodoo accessories 16 Flintstonesʼ pet 17 Scary figure 18 Conclude 19 Med school subj. 20 Garden intruders 22 Denverʼs ___ University 24 Command to Rex 25 Ones flying in formation 27 Driveway applications 29 Rigel or Spica 32 Thérèse, for one: Abbr. 33 Pioneer in instant messaging 34 Protection: Var.

ANSWER A T C O

L A H R

R E C D

O S H A

A G A T E

U R G E S

A R A B

S T R I P S E P I C C H E A G U I D R L S

36 Himalayan legends 40 Easy way of pulling in … and a hint to the six circled words 44 2005 documentary subtitled “The Smartest Guys in the Room” 45 Orderly 46 Word for word? 47 U.S. Dept. of Justice raiders 49 Items for urban dog-walkers 52 Toga go-withs 56 Pound and others 57 “What ___ the chances?” 58 Day spa facial procedures 60 “___ the Sheriff” (Eric Clapton hit) 63 Watch from a hidden position 65 Half of a giant 1999 merger

67 ___-shanter 68 International shoe company 69 Skit collection 70 Composer Khachaturian 71 Lucyʼs love 72 Counterparts of dahs 73 Belgrade native

Down 1 Rap component, to a rapper 2 Special seating area 3 Asymmetric 4 River with its source in the Appalachians 5 Onetime White House monogram 6 Liberal pundit with a conservative father 7 Shoppe modifier 8 Cord ends 9 Rx overseer 10 Dishwasher cycle TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE 11 Broadcasting 12 Big name in K A A M S O P T S applesauce U P S A Y S R O W L E M A G N E I M A 15 Black and white Mad magazine T O H I O S V E N figures U B L I C D O M A I N 21 Paris possessive R E D S W A T 23 Woodland D I M S O R E C K reveler of myth K E N C H O W M E I N 26 British A G M E N Y A O submachine gun T S P E U G E O T 28 Welsh national S T A M A I N E emblem A G A R A T P A R 29 Wished B R A I D E D M A N E 30 Pork cut A V I D C O A R S E 31 Stirs up T E N S U N D E A D 35 Visits la-la land

21 25

9 15

23 27

31 34

58 64

16 19

22 26

56 59

60 66

67 70

Transgender Legal Issues 1 p.m. Smith Memorial Student Union, room 229 A presentation by Sasha Buchert as part of PSU Pride Week

Puzzle by Peter A. Collins

37 Vacation plan 38 “___ out?” (question to a pet) 39 Some cops: Abbr. 41 Prod 42 Ready for use 43 One-volume encyclopedia range 48 Topps competitor

50 “… ___ quit!” 51 Olive Garden dishes

59 M years before the Battle of Hastings

53 As ___ (usually)

62 Mausoleum

52 Garden dish

Today Native American TwoSpirit Conference 11 a.m. Native American Student and Community Center Prior to contact with Europeans, indigenous Native Americans were not constrained by the strict gender binary most people live with today. This conference focuses on the existence of the Two-Spirit—a person, male or female bodied, who contains two spirits, one masculine and one feminine

No. 0421

Vanguard Etc. | 7 May 26, 2010

61 Epps or Sharif

64 Decorative pond 54 Willy Wonka fish Candy Company brand 66 Super ___ 55 Determined the (1980s-ʼ90s gender of game console)

For answers, call 1-900-285-5656, $1.49 a minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800-814-5554. Annual subscriptions are available for the best of Sunday crosswords from the last 50 years: 1-888-7-ACROSS. AT&T users: Text NYTX to 386 to download puzzles, or visit nytimes.com/mobilexword for more information. Online subscriptions: Todayʼs puzzle and more than 2,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). Share tips: nytimes.com/wordplay. Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/learning/xwords.

It’s pretty.

46th Annual Nina Mae Kellogg Awards 5 p.m. SMSU, room 327 The Kellogg awards in English recognize excellence in student writing in 23 categories from memoir to journalism. This year’s speaker will be Elise Paschen, a poet and literary critic as well as co-founder of Poetry in Motion

Thursday

row and each column ● Each must contain the numbers 1 through 4 (easy) or 1 through 6 (challenging) without repeating.

● The numbers within the heavily outlined boxes, called cages, must combine using the given

Vanguard

operation (in any order) to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners. Fill in single-box ● Freebies: cages with the number in the top-left corner.

Film: Citizen Tanouye 7 p.m. Cramer Hall, room 494 This documentary tells the story of Ted Tanouye, a Japanese-American citizen who fought and died in WWII even as his family and countless other Japanese-American citizens were forcefully relocated to internment camps. Presented by PSU Friends of History as part of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month

5-26-10

Education and LGBT Students 1 p.m. SMSU, room 258 A presentation by Stephanie McBride as part of PSU Pride Week To place an event: Contact vgcalendar@ gmail.com or pick up a calendar request form at the Vanguard advertising office, SMSU, room 115.

The Vanguard Rolling back prices to nothing!

Stop by ad office SMSU 115 for FREE OMSI ‘SPACE’ tickets WHILE SUPPLIES LAST

Vanguard 8 | Arts & Culture May 26, 2010

ART WEDNESDAY

Arts Editor: Theodora Karatzas 503-725-5694 arts@dailyvanguard.com

Tomorrow at the NW Film Center Time in the Minors Tony Okun, US 2009 “Each year approximately 1,500 high school and college graduates are drafted into professional baseball and sent to play in the minor leagues. Trying to make it big is a fiercely competitive task that breaks more than it makes. Boise filmmaker Tony Okun’s Time in the Minors documents a season in the lives of two minor league players on their formidable journey trying to reach the major leagues. John, 19, a high school all-American center fielder from San Diego, is selected in the first round by the Cleveland Indians and offered a million-dollar signing bonus, then struggles to live up to the hype of being a first-round pick. Tony, 28, a sixthround draft pick from Omaha, finally receives an invite to spring training with the Los Angeles Dodgers, after eight years in the minor leagues. For Tony, this may be the last shot at a dream that never dies.” 7 p.m. All screenings are in Whitsell Auditorium, 1218 SW Park Ave. Free with PSU student ID. —nwfilm.org

Image courtesy of Stacey Lynn Brown

Life in the south

Stacey Lynn Brown

Photo courtesy of Salvatore Linotta

A reflection on issues of racism in an epic poem Wendy Shortman Vanguard staff

After a conversation with her new boyfriend whom she now calls husband, Stacey Brown sat down and wrote a poem. The poem she wrote turned out to be far more complex than she would have imagined. “We were talking about the south and he made a statement saying he was never going back to the south again because of racist experiences there—he’s African American,” Brown said. “I thought about how he’d never go to the south to meet my family or see where I grew up.” Brown, who grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, was raised in a Caucasian family that employed an African American caretaker. After moving away from the south and noticing racist themes throughout her childhood, she was surprised when, after talking to her boyfriend, she got defensive and started defending her home. “There’s people in the south that are capable of kindness,” Brown said. “But there’s also an issue of horrible racism.” In her book-length poem, Cradle Song, the author talks about her experiences regarding race relations in her childhood in the south—which wasn’t standard, but still had a lot of stereotypical elements. “There was a lot of collateral damage when looking at that time when predominantly African American women would leave their own children during the day to take care of white children,” Brown said. Brown talks about the confusing elements of race and love the sense of loss and that happens in those situations, as well as the confusion for children on either side of the spectrum. “There’s this sort of racial ignorance and prejudice that was a longstanding dialogue when I was growing up,” Brown said. “I was really struggling with some of the racist signals my family and the older generation were giving me.” When writing her story, Brown focused less on the concrete facts about her childhood and more on her emotional truth about life in the south. Throughout the process,

she found herself grappling with the overarching racist dynamic of the area. “What does it mean to have an African American caregiver?” Brown said. “No one spoke about the irony of being racist and then trusting an African American with their children. I was confused and pulled apart by that.” Brown explains that when she finally left the south—after living there for 23 years—she saw the situation from a different context that changed her entire perspective of race, cultural identity and even family. “The tangled up confusion of race and love and identity are things I grapple with in the book,” Brown said. In addition, significant changes happened in the author’s life between when she wrote the book and the time it was being published. “I also had a child of my own, and once I became a parent the true center of the story wasn’t so much about my relationship with the south, but my relationship with the woman that nurtured me in the south,” Brown said. “My mother and the caregiver made me want to understand what it means when we can and cannot give to each other in relationships.” If there’s one thing Brown wants you to take away from her book, it’s that these issues of race that her and others deal with are not something that are just going to go away. “It’s not a problem that’s going to be solved easily,” Brown said. “It’s a conversation that needs to happen. I just wanted to contribute my experience—my voice—to the conversation.”

Reading with Stacey Lynn Brown Powell’s Books on Hawthorne 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Tonight, 7:30 p.m. Free

FROM CRADLE SONG:

I. When I was four, we drove to Nashville, Grand Ole Opry-bound, and stopped the night at a broken down motel in Tennessee–shag walls, mossy carpet, dank concrete– and I remember standing in the doorway as evening fell, a busful of believers rattling their way to the pool for a makeshift baptism, the Amens and Hear us, Lords ricocheting through the courtyard as underwater lights glowed the pool algae green. They would come to him, the big preacher man, and he’d lay a palm across their foreheads, brace them at the small of their backs. They’d release themselves to him: teethsucking the air before falling back into salvation, held under unstruggling and splashing up anew all gasping grace and sanctified glory hallelujah til my mother shut the door and made me watch tv. My parents don’t recall it, but that’s the way memory works in the South– the truth is always lying in some field somewhere between the bones of the fallen and the weapons they reach for.