Portland State Vanguard Volume 78 Issue 15

VOLUME 78 • ISSUE 15 • NOVEMBER 9, 2023

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Cover Not Found

PSU is NOT

Processing Contracts at this time

Opinion: PSU Fails

its students in the name of red tape P.6

News: Longstanding

contract office backup causing issues for students P. 4-5

Arts & Culture: New

magazine gives people with disabilities a platform P. 8-9

SU P T A L L A R O F N OLUM C M R O F T A L P N O SU N OPINI

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FILIATION W/P • STATE NAME AND AF OSEN BY THE EDITOR CH D AN ED TE AN AR PAID, NOT GU COM • SUBMISSIONS ARE UN ITOR@PSUVANGUARD. ED TO NS IO IN OP D AN ORIES • SEND THOUGHTS, ST

CONTENTS

COVER DESIGN BY BRIANA CIERI

NEWS CAPS understaffing causes problems for student organizations P. 4–5

MEET THE TEAM Passing of the torch

P. 10

OPINION PSU does not care about student leaders

P. 6

CROSSWORD Answers in stories

P. 11

SCIENCE & TECH A perspective on hostile architecture

P. 7

COMMUNITY & WELLNESS RESOURCES Updated weekly

P. 12

ARTS & CULTURE A look at Invisible Force

P. 8-9

STAFF EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Kat Leon

SPORTS EDITOR NOW HIRING

MANAGING EDITOR Brad Le

OPINION EDITOR Guest Star

NEWS EDITOR Zoë Buhrmaster

PHOTO EDITOR Alberto Alonso Pujazon Bogani

CO-NEWS EDITOR Alyssa Anderson

ONLINE AND PROMOTIONS EDITOR Alley Henrici

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Macie Harreld

COPY CHIEF Isabel Zerr

SCIENCE & TECH EDITOR Cameron Rodriguez

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER NOW HIRING! CONTRIBUTORS Amber Finnegan

PRODUCTION & DESIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Briana Cieri Whitney McPhie TECHNOLOGY & WEBSITE TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS George Olson Hongzu Pan Sara Ray 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 online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com.

CONTRIBUTORS Write. Edit. Photograph. Film. Design. Illustrate. Create.

WRITE: News, Arts & Culture, Science & Tech, Sports and Opinion PHOTO & FILM: Create engaging content that captivates our audience in modern and creative ways EDIT: Ensure precision, clarity and consistency in every article DESIGN: Create impactful visual content that empowers, respects, educates, guides and shares truth Learn skills, build a professional portfolio and make your own schedule. We are willing to train inexperienced applicants who demonstrate ability and a desire to learn the skills.

Contributors are paid for published work.

SPORTS EDITOR IMMEDIATELY HIRING! RESPONSIBILITIES: • • • • •

Train new contributors Cultivate pitches to fill two pages a week Attend pitch meetings on Thursdays Edit contributor pieces Write pieces as needed

Sports writing, interviewing or reporting experience is helpful but not required

APPLY TODAY

at psuvanguard.com/jobs

ELSA grant amount: $2,100 a term, ~20 hours a week Student-athletes cannot fill this position

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER IMMEDIATELY HIRING! RESPONSIBILITIES: • Order print jobs with Oregon Lithoprint • Distribute newspapers, fliers and promotional materials across campus to their respective locations (PSU Vanguard active newspaper boxes and bulletin boards for fliers) • Ensure that the library’s Vanguard archive stays up-todate No experience required $800 a term, 3-5 hours a week

PORTLAND STATE VANGUARD IS

NOW ON TIKTOK! Follow us now @psuvanguard for…

MULTIMEDIA STORY CONTENT BEHIND THE SCENES ABOUT US AND MORE!

PSU Vanguard • NOVEMBER 9, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

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CAPS UNDERSTAFFING CAUSES PROBLEMS FOR STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS SYSTEMATIC ISSUES ARE HARMING STUDENT LEADERS ALYSSA ANDERSON Editor’s Note: Reaz Mahmood is the faculty advisor for Portland State Vanguard, and his opinions come from his experience.

Student media and other student-run organizations at Portland State struggle to stay afloat due to delays in the Contract & Procurement Services (CAPS) office. In addition to the work of its editors, student media publications like Portland State Vanguard rely on paid contributors to write content.

Contributor contracts must be fully processed before contributors can work and get paid. For the last several months, the processing time of contributor contracts has taken—on average—around three months to complete. This has left editors to do the bulk of the writing, resulting in editors experiencing burnout and intense stress. This has even prompted some to quit entirely.

However, Vanguard is not alone in this struggle. These delays have negatively impacted basically every student-run organization and some additional services.

According to Aimee Shattuck—the executive director of Student Activities and Leadership Programs (SALP)—these issues have existed since at least 2001. CAPS pays outside vendors for university events in addition to the contracts which permit them to pay student workers.

In recent years, due to delays in contract processing, some vendors have gone months without being paid for their labor and now refuse to do any work for PSU whatsoever.

Shattuck said many university events, performers, caterers and other laborers must complete a personal service invoice (PSI) to get paid. Even last year, Shattuck said PSU advised these workers to submit these contracts 20 business days—roughly four weeks—in advance of the event, which she said is an unreasonable requirement. Shattuck explained how this was an issue with the catering service used for Party in the Park, which was held at the beginning of this school year.

“SALP sent in a contract on Sept. 11, 2023, to pay Bashas [Mediterranean Cuisine] for food at Party in the Park,” Shattuck said. “It was submitted three weeks before the event. This is a vendor that has close ties to Portland State and has been providing the Party in the Park catering for many years. It took seven weeks for the contracts office to process the paperwork only after the vendor told me that she was two months behind on her mortgage because we had not paid her. She had to put up quite a bit of expense to feed 3,500 people.”

Shattuck said it creates a reputational risk for PSU when they cannot pay the workers and performers they rely on for such events. With student media, who have been waiting months for contributor contracts to process, this creates an issue with

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NEWS

ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI/PSU VANGUARD Student media is being adversely affected by a backlog of unprocessed contracts. This issue has resulted in staff burnout and has even led to some members quitting.

PSU Vanguard • NOVEMBER 9, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI/PSU VANGUARD

PSU Vanguard is currently experiencing significant staff shortages across all departments of the newspaper because of a backlog of unprocessed contracts. This is happening while trying to meet weekly production deadlines. student engagement. Out of the 40 contracts waiting to be processed by CAPS, Shattuck said only three contracts have been processed, and she said those were submitted back in July.

“There are a whole bunch of students who want to participate and are wanting to get engaged with student media, and we’re not able to work with them yet, because there’s a bottleneck in one office,” Shattuck explained. “There’s a desire and pressure to have this engaged campus and to have students be involved in planning events and have a vibrant campus life. And there is a bottleneck—for whatever reason—in one office that’s preventing us from doing that… Now we’re losing students because they’re waiting so long, and then we’re losing editors because they’re so stressed out. That’s… student media, but it’s happening with other student organizations and programs as well.”

Brian Roy—the vice president of risk management and contracting at PSU—explained how understaffing at the CAPS office is the root of many of these issues.

“CAPS is staffed in a way that makes it challenging to get through the amount of work we have and what the university expects from our contracts offices,” Roy said. “We’re really thinly staffed, and I think you’ll find—on the operations side of the university—we have a lot of departments that are challenged by the amount of work that often exceeds the hours that the people have to be able to do the work. And even in the best case, CAPS is really challenged to get through all of the contracts that the university expects it to.”

Roy said CAPS has succeeded in streamlining the contracting process, and—up until earlier this year—had reached a point where they could process contracts more efficiently and quickly.

CAPS lost two employees earlier this year, which has exacerbated the issues and resulted in a three-month processing time for most contracts.

“We’re working on filling those positions, but you can probably imagine that—when you take a department that is struggling to

PSU Vanguard • NOVEMBER 9, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

keep its head above water—when you lose two people, it makes a massive difference,” Roy said. “Unfortunately, the Vanguard contributor contracts are not the only ones affected. We’re really doing the best we can. It’s a lot of people that are trying to get through as much work as possible, but it’s only exacerbated our problems. We’re working on filling those positions. I’m hopeful that we’ll have at least one of them filled relatively soon.”

In addition to filling these open positions, Roy said CAPS is working to develop a more efficient contracting process. However, he said they will need more resources and staff in order to remedy the issue altogether.

According to Roy, most of his peers in other departments at PSU agree that they would benefit significantly from more staff.

“Losing people is always difficult and creates openings, but the work doesn’t change,” Roy said. “So, you have the same amount of work being distributed across fewer people. We’re working as quickly as we can to get those spots filled. That will absolutely help, [but] when you have a department that’s staffed very thinly, all it takes is a little disruption like this for things to slow down. I’m optimistic that—once we get these positions filled—we’ll start to work through that backlog, and before long we’re going to be back to a more reasonable amount of time for the customer. That’s my expectation.”

Reaz Mahmood—the coordinator of student media at PSU— has overseen all five of PSU’s student-run media organizations for over 10 years. He explained how—even though the processing time of contracts tends to ebb and flow over the years—the contracts are currently taking the longest time to process in the time he has been here, which he speculates is due to university-wide understaffing.

“In general, PSU has a perpetual understaffing problem,” Mahmood said. “Staff are routinely put in positions where they have to exceed their own reasonable capacity. So, if the contracting office is experiencing something like that, then maybe you

have some people who are doing the best they can and perhaps just don’t have enough people to handle the workload.”

While these contracting issues continue to affect student workers and others contracted by the university, such issues also impact the campus community as a whole.

Mahmood said he has seen students’ who apply to be contributors lose their enthusiasm for engaging in student media, resulting in less and less student engagement, because “the institution didn’t seize on that momentum to give [students] a great experience.”

For student media, Mahmood said this creates issues which may affect the quality and timeliness of the content these organizations aim to produce, and also results in unreasonable workloads for editors.

“The fewer students you have in these roles not only impacts the opportunities for those specific students, but ultimately it’s the job of a media organization to put out content that enriches campus—whether that’s entertainment or whether that’s news through quality journalism,” Mahmood said. “If you have fewer people in the journalistic process, then you not only don’t put stories out there as quickly as you could, so you lose the timeliness element. But you might not have the capacity to go after stories that are more impactful, because those take a lot of time and effort—sometimes very collaborative effort—to do a good job on… In some cases, there might be lots of things that just aren’t being covered, and it’s because people don’t have the capacity.”

Shattuck explained that a wide variety of things could contribute to the issues in CAPS, but that she hopes they can get the help they need to establish a more efficient process.

“I don’t know what kind of pressure they’re under, I just know how it’s impacting us,” Shattuck said. “I want them to get whatever it is that they need so that they can fix it, and we can all go back to not having this bottleneck.”

NEWS

5

PSU DOES NOT CARE ABOUT STUDENT LEADERS

ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI/PSU VANGUARD Due to a PSU’s failure to prioritize the massive backlog of unprocessed contracts, student media is struggling to maintain the high demands of their jobs with unprecedented staff shortages across all departments

ZOË BUHRMASTER Student media is holding on by a thread as processing times for contracts lengthen, and the Portland State administration has ignored this longstanding and growing problem.

Students hoping to write or design for student media organizations should typically take a maximum of two weeks to go through the contract process before they can start work. Currently, the processing time is a minimum of three months.

While the length is unprecedented, the situation isn’t new.

Over the past four to five years, Portland State Vanguard and other student media organizations have seen contract processing times slowly increase, pushing student workers further and further back from their start date.

There are currently 39 students on the waiting list to work at Vanguard.

PSU’s Contracting and Procurement Services (CAPS) is the department in charge of processing contracts for student media. Since the issue arose, it has continuously cited the reason for the excessive delay is a lack of staff to do the work.

However, five years later, things have only gotten worse.

It’s worth noting that working for student media is valuable both in experience and pay. Participating in student media can assist students in covering their living expenses and allow them the ability to create a professional portfolio and build soft skills vital when entering the workforce post-graduation. This differs from working in an unrelated field where long-term career plans may not align with experience.

At a university where students are encouraged to work within

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OPINION

the campus, it is questionable at best why a contract—which generally takes two weeks—now takes three months at minimum to process. Brian Roy—associate vice president of risk management and contracting at PSU—iterated that, simply put, the work-toperson ratio within the contracting department is not equitable.

“We have a lot of departments that are challenged by the amount of work, often exceeding the hours that the people have to be able to do the work,” Roy said. “And even [in the] best case, CAPS is really challenged to get through all of the contracts that the university expects it to.”

Two employment vacancies happened earlier in the year, increasing the already overloaded workload of those in the CAPS office.

Nonetheless, contract processing time has been a consistent and growing problem for over five years. It begs the question, why has the university not prioritized solving it?

The average requirement for someone looking to work in a contracting office is a bachelor’s degree, along with various other skills such as computing and communication. If it is a matter of staffing, what is preventing more people from being hired?

“The office is pushing for better ways to streamline the process, but contracts are complex and often require multiple offices within different departments to review and sign-off on them,” Roy said.

Simplifying the process could include delegating tasks which are currently within the scope of CAPS back to the departments who handle the work. However, despite the impact, the uni-

versity has yet to make an effort to streamline this process.

The issue is coated from front to back with the signs of bureaucratic red tape and paperwork which often haunts university departments. The contracting process is blocked by a complex layer of constituents, when it really doesn’t need to be.

The point is that, if employing students was truly a concern of the university, there would be evidence of effort toward solving the issue.

Contributors—both writers and designers—help keep Vanguard alive.

Students looking to grow their writing or design capabilities gain valuable experience which they can add to their résumés and portfolios. Editors like me—who ensure their section’s pages are filled each week—could focus more energy on editing and guiding stories rather than spending all their time writing every week.

Significantly, the paper also benefits when we see and hear from various voices across campus.

Furthermore, it significantly hampers our ability to address subjects—which are of concern to students and other vital elements of a student community paper—as editors become tasked with taking on responsibilities traditionally handled by a larger team of students.

Everyone benefits from having contributors, and yet it remains unprioritized.

PSU Vanguard • NOVEMBER 9, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

A PERSPECTIVE ON HOSTILE ARCHITECTURE ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI/PSU VANGUARD Hostile architecture, such as these rocks secured with cement, is designed to prevent individuals experiencing houselessness from using the space. However, it also affects everyone's ability to enjoy the green space

POPULATED AREAS WITH AN ANTI-HUMAN DESIGN CAMERON RODRIGUEZ When people hear hostile architecture, some will immediately think of it as an anti-houseless action which creates undesirable spaces for those seeking shelter on the streets. This is too narrow of a perspective.

The hostile architecture in Portland is indicative of the disdain towards unhoused populations but is also antithetical to the city’s green marketing and flourishing human life. Portland prides itself on green spaces and its close proximity to nature, yet there is the deterioration of green spaces with these forms of architecture.

Yes, the boulders held in place by concrete will displace those who sought shelter there, but it will also kill the soil, smother any grass or plants and offer no protection to life in the city.

Furthermore, Portland has gone on to attempt to disguise its intentions as environmentally friendly actions. For example, look at the thick aluminum planter boxes placed haphazardly on sidewalks. When the flowers died and only concrete-filled planters remained, it exposed the hostile architecture.

Although many developments target vulnerable, unhoused populations, the effort effectively makes the space hostile to all citizens in a given urban area.

Hostile architecture has adapted over the years and differs within different urban environments. When examining urban areas like Portland, it is important to consider the deliberate design choices which may contradict social comfort, particularly in the most sociable public spaces.

An honors thesis—published in 2020 by Mathew Carr—explored the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) agenda which led to the development of hostile architecture, described as “a detrimental form of urban exclu-

PSU Vanguard • NOVEMBER 9, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

sionism,” Carr stated.

In its conception in 1971, CPTED initially framed its goals as a fight against crime rather than what we know now to be an attack and criminalization of poverty, perpetuating the victimization of marginalized communities.

Carr gives us six considerations of CPTED that we can see in current urban design which interact with each other.

First, territoriality involves marking spaces with signs and fences to deter improper use, both in public and private areas.

Second, natural surveillance reduces privacy, making it easier to observe activities in a given space.

Third, access control restricts entry points, limits movement and may include security measures, such as locks and bolts.

Fourth, activity support designates areas for approved activities and encourages proper behavior in a sanctioned way.

Fifth, image and management involves maintaining buildings based on visibility and public perception, such as removing sites for health concerns and cleaning up graffiti.

Lastly, target hardening is making other security tactics stronger and more focused by adding extra security measures.

These tactics involve categorizing behaviors and space uses into acceptable or unacceptable, which can negatively impact all citizens, not just those some see as undesirable and criminal.

“If somebody specifically designed the space that way—not for lack of funding, but to expressly exclude people for a long time— that is one of the most deceitful and hurtful things you can have for your population,” said Josh, a Portland resident and volunteer with the Portland Saturday Market. “Being a public servant is your job. Your job is to help provide a better life for all people in that area rather than explicitly trying to ruin someone’s day

while they are waiting for the bus.”

Josh has seen amenities—such as bathrooms—removed and replaced with hostile architecture. “I’ve tried to sit down [on a bench] and gotten spiked,” Josh said.

Dano—another Portland resident—has familiarity and experience with hostile architecture due to their personal experience being houseless. “[It’s] blatantly anti-homeless, with the most obvious being bench dividers or even sometimes spikes, or there will be a ledge in front of a business, and they’ll put a rock on there so it’s hostile but still easy to look at, and it really is a getout-of-my-community sort of thing,” Dano said.

Both Josh and Dano mentioned bathrooms and how limiting access leads to people blaming unhoused populations for circumstances that they have no control over. “If you aren't allowed access to a restroom, what are you going to do?” Dano said. “You’re gonna do it in public and people get upset about that, but nobody wants to face the solution.”

The desire to keep amenities from the undesirable has limited public access to necessary and beneficial resources for everyone.

The primary amenity needed is bathroom access. Public bathrooms have almost completely disappeared, leaving vulnerable populations as the first to feel this effect. This includes the elderly and disabled, who are also a large percentage of the unhoused population.

“As someone who doesn’t have a physical disability, it affects me,” Dano said. “So I can only imagine what that is [like] for those who have physical disabilities.”

Hostile architecture is anti-human life. Whether you are the population it attacks or not, you are affected by it.

SCIENCE & TECH

7

A LOOK AT

WHITNEY McPHIE

INVISIBLE FORCE

CREATING A MORE INCLUSIVE AND ACCESSIBLE WORLD FOR ALL MACIE HARRELD A new art and literary magazine is currently underway in Portland called Invisible Force. Its “biggest goal is [for] people that are disabled to be able to tell their story,” said Anna Culver—Portland Community College student, musician, artist and the magazine’s art director.

Invisible Force originated as a student collaboration at PCC’s Accessible Ed & Disability Resources center. However, it has grown into a worldwide project, open to contributions from “anyone in the disability community or affiliated with the disability community,” said Heidi Shepherd, the editor-in-chief at Invisible Force.

This includes “people with disabilities and illnesses and also people who work and live in these types of communities,” Shepherd said. “[They] can submit articles, art, just anything that they feel needs to be seen or heard or read.”

This magazine is open to submissions in many forms, including poetry, sculpture, ceramics, photography, news or fiction stories.

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ARTS & CULTURE

“I wanted this to be a creation that goes outside of the box of the normal—[of ] what’s normally in a magazine,” Shepherd said. “And so I thought, ‘Song lyrics, rap lyrics—any type of creative work that we can get into print, let’s put it in here. Let’s not have a rigid parameter of what goes in.’”

The published works will represent many themes and interests. Phurbu Dolma—a contributor and design editor—explained a vision including spotlight articles on individuals with disabilities, addressing how people without disabilities can better support those with disabilities, destigmatizing mental illnesses and a column informing people who use wheelchairs or have mobility restrictions about the accessibility of spaces and events in Portland.

Invisible Force is unique in the ways that it reduces barriers to contributor submissions.

One way the magazine prioritizes accessibility is by eliminating stringent deadlines and allowing contributors to submit work on a flexible, rolling schedule from one issue to the next.

Shepherd explains that the goal is to publish every single submission. This might require one-on-one development between editors and contributors. However, ultimately, “that is what this magazine is all about,” Shepherd said. “Breaking down those barriers and showing people that you can do things in a different way and still be just as successful.”

Another of the magazine’s goals is to create a space for people with disabilities to represent themselves. Their representation is not sufficiently or accurately present in our society, in many forms of media, in many workforces— including the federal government—and in our educational institutions. Shepherd points to the reality that students with disabilities in United States public schools are often separated or hidden from the wider student population.

“If we could create classrooms where we— all the students—were together, there would be no invisible community, because we would grow up knowing people with wheelchairs,” Shepherd said. “We would grow up knowing

people with Tourette syndrome. We would grow up knowing people with crutches. We would grow up knowing people with visible disabilities and invisible disabilities, and we wouldn’t see them as different anymore.”

This is the reason for the name Invisible Force, because the magazine “will break down the stereotype of an invisible group of people versus people who are seen and heard,” Shepherd said.

Kimberly Juarez—a PCC graduate and a current student at PSU—is the art director for Invisible Force. “I’m inspired by the magazine, because my whole life I’ve struggled with not really being seen or understood with my disability,” Juarez said.

“I grew up in a family that didn’t really believe in mental health. So for me, most of my life was painful, because I didn’t know what was going on,” Juarez said. “If there’s someone else that’s feeling that way—that they’re not understood or they just feel like an outcast—I’d like for someone to be able to read [the magazine] and know that they’re not

PSU Vanguard • NOVEMBER 9, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

COURTESY OF HEIDI SHEPHERD Heidi Shepherd—editor-in-chief of Invisible Force—aims to provide an inclusive platform for individuals with disabilities to publish their work

COURTESY OF ANNA CULVER Anna Culver—art director and contributor for Invisible Force—created the first issue’s cover art as a symbol of people with disabilities refusing to remain silent and hidden

alone and there’s someone in a similar position as them.”

Invisible Force functions to create a community for people with disabilities, but it is also an educational resource for those outside the disability community. Dolma and Juarez expressed hope for this magazine to counter frequent issues experienced by people with disabilities, such as invasive questions, harmful stereotypes and a diminishing of their unique personhood.

“I have a disability, but I do not like to define myself with it,” Dolma said. “I am still a person emphasizing the importance that others [not] define me by a disability. Get to know me as a human… It just seems like people get so scared or afraid of certain disabilities because of negative stereotypes growing up, and it’s understandable to a point, [but] you

have access to learn as well.”

People with disabilities use Invisible Force to represent themselves and engage their readers with perspectives and realities that mainstream culture often ostracizes. “I feel like that’s what we’re mostly seen as—as an Other,” Juarez said.

“Like, when you think of someone who has a disability, you automatically think of them as weak, but it shouldn’t be that way. It should just be [that] it’s another person, and that person can do beautiful things just like you can.”

The first issue of Invisible Force will feature a work of art created by Culver. The piece depicts a glowing heart overlaid against a black backdrop. Within the heart is a speckled rainbow, with each strand corresponding to the symbolic colors of the disability pride flag.

PSU Vanguard • NOVEMBER 9, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

COURTESY OF HEIDI SHEPHERD A sneak peak at the mock-up for issue 23 of Invisible Force featuring Culver’s original artwork Culver explained how the color scheme of the artwork represents Invisible Force, and how those who contribute to it are “trying to make this light—this little light—shine into this huge darkness,” Culver said. “And to be aware that there are these people that are disabled, and we’re not going to be hidden anymore, and we’re not going to be silenced.”

The magazine advocates for people with disabilities, and by doing so, it effectively advocates for a more equitable world in general.

The interests of this community—establishing more flexible journalism standards, encouraging more physically-accessible spaces,

body positivity and equitable media representation—benefit everyone.

“I want the magazine to have such an appeal that people just gravitate to it, and they pick it up, and they just don’t even realize that it’s a disability magazine made by people with disabilities,” Shepherd said.

“There’s so many things in there that we can all relate to,” Shepherd said. “You don’t have to have a disability to understand heartache.

You don’t have to have a disability to understand rejection. You don’t have to have a disability to understand not being comfortable in your own body.”

ARTS & CULTURE

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Letters from the editors MEET WHITNEY McPHIE, VANGUARD'S CURRENT CREATIVE DIRECTOR Hello, friends of Portland State Vanguard! I’m Whitney. I’ve been Vanguard’s creative director since June 2022. I’m a senior in the graphic design program and have loved getting experience in the editorial design world. My time at Vanguard has opened doors for me in the community beyond school. I am especially interested in experiential design, however, I really love all design disciplines.

The past couple of years with Vanguard have been rich! Before I became creative director, I was a design contributor and copyeditor for a year. Joining Vanguard is one of the most valuable decisions I’ve made in college. I’ve gotten hands-on experience at an award-winning publication. I’ve been able to work with incredibly talented, hardworking students. I’ve become more involved in our campus community and more in touch with what’s going on in our world. I’ve acquired a wide set of skills, many of which will transfer to just about any career path I might explore.

To see Portland State students and the Portland community engaged with our papers is really rewarding, and designing to help stories come to life and reach bigger audiences is empowering. Getting this experience and growing with the unstoppable Vanguard crew has been an immense honor!

Finally, my introduction is also serving as my farewell, as I am stepping down from the creative director role after this issue. I’m confident in where this paper is headed in the future with such a strong staff, and am pleased to hand the creative director torch over to Briana Cieri for its next chapter!

COURTESY OF WHITNEY MCPHIE

Take it away, Bri!

Whitney McPhie, Vanguard's current creative director

MEET BRIANA CIERI, VANGUARD'S NEW CREATIVE DIRECTOR Hiiiiiiii there! My name is Briana and I am the new creative director at Portland State Vanguard. I am a junior in the graphic design program and am excited to start my first design job after passing the sophomore portfolio review. I am looking forward to giving back to the Portland State community and being more involved with what is happening all over campus.

As a designer, I am really passionate about color theory, typography, nostalgic aesthetics, as well as printmaking! Over time, I strive to combine my current passions of graphic design with the content of Vanguard, to create enticing issues that people look forward to reading. I am super excited about taking this position, because it had been a dream of mine when I was younger to work for a magazine or newspaper. I definitely owe it to my younger self to extract as much out of this position as possible, and plan to do that by playing with intriguing layouts, thought provoking covers, as well as experimental typography when appropriate.

Through my time at Vanguard, I really want to spread awareness about the newspaper itself, which will also promote the stories in Vanguard too. Vanguard is so valuable to PSU as it brings our community together, and I want to further that connection through good design. After going through the sophomore portfolio, I realized that I value helping people and local communities through my design, and am very grateful to get the chance to do that through Vanguard. I envision my time at Vanguard being filled with lots of meaningful work that allows me to grow my design skills and connection to the PSU community. Looking forward to a great year with y’all!

COURTESY OF BRIANA CIERI Briana Cieri, Vanguard's new creative director

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MEET THE TEAM

PSU Vanguard • NOVEMBER 9, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

NEWS CROSSWORD ANSWERS IN STORIES ZOË BUHRMASTER

11/2/23, 11:53 AM

vanguard 5 - Crossword Labs

vanguard 5 Across:

1

4. the month PSU Scholarship Universe opens for the 2024–2025 academic year

2 3

6. a worldwide creative project for anyone in the disability community

4

7. n umber of weeks left in fall term, spelled out

Down: 1. current minimum wait time for a prospective Portland State Vanguard contributors, spelled out 2. number of students currently on the waitlist to work at Vanguard, spelled out

5

6

7

3. PCC student, musician and artist to be featured in first issue of a disability advocacy magazine 5. number of weeks it should take for a contributor’s contract to go through, spelled out

Across

Down

4. the month PSU Scholarship Universe opens for the 2024-2025 Academic Year

1. current wait time for a contributor write for Vanguard

6. a worldwide creative project for anyone in the disability community

2. how many students currently on th work at Portland State Vanguard

7. weeks of the quarter left

3. PCC student, musician, and artist t featured in firstCROSSWORD issue of disability-adv 11 magazine

PSU Vanguard • NOVEMBER 9, 2023 • psuvanguard.com

Community & Wellness Resources UPDATED WEEKLY

By Kat Leon

Happening soon Inside Biden’s Cuba Policy SMSU 294 Nov. 13, 5:30 p.m.

Free for students Cuban journalist and filmmaker Liz Oliva Fernández discusses Belly of the Beast documentaries which expose what’s driving Cuba policy under President Joe Biden

Trans Women Community Project Gathering Women’s Resource Center Nov. 15, 12 p.m.

Free for students

Community

Wellness

PSU Basic Needs Hub

SHAC Mind Spa

SMSU Suite 435 Mon–Fri, 9 a.m.–5 p.m.

Free for students

UCB Suite 310 Mon–Fri (by appointment) Free for students

Helps students access resources such as funds, food, housing, employment, childcare and health support

Solo space to experience biofeedback, light therapy, meditation, massages, relaxation and more. Must be enrolled in at least five credits for summer or fall.

PSU Food Pantry 1704 SW Broadway (temporary location) Tues–Thur, 12–4 p.m.

Free for students Access to free groceries in a welcoming, equitable, trauma-informed way. Must be enrolled in at least one credit for summer or fall.

SMART Recovery Meetings

Bipolar Student Connection Coco Donuts Tues 12 p.m.

Free for students Casual meetup every Tuesday for the remainder of the fall term where you can bring homework and study! It’s a way to meet new people and chat.

Mindful Meanderings

Come share your experiences, build community and celebrate trans bodies and history through activities, storytelling and dialogue

University Center Building 340 E Times vary Free

Feminist of Color Community Project Gathering

In peer recovery, students with shared experiences connect to reduce stigma and build a campus recovery community

Women’s Resource Center Nov. 15, 4 p.m.

Free for students

SHAC Weekly Online Parent Support Group

Telus Health Student Support

FOCCP centers on the lived experience of students of color, and fosters community through storytelling, connection and exploring dialogue of feminist possibilities

Online Thursdays 11 a.m.

Free

Download on App Store or Google Play Available 24/7 Free

Paint & Sip

Come together as parents in a relaxed setting to support each other, share ideas, collaborate and commiserate

Connecting students with free, confidential mental health and wellbeing support

SMSU 294 Nov. 15, 4 p.m.

Free for students

Community Technology Space

Destress after midterms and prepare for finals with some music and tasty boba along with canvas painting!

Research in Review: Ketamine SMSU 296 Nov. 15, 6:30 p.m.

Free for students Come learn about the history of ketamine and its role in the treatment of depression

PSU Serve Your City Shorts Hollywood Fred Meyer Nov. 16, 8:20 a.m.

Free for students

730 SW 10th Ave. Suite 111 (entrance on SW 9th Ave.) Mon–Fri, 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

Free Multnomah County official cooling center with access to free technology, internet, limited books and events

Oregon Energy Fund Varying Locations Mon–Fri, hours vary Free Provides energy bill assistance to low-income Oregonians to support household stability

Listen on Spotify Available 24/7 Free PSU-produced podcast about being mindful while outside, practicing gratitude, finding joy and being in the moment

Workshop Wednesday Video Series Watch on Youtube Available 24/7 Free PSU Campus Recreation Center staff videos about topics ranging from Leave No Trace and plant identification to hiking spots and land acknowledgments

BORP Online Fitness Studio Watch on Zoom Mon–Sat, hours vary Free Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program’s (BORP) virtual exercise classes for people with physical disabilities

Join us to shop for groceries for those who are homebound. Think of it as a fun, in-store scavenger hunt for a great cause!

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RESOURCES

PSU Vanguard • NOVEMBER 9, 2023 • psuvanguard.com