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XV
SCIENCE & TECH
IT’S NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM FOR THE BIG ONE
EDITORIAL
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Tanner Todd
MANAGING EDITOR
Brad Le
NEWS EDITOR
Zoë Buhrmaster
ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR
Macie Harreld
SCIENCE & TECH
Kat Leon
SPORTS Laura Kowall
OPINION EDITOR
Nick Gatlin
PHOTO EDITOR
Alberto Alonso Pujazon Bogani
ONLINE EDITOR
Christopher Ward
COPY CHIEF
Nova Johnson
DISTRIBUTION MANAGER
Nick Gatlin
CONTRIBUTORS
Isaiah Burns
Kai Field
Amber Finnegan
Analisa Landeros
Milo Loza
Ian McMeekan
LeeAnn Rooney
Isabel Zerr
P. 6-7
P. 8-9
SPORTS PORTLAND PICKLES PUT A TWIST ON SUMMER BASEBALL
OPINION
P. 10-11
PRODUCTION & DESIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Whitney McPhie
DESIGNERS
Camden Benesh
Mia Waugh
Kelsey Zuberbuehler
TECHNOLOGY & WEBSITE TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS
Rae Fickle
George Olson
Sara Ray
Tanner Todd
PSU STUDENTS DESERVE REAL REPRESENTATION
PHOTO ESSAY MARIACHI IN THE PARK
P. 13
P. 12 SENATE BILL 614 GOES TOO FAR
P. 14 -15 EVENTS CALENDAR
P. 16
ADVISING & ACCOUNTING
COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA
Reaz Mahmood STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT
Maria Dominguez
STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR
Rae Fickle
To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com
MISSION STATEMENT
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.
ABOUT
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 Wednesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.
For more information, email editor@psuvanguard.com
HAVE A STRONG OPINION ABOUT CURRENT PORTLAND EVENTS? SHARE IT!
We have revived our “Letters to the Editor,” a recurring Opinion feature that publishes and spotlights voices from around PSU, as well as the larger community of Portland, Oregon. This is a section devoted to spotlighting the opinions and feelings of our readsers, rather than the writers and contributors in our newsroom, and we welcome submissions from anyone. We’re particularly interested in perspectives related to current Portland events and community issues, as well as circumstances that impact the Pacific Northwest overall. We’d also love to hear your thoughts on stories we’ve covered—if you have a strong opinion about something we’ve reported, write us! We’ll happily read your submissions.
To share your letters for publishing consideration, email your thoughts to opinion@psuvanguard. com with the heading LETTER TO THE EDITOR, followed by your subject line.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
The Vanguard Editorial Staff
Each term, students spend $22 per credit on all online courses. This is separate from the base tuition and is used to fund the unique factors that go into conducting online courses, such as specialized faculty training and the costs of up-to-date technology.
The fee for online courses was initially $35 per credit hour, but was brought down to $22 per credit in the fall of 2022. The previous and the current fee is charged only for courses that are fully online, excluding hybrid, remote and attend-anywhere classes.
For many students, the fee provides another financial hurdle to jump through. Yet some don’t have a choice when it comes to registering for classes offered solely online that are required for their degree. And if classes aren’t using the physical resources that in-person courses do, what do the fees fund?
Marc Faustine is in his senior year studying business here at Portland State. He’s taken some online courses that are required for his major, including supply chain management, principles of marketing and business technology.
“I think the course fees are a lot considering that sometimes it feels like you are just working off of assigned tasks which look over things that don’t involve any of PSU’s resources,” Faustine said. Faustine isn’t the only student confused about what services online fees support. Other students, including Joal Zaragoza and Alex Purtle—human resources and psychology students respectively—expressed similar incertitude.
Zaragoza began at PSU during the pandemic, when nearly all classes were taught online. “I’ve taken most of my business classes and communication classes [online],” Zaragoza said. “Even though the fees are a lot, I don’t really know where [they’re] going.”
Purtle has taken six courses online so far in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree. “I don’t know where the funds are going,” Purtle said. “I don’t think there should be a fee for online classes. Remote classes are indeed a lot more difficult to teach and/or attend… I applaud the teachers who are able to teach these classes.”
At $22 per online course, the fees quickly add up. For some, it’s enough to play a role in deciding which classes to take.
“Yes I have, especially in the summer,” Zaragoza said in response to whether they had taken the fees into consideration
when deciding whether or not to register for a class.
“I have taken fees into account and some of them are quite outrageous,” Purtle said.
The most recent fines & fees approval report marks July 1, 2022. In the report, the Student Fee Committee, PSU’s board of trustees and President Percy approved online learning fees for up to $35 per credit in all online courses. The school, however, currently only charges $22 per credit due to a town hall held in the fall of 2022.
According to the July report, this fee “includes costs associated with administration, residency, online class support, library access, non-traditional course formats, and technology support.”
Dom Chen is the vice chair of the Student Fee Committee , an organization within ASPSU that manages mandatory fees charged to university students. The money from online course fees tends to cover multiple costs to online courses, Chen said, such as licensing for Zoom or the upkeep of digital systems.
ONLINE COURSES ARE AN EXPENSIVE VENTURE, AND FINDING
AN EQUITABLE SOLUTION IS A COMPLEX ENDEAVORTHE THREE MODELS UNDER REVIEW. COURTESY OF ALEX SAGER AND MICHELLE GIOVANNOZZI
“We decided to get on this online fee committee… where we would get together and talk about how exactly we could make this thing equitable,” Chen said.
The event she is referencing is a virtual town hall meeting the Student Fee Committee and Office of Academic Innovation held in Feb. 2022, titled Remaking the Online Fee . The Associate Vice Provost for Academic Innovation Michelle Giovannozzi led the meeting.
“We want to ensure that… PSU’s online and flexible courses are designed and taught to the latest and highest standards for student success, supported with staff and infrastructure,” Giovannozzi said at the 2022 town hall. “To do this, it takes intentional design, expertise and resources that need to be funded in a sustainable way.”
Specialized training is required to prepare faculty to conduct classes online, thus a large portion of the funds from course fees are spent on it.
“Some of these costs as you may see do not directly relate to the online fee,” Giovannozzi said at the town hall. “That’s one of the challenges that we’re hoping to address, and some of those expenses or areas covered may need to shift.”
During the meeting, the academic budget office and Student Fee Committee town hall addressed the concerns related to the then $35 mandatory fee per credit hour of online courses.
“There are several flaws that come up with the current structure,” Chen said. “Some students avoid taking classes because of this fee… students who [attend] remotely pay disproportionate fees. I have come across a couple students who are completely online because they’re out of state. Those are examples of students who have to pay the fee.”
The biggest criticism levied against the traditional course fees were how they impacted fully online students more than anyone else. Over and over, the concept of equity arises when making these sorts of decisions. Policymakers within faculty, administration and the student body must weigh the needs of the university with the needs of its students, and that leads to complex discussions about what to do.
“There was real concern that we were putting a disproportionate burden on some of our more vulnerable students,” said Dr. Alex Sager, a university studies professor, at the meeting.
At the town hall, three different models for a restructuring of online course fees were reviewed.
The fee previously stood at $35 per credit hour for all fully online courses. The first of the two new models suggested a new mandatory fee of $8.15 per credit hour be applied to all courses
being attended at PSU, regardless of modality. The second model suggests that a course fee of $20.50 per credit hour be applied to all courses that are not fully in-person, which includes remote, hybrid and attend-anywhere courses.
“The biggest [question regarding] equity was… is it equitable for students to be paying a fee whether they benefit from it or not, so that everybody [has access to these courses]?” Chen said in regards to charging students for services they may not be utilizing.
The mandatory fee model echoes other fees of the same nature that are already in place, such as building and incidental fees
The decision on how exactly online fees are going to operate in the future, however, is still under review as the university works to restructure this system. According to PSU’s webpage on online schooling, “This change to the online course fee is an interim step toward the ultimate goal of exploring a new mandatory fee or tuition adjustment.” As the decision requires approval from a range of institutions involved with the university, it will likely take time.
“This year, Amy Mulkerin and Ryan Bass co-led a task force to explore a potential second phase of remaking the online fee, shifting to a mandatory fee or tuition-based model,” Giovannozzi said in an email to Portland State Vanguard. “Those efforts are currently on hold until next year.”
The Portland arts community lost a legendary drag performer and community activist when Darcelle XV passed away from natural causes on March 23, 2023, at the age of 92. Hailed by the Guiness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest drag performer, Darcelle touched countless lives during a 56-year-long career—a fact made evident when his celebration of life event at Portland’s Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall sold nearly 3,000 tickets in under an hour.
Darcelle’s fellow drag performer and longtime collaborator, Poison Waters, said people flew in from all over the country to honor Darcelle’s life and legacy.
“Darcelle taught me how to be a person, not just a personality,” Poison said. “It speaks a lot to [his legacy] that so many people were there from all around. Locally, he was a part of almost every major non-profit organization in one capacity or another. He worked with the homeless before it was the houseless crisis. He’s always worked with the houseless people in the whole town, in the surrounding area, and neighborhood.”
Born as Walter Cole and raised in the Linnton neighborhood of Portland, Cole lived a “conventional” life with his wife and two children, according to the Darcelle XV website Cole served three years in the United States Armed Forces Signal Corps during the Korean War, before returning to Portland and using funds he received from the military to start up his entrepreneurial endeavors.
First Cole purchased Caffe Espresso, a coffeehouse that later relocated and became the jazz club Studio A. Cole then purchased Demas, a tavern in northwest Portland that would become the legendary Old Town drag and cabaret bar Darcelle XV Showplace
It was 1967 when Cole wore a woman’s dress for the first time. By 1969, Cole’s alter ego, Darcelle, named in honor of French singer Denise Darcel, was born. After coming out as gay, Cole left his wife and began a long-term relationship with Roxy Neuhardt, his artistic director.
According to Neuhardt’s website, Roxy and Darcelle “spent nearly five decades building their business, raising funds for countless charities, caring for friends living with and dying from HIV/AIDS, making special appearances, feeding the hungry and homeless, fighting for LGBTQ rights and providing a safe gathering place for the community. The work they have done to advance the LGBTQ profile in Portland cannot be overstated.”
Throughout his long and illustrious life, Darcelle encouraged many people to pursue the art of drag. Poison Waters first met Darcelle in 1980 at a drag queen pageant where Darcelle was presiding over the crowning ceremonies.
“I was, at first, overwhelmed by his presence and big white hair and all his jewels and everything,” Poison said. “I just saw this old rich lady and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, I was just this little poor Black kid.”
The next year, Poison was asked to be in the Gay Pride Parade after winning a pageant title. At the time, however, she was working in management at the family-owned retail business and was concerned she would lose her job. According to Poison, Darcelle asked her if she wanted to do the parade. When Poison said yes, Darcelle encouraged her to do what she wanted to do.
“Do what makes you happy,” Poison recalled Darcelle saying. “If something happens to your job, you’ll get another job.”
Their friendship blossomed after that conversation, and the two even became neighbors—living in a shared block of space Poison referred to as “the compound,” consisting of three old Victorian mansions. Poison began working at the Darcelle XV Showplace in 1990. For the last decade or so, Poison has served as the venue’s co-host and still maintains that role today.
“Even since he’s passed away, I still just call myself the co-host because he’s still the host,” Poison said. “He taught me a lot about business and how to value my art. He taught me to just say yes to everything and figure it out later.”
Despite his passing, Poison and the Showplace community are determined to uphold Darcelle’s legacy of activism. With multiple states working to pass legislation banning drag performances, Poison said they are raising funds for drag queens from these states to visit Darcelle’s and perform without being afraid.
“No one in recorded history has ever been killed by a drag show,” Poison said. “There’s so many things in the world that tell us to not be ourselves, to hold back our thoughts and our emotions. Drag is an important art form. It’s just like any art form where people are able to express themselves, show who they really are.”
Today the Darcelle XV Showplace maintains its place as an iconic staple of LGBTQ+ community, culture and history for Portland. The venue brings together a talented team of diverse performers hosting late night weekend shows, as well as Sunday drag brunches and scheduled entertainment events.
Poison said the venue is also working on breaking the world record for the longest drag show. Sometime in the near future, she said they will host a 48-hour drag show and donate all the proceeds to fight the anti-trans legislation that has been put forth in several states.
“We certainly don’t take for granted that we have so many freedoms here,” Poison said. “There’s just so much drag-centric stuff here in the Pacific Northwest. People should be allowed to express themselves.”
The Portland drag community has lost an important fixture, but Darcelle’s legacy is sure to live on through his community. Even during his last week of life, Poison said Darcelle was trying to make sure the Darcelle XV legacy would live on.
“He said, ‘don’t let them forget me and keep the club going,’” Poison said. “And that’s what we’re all gonna band together and do.”
Scientists at Portland State are looking into whether or not Portland—the city of bridges—would still have its bridges standing after The Big One, and you might be surprised to hear what they have discovered from their research.
The Big One is a term locals have given to the earthquake expected to arise from the Cascadia Subduction Zone, a fault that runs 70–100 miles off the Pacific coast shoreline.
A. K. M. Golam Murtuz, Ph.D.—a former PSU student of Dr. Peter Dusicka, Professor and Chair of Civil & Environmental Engineering
at the Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Science at PSU—wrote his dissertation on the earthquake soundness of the Portland bridges built before the ‘90s and how one might rebuild and/or retrofit them. He described the quake expected from the Cascadia Subduction as a “magnitude nine earthquake.”
“Currently, scientists are predicting that there is about a 37% chance that a megathrust earthquake of 7.1+ magnitude in this fault zone will occur in the next 50 years,” according to the Oregon Department of Emergency Management.
The potential damage and impact if and when this earthquake occurs is a noteworthy quandary. “[I] would say that the extent of damage is going to be geographically broad—distributed,” Dr. Dusicka said. “If this earthquake comes through or when this earthquake comes through, it’s going to affect a wide area, so I think that is certain. What we’re studying is how that might affect individual infrastructure, facilities and components.”
PSU’s iSTAR lab is, in part, what influenced Dr. Dusicka’s decision to come to PSU. iSTAR
is “a moderate size research facility where we build, test, evaluate and study structural components under various loading conditions, and one of those being sort of the dynamic loading of an earthquake,” Dr. Dusicka said. “So we have a shake table that allows us to reproduce an earthquake on demand, that we also use to study how earthquakes impact our infrastructure.”
Regarding how an earthquake can impact infrastructure, two primary forms of infrastructure failure could occur. First, brittle failure is “a failure with very little warning,” Dr.
Dusicka said. “In other words, if you look at a particular structural component, it would sort of take on some level of demand and eventually break, and you would have very little visual warning in terms of when that happens.” The easiest way to visualize this is by imagining dropping a glass on a hard surface.
On the other hand, you can have ductile behavior, which in most cases is more desirable. “Ductile behavior is [one] of the things that [Dr. Murtuz] was looking into,” Dr. Dusicka explained. “And the difference there is that, in a ductile behavior, there’s a certain level of deformation that takes place, that is damaging but not necessarily catastrophic in its outcome.” He explained that it is analogous to a metal cup that has been smashed and distorted but can still hold water.
“In an earthquake-type response, we tend to favor the ductile behavior for numerous reasons,” Dr. Dusicka further explained. “And part of what Dr. Murtuz was doing was trying to evaluate what kind of failure modes we would have with the bridge columns [in Oregon]… and how can we convert that to a more kind of ductile behavior if we wanted to.”
“My thesis actually has two parts,” Dr. Murtuz said. “One was just looking at bridges as constructed. The other part was retrofit or repair, if an earthquake even happens. So for the first part, where we are looking at the existing bridges, these bridges were essentially built before 1990.”
They started by testing the model column with the same build as all pre-1990 bridge columns. “First, we saw what are the damages we can expect specifically from the Cascadia output,” Dr. Murtuz said. “We wanted to see what level of damage we can expect, how these bridges are going to respond.”
The results were more positive than expected. “We were thinking that it is not gonna withstand anything,” Dr. Murtuz said. “It’s gonna probably collapse after some cycles, so we do repetitive cyclic tests. We push and pull these bridge columns. But... it’s not as bad as we expected.”
The good news, according to Dr. Murtuz, is “they’re not going to collapse completely. So those columns will have damages in them and significant damages in some cases. [But], they will hold the bridge after the Cascadia subduction. You might not get [to] use them after that, but it’s not going to collapse under you…[they are] gonna still hang on.”
Dr. Dusicka described his ongoing research on mitigating the risk of the Cascadia Subduction Zone quake by “looking at ways of potential retrofitting [them]. And also looking [at] what are some of the repair methods that we could employ after the fact that we could get back to some level of operation.” According to Dr. Dusicka, we have three options: repair, rebuild or retrofit.
“Repair would be, an earthquake would
happen, some damage occurs, and the damage is to a point where you could actually bring it back to life,” Dr. Dusicka said. “Let’s repair it so that we can continue to use our infrastructure.”
When repairing costs and effort are not worth it, one must rebuild. As Dr. Dusicka explained, “Rebuild is well, it’s damaged, the cost [and] effort of repairing it is not worth it, so we would have to replace and rebuild.”
Lastly, retrofitting, which—unlike the previous options—is a proactive step that could better ensure public safety. “So we could retrofit a bridge so that [it] doesn’t fall down, but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee that we would be able to use it afterward…[but] nobody died,” Dr. Dusicka emphasized. And this, he explained, is the goal.
Given the high number of older bridges in Portland, the pressing question is which ones need to be retrofitted. “There are still bridges, a lot of bridges that have never been retrofitted,” Dr. Murtuz explained. “What I know is they have limited funds, and so they have priorities as well, so they prioritize the bridges most vulnerable and have the most impact in terms of what will happen after an earthquake—recovery in terms of highways, which highways are more important, [etc.].”
Dr. Murtuz has been working on retrofit designs using a method that dissipates energy.
“This has a lot of advantages,” he said. “One of the most important advantages is that once you have an earthquake, you are not gonna have any damages in these columns. All the damage is going to be in these attached plates... Once an earthquake happens, you go out into the field, you just replace these plates, and you got a new system again.”
Dr. Dusicka is also working on a retrofit design. “The state of design is going so that you engineer these fuses within the structure,” he said. “And then, you should be able to isolate the damage to that component. If it’s designed properly, you could potentially even replace that component a lot easier and get the structure back into operation.”
Both retrofit designs are still in the proof of concept testing stage, but both engineers are excited about their preliminary results.
“I think it’s something that needs to be at the forefront of most of the people, politicians and decision-makers,” Dr. Dusicka said in regards to what is needed in Oregon to prepare for the Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake.
“[What] I like to promote is awareness and knowledge, and I think, being prepared for that, needs to come down to—what is it that we’re actually expecting? And I think sometimes the doom and gloom essentially says everything’s gonna fall down, and nobody’s going to survive. And that’s not the case.” Dr. Dusicka advocates for more funding toward infrastructure and earthquake-prepared retrofitting in Oregon.
“There is no doubt [that we need more funding],” he said.
Soon enough our days of due dates, deadlines and notetaking will come to an end, and we will need something aside from catching up on sleep to fill the time. After you’ve tended to your tomatoes growing in the garden or dried off from your swim in the river, perhaps sipping an ice-cold beer in the shade while being entertained by a group of talented young baseball players might just be your best option.
Nestled in the southeast neighborhood of Lents, you’ll see the summer sky illuminated by Walker Stadium, the home to Portland’s whimsical collegiate, wood bat baseball team, the Pickles. Since 2016, the Portland Pickles have been providing a night of affordable fun for families, friends and company parties by offering an out of the box promotional schedule to accompany their 41 home game season. Each game is presided over by the organization’s seven-foot-tall dill pickle mascot—aptly named Dillon—that makes his rounds for photo opportunities or an especially plushie high five.
Not only is it easy to find yourself at Walker Stadium having a good time sitting on the berm in the grass with pals, you can also enjoy a highly competitive game of baseball as well. Since their inaugural season, the Pickles have been able to produce a winning record each season, with the exception of 2020 due to COVID-19 lockdowns. And many of these young athletes have gone on to sign contracts with Major League Baseball teams.
You may have heard of the Pickles organization before, though it might not have been in the context of a baseball game. The team found themselves headlining in the news after a playful yet suggestive photo was shared on social media during Dillon’s media takeover while in the off season of Jan. 2022. After the tweet of the photo went viral and the keyboard comedians took to the comment section to try and hit it out of the park with their remarks, it got featured on the late night talk show, Jimmy Kimmel Live.
If you weren’t familiar with the Pickles from that particular story, you may have heard the local lore of when the team’s mascot was stolen. The theft came after the organization was still riding high on national attention, when a series of unfortunate events resulted in Dillon the pickle being lost while packed inside luggage for an international flight. Luckily enough, the airline was able to find the mascot and return it home, only to be sent to the wrong address and then be stolen off the porch. Thankfully, through good community work and lots of media attention, Dillon the Pickle was reunited with his team.
As out of the norm as those stories are about a local summer ball league, it lends itself to explaining the character of their organization as a whole. “It is a work hard, play hard atmosphere,” said the first year General Manager, Parker Huffman. Huffman has been in the organization since 2019, where he started as an intern before taking on the full-time role of ticket manager. Eventually he climbed the ranks and started the 2021 season as the Assistant GM, then was promptly promoted to General Manager in 2023. With the experience that comes from being in the organization through its formative years, Huffman attributed the team’s success to the core group that has been there alongside him. In addition, they are able to have a little bit more freedom than most sports teams in the sense that they are self-contained and are able to take more risks without the typical corporate backlash.
In addition to being able to show their wild side via social media, the team is able to flash their eccentricities through its unique promotional schedule. Huffman said that the creative team sits down at the end of each year to look back on their success and try to top it for the next season.
This year they are starting off their promos by showing some love to the teachers in our community with an Educator Appreciation Night, where educators can register for a free ticket for the preseason game on May 30. This is also the beginning of a reoccurring promotion called Tattoo Tuesdays, with the inking being done by local artist Mark Dugally. However, in order to enact some sort of crowd control, you have to enter a lottery to be one of the lucky ones to get tatted in public at a baseball game. So Portland.
Other one of a kind promotions you can choose from include “double first name night”, which is a nod to one of the team owners and former Seattle Seahawk Punter, Jon Ryan, where if you have two first names, you can register for a ticket. If you’re one of the infamous Portlanders that have relocated to Portland, you can register for a ticket for their California People Moving to Portland Night. In July, the Pickles are having Portland’s very own Portugal. The Man perform in the park. They also have a kick off to pride week where they ask you to show up in your rainbow best to support our local LGBTQ+ community while enjoying the ball game.
For many years now and more to come, the Pickles have been able to provide our community with joy, even if you aren’t a baseball fan. For more information on the Pickles, visit their website at portlandpicklesbaseball.com.
What, exactly, does Portland State’s student government do? The Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU) is not the most visible presence in students’ lives. At times, it can be unclear what purpose they actually serve. That’s for one simple reason: they hold no real power.
While the word government might typically imply some degree of substantive authority, ASPSU’s case implies anything but. According to their official mission statement, the student government’s role is—among other things—to “facilitate formal means of communication and interaction among students, student organizations, faculty, and University administration,” as well as to “advocate for and represent the interests of students before internal and external bodies.”
Those are certainly good things, and it’s hard to criticize ASPSU for trying to advocate for students. However, the fact remains that these actions are ultimately purely symbolic.
Consider the official job descriptions of key ASPSU positions, like president, the responsibilities of which include “creat[ing] the goals that the entire ASPSU student government shall act upon and support” and “provid[ing] a process for students to participate fully in the allocation of student fees.” It’s here that we have to ask: what do these substantively accomplish?
Take student fees, for example. The Student Fee Committee (SFC) has the most clearly defined role out of any branch of student government and the most visible exercise of power—the SFC is “responsible for recommending the Student Incidental Fee and Student Building Fee allocations and amounts to ASPSU and the University President,” per their website
The average student—myself included, until recently— might assume that the SFC sets the Student Incidental Fee and Student Building Fee rates, as well as the budget for FeeFunded Areas like the PSU Food Pantry, 5th Avenue Cinema and the Littman + White Art Gallery.
They don’t actually set these, however—they simply recommend a course of action to the university president and the Board of Trustees, who then have final approval on any changes. Additionally, per the 2022–2023 SFC Guidelines, the university president can send back the Student Incidental Fee Recommendation with modifications that the SFC must reconcile. Essentially, this means that while the SFC is legally empowered to make a recommendation about budget priorities, the administration still
holds the ultimate authority over the process. Theoretically, the university president and Board of Trustees could unilaterally reject an SFC budget and stonewall them until they got the outcome they wanted. Who holds the real power here?
And that’s only the SFC, a branch of student government which— to reiterate—has the most explicit authority over material student issues. In contrast, it’s difficult to tell what exactly the Student Senate is supposed to be doing. The description of the role of senator simply states that the function of the Senate is to “facilitate formal communication between students, student organizations, faculty and PSU administration,” and that senators “advocate and represent the interests of the student body at large.”
These are noble goals, but they certainly don’t constitute a government by any meaningful definition. Let’s call ASPSU what it really is: an advocacy organization. And to be sure, advocacy groups are useful and necessary arms of the body politic, but let’s not confuse them with the groups that hold actual control over the levers of power.
This month’s ASPSU election debates for Senate, SFC and president/vice president typify the dysfunction inherent in the structure of student government. While the candidates gave many thoughtful, reflective answers to moderator questions, they were unfortunately hampered by the fact that—for most issues facing PSU students—student government is powerless to act.
In the president/vice president debate, one key question was the issue of PSU Campus Safety (CPSO) rearming their officers and especially the controversial decision to do so without informing students beforehand or gathering public input. Presidential candidate Lanie Sticka—current chair of the SFC, and someone with a wealth of experience in student government—had some difficulty addressing the topic.
“I think Portland State likes to lead by a form of shared governance, and maybe that isn’t exactly what happened in this case, communication-wise,” Sticka said onstage. Citing Portland State Vanguard coverage, Sticka noted that every student polled by Vanguard stated they disagreed with the decision. “That says something about whether or not the administration is necessarily listening to our students, so maybe that’s something we need to identify and definitely need to create some type of initiative towards, so… better communication with our administration is definitely needed, at least within this topic.”
That’s not much of an answer, but it’s worth noting that none of the candidates gave a convincing response. This isn’t to single out Sticka, but rather to remark on the fact that even the most experienced candidate onstage couldn’t give much more than a nod toward better communication and a seat at the table with the administration, because they can’t do anything else.
ASPSU senators and the president and vice president are less like actual senators and more like symbolic non-voting representatives. The closest analogue would be someone like Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia’s representative in Congress. While Congresswoman Norton serves on two committees, is able to speak on the floor of the House of Representatives and otherwise has a seat at the table, she is unable to vote on any binding resolutions, and represents a district that is unable to even set its own budget without approval from Congress
There is one thing that Norton has over ASPSU, though, and that’s her consistent advocacy for D.C. statehood. She points out that “D.C. residents can’t vote on any of the federal laws that govern them,” and that “Congress controls D.C. local laws and budget,” an undemocratic state of affairs that deprives D.C. residents of agency and their right to self-government.
Now replace “D.C” with “PSU students” and “Congress” with “the PSU administration” and hopefully you’ll see what I’m getting at here.
If members of ASPSU want to be a truly representative body for students, there’s one thing they should be fighting for above all else, and that’s real power. Why do we exalt democracy and self-government in the political sphere, but accept an undemocratic administrative autocracy at our university? Is that really all we deserve—a group of students play-acting democratic processes with no authority to carry out any changes that students actually want?
If that sounds radical, consider the contradiction between our society’s professed commitment to democracy and our actual denial of responsibility from the governed. Students— along with faculty and other community members—are what make up PSU. We deserve to have a real say in how our university is run, not to beg for scraps from an administration that has no obligation to listen to us at all.
We have all heard of police body cams and their varying range of effectiveness. But are they enough? Some in our state government say it’s not, and that police need to know more before an arrest. Senate Bill 614, currently working its way through the Oregon State Legislature, would allow law enforcement to collect far more information about citizens than they can now. This bill is a blatant breach of people’s privacy, and it goes against Oregon civil rights law. For that reason, it cannot be allowed to pass.
Senate Bill 614 would “[permit] law enforcement agency to collect and maintain information about a person’s political, religious or social views or activities if the information was collected and maintained for lawful purpose, including activities carried out in accordance with policy for officer-worn video cameras,” according to the Oregon State Legislature summary of the bill. This is a clear violation of fundamental Oregon civil rights law, which “prohibits police from gathering and maintaining information about people’s political, social or religious views without probable cause to believe a crime has occurred,” as reported by Willamette Wee k
The citizens of Oregon, and by extension the students and staff here at Portland State, need to protest and show our State Senators and Representatives how we feel about this proposed breach of privacy. With enough demonstrations, we can show our state leaders and representatives that this bill is not good for Oregon, and thus not good for Portland. Yet even more can be done to keep this bill from passing, such as writing letters to our state government to tell them that this bill is not good for our state. If we let our leaders know how we feel, perhaps this bill can be stopped before it’s too late.
S.B. 614 would give police the ability to target anyone they say is
breaking the law based on the information they record. This extends from people who are littering to even protesters. In fact, “The Oregon Trial Lawyers Association and the ACLU of Oregon… have expressed concerns that allowing officers to turn their cameras on earlier will allow them to collect and store information that infringes on the civil liberties of protesters and others who are acting lawfully,” per Willamette Week. This includes those here at PSU—if a student participates in a protest or other form of lawful activity under this law, the police would be empowered to record them and keep their face on file.
Furthermore, we have to understand that it is not specified what falls under “any other lawful purpose”—practically speaking, that means the police would be able to record for any reason they see fit. As a matter of fact, ACLU Legal Director Kelly Simon explained that S.B. 614 will increase the range of what Oregon police are able to record. This is due to the fact that this bill allows police to film for “any other lawful purpose,” which is a very vague and nearly undefinable criteria. Additionally, it’s not clear that the bill is even necessary for its stated purpose. “Simon notes that major law enforcement agencies, such as the Oregon State Police, have been using body cameras for years under the current restrictions without major problems,” according to Willamette Week
Because of these issues, Senate Bill 614 must not be allowed to pass. Yet, right now, it is on its way to being passed by the Oregon State House, and has already been passed by the State Senate, according to The Oregonian This is a travesty, because this bill would give our state too much power over the people they are supposed to protect. We can only hope that our state government will listen to our cries of outrage about this bill in the days and months to come, and put an end to it.
THE BILL WOULD ALLOW AN UNACCEPTABLE INVASION OF PRIVACYCAMDEN BENESH
The La Casa Latina cultural resource center at Portland State hosted its annual Mariachi in the Park event on Wednesday, May 10. The event has been a tradition for years during spring term at PSU, hosted in time for sunny skies and beautiful weather, but it took a hiatus during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mariachi in the Park made its return from the COVID-19 era last year during the spring 2022 term, though it is much smaller than it was in pre-pandemic times. This year La Casa’s event was significantly larger, with a huge turnout from students and extensive participation from other members of the Latino Student Leadership Council (LSLC). La Casa and the LSLC—consisting of Mecha, Las Mujeres, Dream PSU, Omega Delta Phi, Kappa Delta Chi and SHPE PSU—held a pop-up resource fair where they all tabled alongside some other student groups and campus resources. Each group gave out candy and stickers, with Omega Delta Phi selling Conchas to fundraise for upcoming LSLC-hosted events. Free paletas from Ice Queen were also given out to the hundreds of students in attendance. All of this was accompanied by an hour-long performance by Woodburn High School’s Mariachi Band, which attracted not only students but even people from the greater Portland community, who were drawn in by the music while strolling through the downtown park blocks.
MAY 17
THURS
MAY 18
BRIGHT GALAXY BOTTLE & BOTTEGA
6 P.M.
$42
LEARN TO PAINT A WONDERFUL SCENE WITH WINE AND INSTRUCTION FROM AN ARTIST
LUCID LAKE IN SPRING BOTTLE & BOTTEGA
6 P.M.
$44
LEARN TO PAINT A MOON OVER A LAKE WITH INSTRUCTION FROM AN ARTIST
FRI MAY 19
SAT
MAY 20
SUN
MAY 21
PORTLAND TATTOO EXPO
PORTLAND MARRIOTT DOWNTOWN WATERFRONT
3 P.M.
$21+
GET A TATTOO FROM A TALENTED TATTOO ARTIST, WITH LIVE MUSIC, GOOD FOOD AND GOOD VIBES
MUSEUM FREE DAY
PORTLAND ART MUSEUM
10 A.M.
FREE
FREE ADMISSION IN CELEBRATION OF ASIAN AMERICAN, NATIVE HAWAIIAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER HERITAGE MONTH
BLOOMING SPRING TULIPS BOTTLE & BOTTEGA
11 A.M.
$42
LEARN TO PAINT BLOOMING TULIPS IN THIS CLASS INSTRUCTED BY AN ARTIST
MON MAY 22
TUES
MAY 23
MR. KENT FORD
THE LAKEWOOD CENTER FOR THE ARTS
6:30 P.M.
FREE
SOLO PLAY CELEBRATING KENT FORD, CO-
FOUNDER OF PORTLAND’S BLACK PANTHER
PARTY, DIRECTED BY DAMARIS WEBB
STICKER FEST
THE CLEANERS
9 A.M.
FREE
AWESOME ART POP UP, WITH ACCESSORIES MADE BY LOCAL ARTISTS
EMILY KING REVOLUTION HALL
8 P.M.
$35
SINGER-SONGWRITER WITH A SOULFUL VOICE AND CAPTIVATING STAGE PRESENCE
NOON CONCERT SERIES
LINCOLN RECITAL HALL
12 P.M.
FREE
A CONCERT FEATURING PSU VOICE STUDENTS, FACULTY AND SPECIAL GUESTS
GAYTHIEST MCMENAMINS MISSION THEATER
7 P.M.
$12+
A HIGH-ENERGY PUNK ROCK BAND WITH FIERCE MUSIC AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING LYRICS CENTERED AROUND ATHEISM
OREGON SYMPHONY
ARLENE SCHNITZER HALL
7:30 P.M.
$25+
TCHAIKOVSKY’S SWAN LAKE, A TIMELESS LOVE STORY, IN A MARRIAGE OF MELODY AND MOVEMENT
KALI UCHIS KELLER AUDITORIUM
8 P.M.
$40+
A SINGER-SONGWRITER WITH A CAPTIVATING VOICE AND A MIX OF R&B, POP AND LATIN SOUNDS
JOHN CRAIGIE MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS
8 P.M.
$30
PORTLAND-BASED SINGER PERFORMING THE BEATLES WITH HIS FOLK AND SOUL STYLE
ALEX LAHEY POLARIS HALL
8 P.M.
$20
ALEX EXPLORES QUEERNESS AND OTHERNESS WITH WITTY, INTROSPECTIVE TRACKS
COUCH CHANGE
HAYMAKER PDX
8 P.M.
FREE
A SHOWCASE OF LOCAL COMEDY HOSTED BY MATT FRANCO AND ELIJAH MANH
HARVEY’S POP-UP COMEDY STAGE 722
6:30 P.M.
$10
A SHOWCASE OF LOCAL COMEDIANS WITH 10-MINUTE SETS
FILMED BY BIKE FESTIVAL HOLLYWOOD THEATRE
10 A.M.
PRICE VARIES
A FILM FESTIVAL FEATURING BIKE-THEMED MOVIES FROM AROUND THE WORLD, ALONG WITH LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
DAN SODER
HELIUM COMEDY CLUB
10 P.M.
$27
A STAND-UP COMEDIAN KNOWN FOR HIS SHARP WIT, RELATABLE HUMOR AND CHARISMATIC STAGE PRESENCE
CANOA: A SHAMEFUL MEMORY
5TH AVENUE CINEMA
3 P.M.
STUDENTS: FREE
GENERAL: $7
A POWERFUL MEXICAN FILM DEPICTING THE TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES OF PREJUDICE AND MISINFORMATION
COMEDY OPEN MIC
CHEERFUL TORTOISE
9 P.M.
FREE
FIVE-MINUTE COMEDY SETS WITH A FEATURE COMEDIAN ON CAMPUS AT PSU
COMEDY OPEN MIC
MONTAVILLA STATION
7 P.M.
FREE
THREE-MINUTE COMEDY SETS HOSTED BY LUCAS COPP
OPEN MEETING
MCMENAMINS BROADWAY PUB
7 P.M.
FREE
A SAFE SPACE FOR MEN TO SHARE THEIR DIVORCE EXPERIENCES AND CHALLENGES
SLAMLANDIA
LITERARY ARTS
7 P.M.
FREE
A POETRY OPEN MIC AND SLAM FOR ALL LITERARY COMMUNITIES
URBAN FORESTS FOR THE BIRDS
PORTLAND AUDUBON WILDLIFE SANCTUARY
9 A.M.
FREE
A 172-ACRE SANCTUARY WITH FORESTED HIKING TRAILS, A WILDLIFE CARE CENTER AND MORE
FARMERS MARKET
PSU PARK BLOCKS
10 A.M.
FREE
SHOP LOCAL VENDORS, BROWSE PRODUCE AND LISTEN TO LIVE MUSIC
BRIDAL & WEDDING EXPO PORTLAND EXPO CENTER
12:30 P.M.
FREE
WEDDING PROFESSIONALS READY TO HELP FIND THE PERFECT GOWN, RECEPTION VENUE AND MUCH MORE
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC LIVE NEWMARK THEATRE
7:30 P.M.
$5+
A TALK EXPLORING THE REMARKABLE WAYS PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD ARE ADAPTING TO OUR CHANGING PLANET
NW FIRE AND SECURITY EXPO DOUBLETREE HOTEL PORTLAND
7 A.M.
FREE NETWORK WITH INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALS, WITH LUNCH, HAPPY HOUR, PRIZES AND MORE
