Portland State Vanguard 10-4-12

A tangled web of beauty and cruelty

NEWS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 ARTS & CULTURE............ 6 OPINION........................ 10 SPORTS........................ .. 14

Imago Theatre’s The Black Lizard returns to the stage ARTS & CULTURE PAGE 6

FREE The Vanguard is published every Tuesday and Thursday

PSUVANGUARD.COM PUBLISHED SINCE 1946

PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY THURSDAY, OCT. 4, 2012 | VOL. 67 NO. 11

Students Professor takes one small step gear up for Cameron Smith builds his own protest, space suit activism MATTHEW ELLIS VANGUARD STAFF

Political group outlines vision Inspired by the recent student protests in Quebec, Canada, a small group of Portland State University activists has set out to mobilize students and their potential as a prominent political force.

The group is known as StAC, short for Student Action Coalition, and intends to act on issues like tuition hikes and student debt.

At first, near the end of spring term in June, the number of people attending the meetings hovered in the 20s. Now that fall term is underway and more students are back on campus, StAC is gearing up for the coming year and hopes to attract new members.

“We want to bring back a spirit of

Americans have had a presence in space since 1961, when Alan Shepard first crawled into a tiny metal capsule and left Earth. Since then, the U.S. government has been responsible for taking each and every astronaut there.

Cameron Smith wants to change that.

For the past three years, Smith, a professor of anthropology at Portland State University, has been building a pressure suit he plans to take up to 50,000 feet to what NASA calls “space equivalent conditions.”

In addition to the suit, Smith is in the beginning stages of a plan to build an open-air balloon that will carry him into the lower stratosphere.

While some may find this work strange coming from an anthropologist, Smith simply sees it as the next step in hominid evolution.

“We take a lot of control over our own evolution, and one of the ways

See ACTIVISM on page 5

See SPACE SUIT on page 2

JOSH KELETY VANGUARD STAFF

MILES SANGUINETTI/VANGUARD STAFF

CAMERON SMITH, a PSU anthropology professor, works on space suit he’s building.

A living laboratory New green roof installed on Cramer Hall CASSANDRA MOORE VANGUARD STAFF

MILES SANGUINETTI/VANGUARD STAFF

CONSTRUCTION on the ecoroof above Cramer Hall began Sept. 22.

Austin Hudson, a graduate civil engineering student, would like to fly over Portland State and not be able to tell the Park Blocks from university building rooftops.

“I’d like to see green roofs everywhere,” he said. That’s why he is part of a student group, Engineers Without Borders, that recently built a green roof on Cramer Hall.

The installation of the 1,920-squarefoot green roof began Sept. 22. A crane lifted 20 planter boxes, sized 8 by 12 feet, and giant bags of soil onto the roof, making a living laboratory that will host many different classes.

Green roofs range from lightweight, 3-inch ground covers to humanaccessible parks. The soil atop Cramer Hall will not exceed 6 inches, and the plants will mostly be small grasses and succulents called sedums, a common ecoroof crop. Edible thyme and wild strawberries will make up 5 percent of the rooftop.

Theo Malone, a member of EWB, said Cramer Hall won’t be a food-producing rooftop garden, but

that might be a goal for future green roof projects.

“Typically, ecoroofs aren’t food producing. Not yet,” Malone said.

“I say ‘yet’ because someday they will be.” Malone is one of the few graduate students involved with the project.

“We will be testing native and nonnative plants side by side to determine their efficacy on ecoroofs [in Portland],” Malone explained.

Students will also determine what soil types are most effective and least expensive.

The soil in each planter box varies in unit weight—some have more organic matter and some are lighter and mixed with more perlite, a highly-permeable volcanic material common in store-bought potting soil.

Another benefit of green roofs is how they control stormwater runoff and help to prevent sewer system overflow—common in Portland until the completion of the $1.4 billion Big Pipe project last year.

The planter boxes have three main components that help control stormwater runoff. When it rains,

water seeps through the soil and through a thin geosynthetic material beneath, which holds soil in but lets water out.

Below that is a waffle-like slab called a geomembrane. The geomembrane both protects the roof and allows water to drip freely from the boxes so it can trickle across the roof into storm drains.

The rate of flow will be slower having gone through the planter boxes, reducing the risk of sewer system overflow.

The water’s temperature will also be warmer, which is better for the waterways it will end up in. “Fish don’t like water that is too cold,” Hudson said.

Along with the Big Pipe project, the City of Portland is hoping to control water flow with smaller projects like green roofs and bioswales—a mechanism that both controls the rate of flow into storm drains and filters out pollutants.

Because the weight of a green roof can exceed engineering limits, Cramer Hall had to be inspected first.

The wall surrounding the rooftop is shorter than the Occupational Safety and Health Administration allows, See ECOROOF on page 2

2

VANGUARD • THURSDAY, OCT. 4, 2012 • NEWS

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EDITOR@PSUVANGUARD.COM

Erick Bengel

NEWS EDITOR NEWS@PSUVANGUARD.COM

Deeda Schroeder

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR ARTS@PSUVANGUARD.COM

Louie Opatz

OPINION EDITOR OPINION@PSUVANGUARD.COM

Meredith Meier

SPORTS EDITOR SPORTS@PSUVANGUARD.COM

Cory Mimms

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR ASSOCIATENEWS@PSUVANGUARD.COM

NEWS

Indigenous solidarity Event brings students, faculty, community together ERIK MUTZKE VANGUARD STAFF

Whitney Beyer

PRODUCTION MANAGER PRODUCTION@PSUVANGUARD.COM

Elizabeth Thompson

PHOTO EDITOR PHOTO@PSUVANGUARD.COM

Kayla Nguyen

ONLINE EDITOR ONLINE@PSUVANGUARD.COM

Claudette Raynor

CALENDAR EDITOR CALENDAR@PSUVANGUARD.COM

Jordan Molnar

COPY CHIEF COPY@PSUVANGUARD.COM

Emily Gravlin

ADVERTISING MANAGER VGDISPAD@GMAIL.COM

Iris Meyers

ADVERTISING DESIGNER Romeo Salazar

ADVISER Judson Randall

ADVERTISING ADVISER Ann Roman

DESIGNERS Tom Cober, Danielle Fleishman, Colton Major, Maria Perala

WRITERS Kat Audick, Zach Bigalke, Mary Breaden, Chris Carpenter, Gino Cerruti, Becca Cotton, Shanna Cranston, Matthew Ellis, Marco España, Crystal Gardener, Melinda Guilén, Rosemary Hanson, Isaac Hotchkiss, Ravleen Kaur, Nicholas Kula, Josh Kelety, Rusne Kuzmickas, Andrew Lawrence, Austin Maggs, Andrew Morse, Alex Moore, Erik Mutzke, Cassandra Moore, Kaela O’Brien, Alle Powers, Katie Quick, Kevin Rackham, Patrick Rogers, Eva-Jeanette Rawlins, Jeoffry Ray, Benjamin Ricker, Austen Ruzicka, Maya Seaman, Gwen Shaw, Scottie White

PHOTOGRAPHERS Daniel Johnston, Karl Kuchs, Jinyi Qi, Miles Sanguinetti, Corinna Scott

VIDEOGRAPHER VIDEO@PSUVANGUARD.COM

Jann Messer

COPY EDITORS Kylie Byrd, Rachel Porter

ADVERTISING SALES Sam Gressett, Brittany Laureys, Kari Tate

DISTRIBUTORS Erik Mutzke, Katie Quick

EDITOR: DEEDA SCHROEDER NEWS@PSUVANGUARD.COM 503-725-3883

Portland State’s first-ever Indigenous Solidarity event will be held at the Native American Student and Community Center Monday, Oct. 8.

The event has been set up as a gathering and orientation for the indigenous student groups, faculty members and community affiliated with PSU. “At the start of the academic year it is very difficult to get the ball rolling for student groups on campus, and this is the goal of our event,” said Rachel Cushman, NASCC programming coordinator.

The general mission of the NASCC is to create intercultural alliances and dialogue in the native community. The events on Monday are geared toward that commitment.

This moment is a ‘Wright Brothers era’ for space exploration, PSU professor says

“With this day, we want to create a sense of home and belonging for the indigenous students and community on campus,” Cushman said.

While the event has a strong backing and sponsorship by Native American Student Services and the Diversity and Multicultural Student Services departments, student participation and community involvement are also helping to bring it together.

“Most of what we’re doing comes from student participation,” Cushman said.

“The events we have done through the years have generally been made possible through grassroots community engagement.”

The Indigenous Solidarity event is a full day of orientation and events from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and includes tours of the NASCC and its impressive display of indigenous art, a meet-and-greet potluck, and an evening lecture and book signing by prominent Native American activist and writer Gyasi Ross.

ECOROOF from page 1

Cramer Hall’s green roof cost $5 per square foot to install so students are not allowed on the rooftop without Facilities and Planning supervision.

According to Hudson, green roofs cost anywhere from $5 to $25 per square foot. “We want to see how far we can go with a budget of $5 per square foot,” he said. EWB received a $5-per-square-foot budget from PSU’s Bureau of Environmental Services.

Additional funding from the Associated Students of Portland State University provides a short-term maintenance budget.

“Facilities and Planning was hesitant to let us do this,” Hudson said. He explained that they didn’t want to have to maintain the roof. Hudson said that because the goal is to make the roof maintenancefree, the department was pacified.

A common problem with student projects is maintenance. After students graduate, there is often no one to take over a project. Cramer Hall will be different because built into the project’s 10-year design life is an initiative to get new students and underclassmen involved. Hudson hopes they will not only carry forth the project, but be inspired to create other projects as well. “[These projects] are empowering,” said Hudson.

“For me, this makes going to school bearable. It is a creative outlet, it makes education feel important. After I graduated [with a bachelor’s degree] I didn’t feel ready to work. But you finish projects like this and you feel like you’ve accomplished something.”

The Vanguard is published twice weekly as an independent student newspaper governed 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 subscription issues may incur a 25 cent charge.

The Vanguard is printed on 40 percent post-consumer recycled paper. ©2011 PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY VANGUARD 1825 SW BROADWAY SMITH MEMORIAL STUDENT UNION, RM. S-26 PORTLAND OR, 97201

SPACE SUIT from page 1

MILES SANGUETTI/VANGUARD STAFF

STUDENTS help build Cramer’s Hall new ecoroof.

MILES SANGUETTI/VANGUARD STAFF

CAMERON SMITH models his homemade space suit. The PSU anthropology professor spent his own money to buld it.

is by manipulating objects,” Smith said. “Whether it is by a pressure suit in the stratosphere, or somebody sawing antlers into pieces and using it as a puncturing tool 20,000 years ago, it is the same thing.”

Smith began work on his pressure suit in 2009 using parts he purchased on eBay, including a 1984 Soviet flight helmet that cost $350.

Although he has lost track of the total cost of the project to date (he has a “bucket of receipts” somewhere), he estimates he has spent less than the cost of a used car.

With the suit nearing completion, Smith is facing the next hurdle. It shadows the entire future of space exploration: the logistics of the testing and deployment into space in an industry fractured by budgetary constraints.

Smith also is battling a fear of public disappointment.

“I’ve met a lot of NASA people who are demoralized at the state of NASA. It has become fossilized; a ‘can’t do’ rather than a ‘can do’ operation,” Smith explained.

Because the technology for exploration has leaked into the private sector, Smith sees this

moment as a “Wright Brothers era.” It’s only a matter of time until someone delivers cheap access to space, he explained.

Pat Hanrahan, planetarium director at Mt. Hood Community College, worries more about the state of NASA and the government’s involvement in space exploration, and sees the private sector’s recent interest as a fad: “We as a culture need to value science and space exploration, and the government needs more money to be involved.”

Hanrahan points to the cell phone, explaining that its parts were only abstract science mere decades ago.

Through principles tested

by NASA it evolved into the technology it is today.

The impasse is unlikely to resolve itself soon, but Smith continues to build his suit and test for his upcoming voyage.

Unlike Paul Allen or Richard Branson, two famously wealthy investors funneling large amounts of time and money into space tourism, Smith’s personal interest seems tempered with his scientific credentials.

“For 200 years, European explorers described the Antarctic as a wasteland.

But then we go there, and it’s not just a void,” Smith said. “There is a complex ecosystem there, and I think the stratosphere is the same thing.”

The peak of Mount Everest is roughly 30,000 feet above sea level, and commercial airlines barely reach 40,000. While military planes can reach 50,000, Smith explained that they have different priorities; they are not looking at the atmosphere.

The enviroment is extremely cold and, according to Hanrahan, slightly darker than what lies below.

This radically different environment poses interesting scientific possibilities to Smith, who said that emerging research in microbes within the stratosphere is beginning to radically change existing scientific paradigms.

Ignoring budget debates and the private versus public argument, Smith practices what he views as participating in human evolution by taking the first steps himself.

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS •• TUESDAY, TUESDAY, • •THURSDAY, TUESDAY, JANUARY JANUARY OCT. MAY24, 17, 4, 1, 2012 • VANGUARD

3

Student Parent Services New resource center opens in Smith MARY BREADEN VANGUARD STAFF

Lisa Wittorff, coordinator of the Resource Center for Students with Children, knows that raising a child while taking classes is not easy.

“I’m a single parent,” Wittorff said. “I know what it’s like.”

This first-hand knowledge of the “juggling act” of being a single parent is part of what makes Wittorff look forward to helping other parents at Portland State who might feel overwhelmed.

The center formerly existed on the first floor of the Smith Memorial Student Union and was known as Student Parent Services.

While SPS was limited to helping students with more urgent needs, such as emergency loans, child care scholarships or short-term child care, the new RCSC provides a comfortable family room with features that put children and their parents at ease.

“With more space, we can do more things,” Wittorff said.

Now the center has couches, a refrigerator and microwave, a study table, toys for the kids and a wall stocked with children’s clothing.

The university still has a long way to go before student parents are close to having a more comfortable student experience, she said. Wittorff cited limited on-campus housing options for families, a small number of spaces for parents with nursing children, and

a short supply of on-campus child care options as issues parents face.

She estimates that approximately one-fifth of students have children, and that the majority of those students are single mothers.

Confirming these estimates was a 2010–11 task force that Portland State President Wim Wiewel commissioned to examine the needs, met and unmet, of PSU students with children.

The task force report found that three-fourths of the student parents at Portland State are women and that over half of those women are single parents.

The task force also determined that the university needed to expand child care on campus for student parents, provide more financial assistance to student parents and provide more family-friendly spaces on campus.

When grouped together, at least three-fourths of PSU employees with children and students with children said they would use on-campus child care if it were available, the task force found.

Though securing a slot for a child at the Helen Gordon Child Development Center—the largest child care provider on Portland State’s campus—takes too long for many student parents, those who are able to enroll their children speak highly of the HGCDC. The HGCDC’s convenient location and student discounts make it very popular.

“I was on the waitlist for a year and a half for Helen Gordon,” said Deena Anreise, a graduate student in the publishing program. Once she

photo coming soon

KAYLA NGUYEN/VANGUARD STAFF

SENIOR MEGAN BERGSTROM and her 14-month-old son, Lucius, enjoy the family room at the new resource center for students with children. was able to enroll her son at the HGCDC, she was very satisfied.

“Having that on campus was a lifesaver,” Anreise said.

“I could just go over and hang out with him while I was on lunch. It’s really great.”

Ellie Justice, director of the HGCDC, expressed her hope that Portland State will continue to strive to meet the needs of all students with children.

“I wish we had more capacity on campus, but we’re still trying to accommodate exist-

A new light for every generation Portland State electricians hope to install long-lasting, sustainable bulbs on campus ANDREW MORSE VANGUARD STAFF

Along the path on the south side of the Science Research and Teaching Center, four pole lights have become “Mick’s experimental lighting project.”

Mick Nelson and Ryan Roberts, Portland State’s electrical supervisor and lead electrician, respectively, have installed a different type of bulb in each of the four lights.

One is the type currently used throughout campus, while the other three are different energy-efficient bulb types.

A placard is posted on each pole explaining the technical specifications and projected long-term costs of each of the different bulbs. The project was dedicated to former provost Roy Koch—a champion of sustainable practices—as part of his retirement ceremonies last spring.

Nelson and Roberts are trying to figure out which energy efficient bulb would do the job best in the 248 similar pole lights scattered across campus. Despite clear-cut financial, resource and safety benefits, the project has yet to be approved because it lacks funding. The estimated cost for the labor and materials needed to replace all the outdoor pole lights is $225,000.

Most of these fixtures now house non-environmentallyfriendly bulbs. They contain

mercury, provide orangehued light that pollutes the night sky and have to be replaced every few years.

With new technology, these problems can be eliminated. Nelson and Roberts hope to go with mercury-free LED bulbs; these bulbs are designed to project all their light downward and produce light that closely mimics daylight. The bulbs only need to be replaced every 17 years.

The LED bulbs also use less wattage and emit three times as much light. “We’re going to get more light with less maintenance,” Nelson said.

Both electricians were quick to stress another aspect of campus-wide light bulb replacement: safety. Because the bulbs produce daylight-quality light, it would be easier to identify suspi-

ing students,” Justice said, adding that her participation in the president’s task force last year was an attempt to outline those needs.

“I’m really excited about the possibilities,” Justice said of the RCSC’s expansion. “Many people at PSU recognize that we have a large amount of nontraditional students…Our students have multiple things pulling on them.”

In addition to the shortage of child care options, Wittorff said PSU should also expand its on-campus housing options

for students with children.

According to a spokesperson in the office for University Housing and Residence Life, the Blackstone and Parkway residence halls are most suitable for students with children. Eight of the twobedroom units are designated for families.

Within these particular residence halls, referred to as “the historics,” the prospective student-parent family is likely to be surrounded by a mix of other students, though residents are, according to

Housing, more likely to be upperclassmen.

The lack of family housing on a commuter campus can be detrimental to the student parent’s ability to find a supportive community for his or her diverse needs as a parent, Wittorff said.

However, she is optimistic about her office’s transition from the limitations of being simply a provider of services to being able to “build community for [the students] and to help them to be a voice for themselves.”

cious people on campus.

Whereas the hue of the current bulbs has a tendency to distort the color of objects their light falls upon, the new bulbs would create a what-you-seeis-what-you-get situation: for example, a green jacket would look like a green jacket rather than some shade of brown.

Though the electricians are passionate about what they do, they stress the ultimate beneficiaries of their work: “It’s all about the students,” Roberts said.

The electricians are currently seeking a source of funding and strongly emphasize the longterm savings on electricity and continuous bulb replacement.

The initial funding came from donations secured during Koch’s retirement last spring. Along with the sustainable garden near Lincoln Hall, the lighting project appealed to Koch’s mission.

“Because of Roy’s commitment to sustainability, [the electricians] thought it would be a good way to recognize him,” said Donna Bergh, special assistant to the provost.

Though the Office of Academic Affairs didn’t contribute

money directly, it helped gather small donations from the campus community in honor of Koch’s decades-long service to the university.

illustrated that the word is getting out. At least one campus tour guide stopped her group at one of the light poles and explained what was going on with them. Another student said he had just been looking at the placards.

Taking a break between classes near the site, student Mary Robbins offered her opinion of the lights. For her it’s a matter of safety: “Especially downtown, espec-ially here, because less people travel here at night,” Robbins said, referring specifically to the southwest corner of campus.

When asked if she thought PSU’s emphasis on sustainability should be reflected in every possible way, right down to the smallest light bulb, Robbins responded that large institutions like PSU need to set an example.

“If bigger organizations don’t do it, smaller organizations won’t.”

Anyone who would like to weigh in on the issue is encouraged to send Nelson feedback at minelson@pdx. edu.

Taking a break between classes near the site, student Mary Robbins offered her opinion of the lights. For her it’s a matter of safety: “Especially downtown, especially here, because less people travel here at night.”

Koch’s name appears on each of the placards near the SRTC. The OAA hasn’t received any feedback on the project; neither have the electricians.

The project was kick-started over the summer when fewer students and faculty were on campus. Nevertheless, the electricians were able to get the ball rolling sooner than later because of the donations, Bergh explained.

A brief observation at the site of the lighting experiment

4

VANGUARD • THURSDAY, OCT. 4, 2012 • NEWS

Education abroad Traveling the world and knocking out college credits KAELA O’BRIEN VANGUARD STAFF

It is a dream of most college students to someday travel the world. But why not start while still in college?

“If you study at Portland State for your entire education, [you] can lack a global perspective,” said Blythe Knott, an education abroad advisor who coordinates programs in Africa, the Middle East and Oceania.

Portland State’s Education Abroad program is hosting their annual fair Thursday, Oct. 4. The event will be held in the Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom, room 335, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

At the fair, there will be informational desks representing the many possible programs that students can pick from. At each desk, students will find more detailed descriptions of specific programs with layouts of cost, curriculum and schedule.

There will also be a representative at each station who has either participated previously in the program or is very knowledgeable about the experience.

“All the players in one place,” as Knott put it.

Portland State students can choose from over 120 shortterm, long-term or internship options in 45 countries.

The benefits of participating in an education abroad program are numerous, Knott explained. She believes that students who go to school abroad gain exposure to new ways of thinking, living and viewing life from a new culture.

“It is hard to become really proficient in a language without living in it for several months,” Knott said.

Knott also explained the many ways students can afford education abroad.

“There are a number of direct exchange programs,”

Knott said, referring to the programs in which tuition abroad matches PSU’s tuition.

There are many scholarship options and the student’s financial aid award package— loans, grants and scholarships—all also apply.

“We will work with you on your focus. Whether it is learning a language or cost, we can make it work for you,” Knott said. She explained how myriad program choices make finding a program that fits any student’s budget much easier.

Another obstacle that worries some students is the issue of transferrable credits. However, Knott said that all programs have transferrable credits and that the department works very hard to make the program fit as seamlessly into your degree plan as possible.

If you are unable to make it to the fair, stop by during drop-in advising in East Hall, room 101, located at 632 SW Hall St. You can also receive advice on how to get started by contacting edabroad@pdx.edu.

Block Talk Armed officers on campus AUSTIN MAGGS VANGUARD STAFF

Every week, the Vanguard asks people around the PSU Park Blocks a hot-topic question.

How would you feel about campus security carrying guns?

Mechanical engineering sophomore Brandon Navas, 20, is skeptical of campus security using guns. “I’ve heard a lot of news lately about shootings, and they are getting progressively worse because people are getting better with guns. Maybe it would be nice if shooters were a little more hesitant for the reason that security are also using guns,” Navas said. “But then again, I wouldn’t want to have to go to a school where there are guns, so I’m a little conflicted.”

Reshell Smith, 24, a senior human resources and management student, feels it’s necessary for campus security to have guns for certain situations. “I think that they need to be protected and be able to protect others,” Smith said. “If having a gun is going to help alleviate some situation or stop some kind of crime, it doesn’t mean they have to use it, but the thought that it would be there and accessible if needed would be a good thing.”

Freshman Russian major Huell White, 20, has lived in the United Kingdom, where police don’t carry firearms. White believes firearms are unnecessary on a safe campus like PSU. “Especially in Portland, I don’t know if it’s entirely necessary. It seems like a bit of an overkill. Especially since we have trained personnel to use the weapons, and I keep hearing about people being shot because some cop drew his gun too early. It’s hard to tell. From what I’ve heard from my friends, it’s a pretty campus, so I don’t see why they would need to take an extra step,” White said.

Food For Thought: repairs underway

Sophomore theater arts student Bryan Kinder, 19, is apprehensive about guns. “I personally don’t like guns, nor the use of guns, because if they fall into the wrong hands, they can become dangerous weapons,” Kinder said. “I’m not sure I’m super comfortable with that, but if they’re trained in safety and they’re kept safe, I’m okay with it.”

COURTESY OF SMITTY S. BUCKLER

Repairs to Food For Thought Café are now underway. The café has been closed since the beginning of fall term because of flooding that caused an estimated $75,000 worth of damage.

New faculty profile: Jenny Liu GWEN SHAW VANGUARD STAFF

Jenny Liu, originally from Taiwan, isn’t new to the Portland State community, but she’s certainly new to the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning.

Fluent in Chinese and English, Liu began teaching

economics at PSU in 2010.

Her new job with the school, as an economist, is to support the types of things that planners do: figuring out land use and planning issues.

For both undergraduate and graduate school, Liu went to the University of California, Berkeley, where she focused

on development economics, environment economics and resource economics.

Liu is also a part of the Northwest Economic Research Center, a new PSU center focusing on applied economics.

“It’s more things like evaluating public policy and trying to figure out if you have a different kind of policy or different types of tax rebates for different industries and how that’s going to affect the Oregonians,” Liu said.

She believes that economics is a two-sided topic; people either love it or they hate it.

“I’m in the ‘I love economics’ group, but I totally understand people that don’t like it,” Liu said. “For me, it always clicked in my head; and when I first learned it, I took a class

ALL PHOTOS AUSTIN MAGGS/VANGUARD STAFF

in high school, and it was so amazing how it explained so much about the world.”

With that understanding, Liu believes that if she could give any advice to PSU students, it would be to take at least one economics class. She said it gives a solid explanation about how the world acts and reacts to things—not only individuals, but also firms.

Outside of economics, Liu enjoys the outdoors. Since moving to Portland from Berkeley in 2010, Liu has been slowly making her way through the 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Portland guidebook.

She has also traveled around the world, to more than 20 countries in Europe, South America, Asia and Africa.

“Traveling really gives you a good perspective on what

D’Vaughn McCrae, 19, a sophomore English student, feels that defense weapons are necessary on campus, but finds guns to be an extreme measure. “It seems unnecessary to me because how often would you need it on campus? The couple years, or year I’ve been here, there hasn’t been anything that extreme where you’d need a gun. Okay, a stun gun, sure, that could come in handy, but a gun seems a little extreme,” McCrae said. “I guess that would require more training for campus security, to make sure they know when to use it and how, since they’re easy to mess up with.”

KAYLA NGUYEN/VANGUARD STAFF

the world is like. It’s not like you’re always in the developed countries and urban cities,” Liu said. “Going to all these other not-as-developed cities

around the world gives you an idea of the different stages these cities are in and makes you appreciate what you have a lot more.”

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS •• TUESDAY, TUESDAY, • •THURSDAY, TUESDAY, JANUARY JANUARY OCT. MAY24, 17, 4, 1, 2012 • VANGUARD

5 3

ACTIVISM from page 1

Group plans to host visitors from Quebec student union resistance on campus,” said Christine Kane, one of the prominent organizers and original founders of StAC. “I think many students are pissed off; they just don’t know what to do about it.”

The Canadian protests began in February as a response to tuition hikes proposed by the government of Quebec.

As the months progressed, hundreds of thousands of students protested, resulting in the largest civil disobedience act in Canadian history.

On May 22, 500,000 students and other people marched through downtown Montreal.

StAC members wear red patches on their clothes in support of these kinds of movements, not just in Canada but nationally and around the globe.

Much of this mobilization came about because of the successes of the Quebec student union group known as CLASSE. Kane talked about StAC’s preliminary goal of forming a union similar to CLASSE. “Our long-term goal is to build a student union, going off of the model of student unions in Quebec, which is very bottom-up. A kind of direct

democracy model,” Kane said.

StAC members emphasized the political power of a people’s willingness to strike, and how that was a trait they wanted to cultivate among the PSU student body.

StAC plans to host key members of CLASSE, and to organize workshops where the Quebec student union leaders will explain how they pulled off such massive demonstrations.

“A tentative date is November 12, and the plan is to bring a couple of them down to Portland, and they would give workshops on organizing,” Kane said. “We really want to get the word out about that.”

StAC’s other main project is to help coordinate and mobilize a Nov. 3 protest of austerity measures that place a heavier burden on the general public.

The Portland Action Lab is the primary organizer of the event—a group born out of the Occupy movement and now a coalition of like-minded organizations, groups and associations.

“We felt that we could make the most of student energy and people who

MILES SANGUINETTI/VANGUARD STAFF

DAN MAZUZ (foreground), Eliabeth Lehr and Robin Ryan plan events for the Student Action Coalition.

have responded receptively to our message by being a part of this greater community movement,” said Dan Mazuz, a StAC organizer.

The location of the protest is yet to be determined.

StAC members defined their vision for a student union that operates outside of traditional student government functions and restraints.

“What we’re looking for is to create a dynamic structure that isn’t already there, where

students can really flex their muscles,” Mazuz said. “[Associated Students of Portland State University] is a representative model, and we want a direct democracy model,” Kane said.

Despite differences in the desired leadership model, StAC explained that ASPSU has been supportive. “[ASPSU President] Tiffany Dollar is very helpful,” said Eva Soto, a core organizer.

“We’re definitely not trying to go against ASPSU.”

ASPSU and StAC share the same goals of tuition equity, stopping tuition hikes and politically empowering students.

Marlon Holmes, vice president of ASPSU, voiced his support for StAC. “They are a group of dedicated individuals, both inside and outside the university, in the Portland community,” Holmes said. “We will be more than happy to work with them.”

To illustrate why both ASPSU and StAC feel the

need to mobilize, Holmes gave some rough statistics on PSU’s funding sources: “Twelve percent is coming from the state, 80 percent from the students and 8 percent from alumni and various investors,” Holmes said.

StAC plans to table around the PSU campus, and will hold weekly meetings on Tuesdays at 4 p.m. in Parkway North, the room adjacent to the Smith Memorial Student Union food court.

6

VANGUARD •• THURSDAY, THURSDAY,OCTOBER TUESDAY, JANUARY OCT. FEBRUARY JANUARY 4, 2012 10, 25, 26, 2, 2012 2011 •2012 ARTS •• •OPINION OPINION &ARTS CULTURE & CULTURE

ARTS & CULTURE

A tangled web of beauty and cruelty Imago Theatre’s The Black Lizard returns to the stage RACHELLE SCHMIDT VANGUARD STAFF

In case you were one of the unfortunate people who missed Imago Theatre’s production of Yukio Mishima’s The Black Lizard when it ran last spring, you’re in luck: The show that opened to glowing reviews in May is back to open Imago’s 2012–13 season.

Critics and audiences were mesmerized by the production’s roller coaster ride of suspense, drama, intrigue and eroticism (there is nudity).

The Vanguard’s own Joshua Hunt said the production “perfectly captures the vitality, depravity and eroticism of Mishima’s intense vision,” while The Oregonian called it “a wonderfully strange hybrid, constantly blending or shifting between stylistic conventions.”

The Black Lizard, which made its Englishlanguage premiere last spring, was written by

prolific Japanese playwright Yukio Mishima and translated for the Western stage by Mark Oshima and Portland State Professor of Japanese studies Laurence Kominz.

Prior to writing this play, Mishima was predominantly a formalist playwright in Japan.

With The Black Lizard, which Mishima adapted from the classic 1961 novel by Edogawa Rampo, he chose to break his own rules and create a hybrid of traditional Japanese kabuki and modern Japanese theater.

The play is a crime drama that incorporates various elements of traditional kabuki such as masks and dance interludes. It follows the intrigue that ensues between Black Lizard (Anne Sorce), a master jewel thief, and hard-boiled private investigator Kogoro Akechi (Matt DiBiasio), who is determined to stop her from stealing the prized Star of Egypt diamond.

When Black Lizard kidnaps the daughter of the wealthy jeweler who owns the diamond, things go awry, taking the audience on a spellbinding journey of danger, suspense and more than a little deception.

An obsession with beauty is one of the play’s primary themes. Kominz noted that the culture

William Stafford: a legacy with benefits Oregon author’s 100th birthday inspires writing contest TRISTAN COOPER VANGUARD STAFF

“I embrace emerging experience, I participate in discovery. I am a butterfly. I am not a butterfly collector. I want the experience of the butterfly.”

William Stafford’s words reverberate across college campuses, penetrating even the most cynical halls of learning. As a teacher and poet laureate, Stafford understood the tumultuous struggle of growth and self-definition that many students encounter.

On the eve of Stafford’s 100th birthday, Ooligan Press and PSU’s publishing program will celebrate his centennial with a writing contest. The William Stafford Project is calling all Oregon middle and high school students to submit their poems and essays inspired by, or in response to, Stafford’s works. The best entries from seventh- through 12th-grade students will be collected in a book, to be published in 2014.

Ooligan’s Laura Larrabee and Rachel Pass created the contest after receiving a letter from Oregon’s Poet Laureate, Paulann Petersen, which motivated them to get students involved.

“Poetry doesn’t tend to be a subject that kids get real excited about,” Larrabee said. “The goal

was to provide something that they could connect to and feel excited about.”

The contest officially launches Oct. 6 at the Oregon Council of Teachers of English Conference at Wilsonville High School. Submissions are to be created around and in reaction to Stafford’s works in the lesson plans.

Larrabee hopes that readers will benefit from the perspective of writers still in the transformative stages of self-discovery.

“They’re more connected with their visceral emotions at that age,” Larrabee said. “You can get some really amazing, honest, in-touch things from children that you wouldn’t necessarily get from adults.”

It is a testament to the potency of Stafford’s words that they could inspire young writers when Stafford himself did not publish his first substantial collection of poems, Traveling Through the Dark, until he was 48 years old.

Born in Hutchinson, Kan., in 1914, Stafford grew up working odd jobs to support his family during the Great Depression. After attending the University of Kansas, he declared himself a conscientious objector during World War II. In 1948, Stafford moved to Oregon to teach at Lewis and Clark College. He became known for rising early every day to write deceptively simple poems, often inspired by local nature.

In 1970 he was named Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—the early equivalent

EDITOR: LOUIE OPATZ ARTS@PSUVANGUARD.COM 503-725-5694

of Mishima’s Japan placed its highest value on things of beauty, but within that beauty was a built-in mechanism for societal cruelty that made the two inseparable.

With The Black Lizard, Mishima expresses his own personal—as well as the cultural—obsession with beauty, and the often heartless world in which beauty exists. In the play, Black Lizard “murders beautiful people in order to satisfy an impossible obsession: to possess and preserve beautiful objects that will not decay over time,” Kominz said.

Translating a play in any language is challenging, but particularly so when the play is bridging two very different cultures and theater styles. For Kominz, the key to successfully translating this play was to evoke the same response from a Western audience that it gets from Japanese audiences. That requires a very careful study of the language and knowledge of the two cultures.

The translation was originally part of a book of Japanese to English translations that Kominz published. It was then brought to the attention of Imago cofounder and theater director Jerry Mouawad. Imago Theater, which was founded in 1979 by Mouawad and Carol Triffle, “aims to place form and design at the forefront of theatre creation and infuses each production with an idiosyncratic physical energy,” according to its website.

Over the last three decades, Imago has established itself as one of the premier experimental theater companies, not only in Oregon but nationwide. According to Mouawad, The

of the U.S. Poet Laureate, before the distinction was created. Oregon claimed Stafford as its own poet laureate five years later.

William Stafford passed away in 1993. Since then, the Stafford family has donated a great amount of his work to Special Collections at Lewis and Clark. Some of the packets given to teachers for the writing contest are derived from Stafford’s own lesson plans from that collection.

Erin Ocón, a teacher at Brown Middle School in Hillsboro, created her own lesson plans in 2010 for another event celebrating Stafford’s birthday. Ocón’s plans focus heavily on revision.

“You can actually look over all of [Stafford’s] daily writing and see the changes he’s made, and how he decides to keep and what to change,” Ocón said. “I think that’s really important for students because for me, as a student, revision was the hardest process to learn. You want to write it, turn it in and be done with it.”

Other participating educators will be free to adhere as closely or loosely to the lesson plans as they wish. However, each teacher is only allowed 10 entries. It will be up to the educator to select those 10 entries for submission to Ooligan Press.

“With the number of students that this would potentially involve, we had to put a limit somewhere,” Larrabee said. “We would be inundated.”

Larrabee noted that if a student in a nonparticipating school wishes to submit an entry, he or she may do so by filing the proper permissions and paperwork, which will be available on Ooligan Press’ website after the Oct. 6 conference.

Abbey Gaterud, Ooligan Press’ assistant publisher and a PSU adjunct faculty member, outlined a few of the things Ooligan will be

Black Lizard lends itself very well to Imago’s experimental style. Mouawad has worked tirelessly to stay true to Mishima’s original intent and spirit, creating his own “Imago Kabuki” theater.

Audiences can look forward to a few changes in this production, like new scenic elements and a couple of cast changes, though the two lead actors, Sorce and DiBiasio, are back to reprise their roles. Critics have called Sorce’s performance “somehow sympathetic even at her most twisted and cruel,” which is one of the play’s primary intentions, according to Kominz.

“In the end of this play, if you find that you sympathize with the Black Lizard, then this production will have realized one of Mishima’s goals in many of his works—to allow or compel readers and audience to enter into the psyche of a disturbed, warped or sick human being and then empathize and recognize how alike we are to these pathetic or dangerous social misfits,” Kominz wrote in an email.

Whether you are seeing it for the first time or, are a repeat customer one thing is assured: You are in for an exciting night of theater.

Imago Theatre presents The Black Lizard Oct. 5 to Nov. 5 Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.

Tickets: $15–30 Imago Theatre 17 SE Eighth Ave.

COURTESY OF OOLIGAN PRESS

WILLIAM STAFFORD, Oregon’s former poet laureate, is the inspiration for Ooligan’s upcoming writing project. looking for in submissions.

“We’re looking for new voices, and we’re looking for people who obviously understand what William Stafford was about and what Oregon is about,” Gaterud said. “But then we also want them to find a way to express their own writing style and their own beliefs and their own views.”

While PSU students cannot enter the contest, Larrabee wants to encourage everyone to get the word out. A mailing list has been made available on the Ooligan website for anyone who wishes to receive updates on the project.

Stafford once said that the young “learn to dance before they learn there is anything that isn’t music.”

Today’s teenagers can certainly identify music, but if Ooligan Press is right, they might be able to hear songs that we can’t.

ARTS & CULTURE • THURSDAY, OCT. 4, 2012 • VANGUARD

Story time Student bloggers cross boundaries through their stories MIKE DIALLO VANGUARD STAFF

With so many students participating in such a wide variety of incredible pursuits at Portland State, finding your own voice can be intimidating. Yet we all have stories that define us, and we share these events because our experiences can affect and enlighten the people around us— or at least entertain them.

Inspired by these stories among students, the PSU Chronicles blog (psuchronicles.com) has been documenting the lives and experiences of our student population, all while promoting feedback and interactivity for everyone involved.

Given the prevalence of Web and social media, students have unlimited options when it comes to news content. These sources cover a wide variety of topics and cater to the lives and experiences of our diverse nation.

The beauty of this overwhelming amount of accessible content is that we are free to pick those stories with which we have a strong relationship—posts that embrace and expand our cultures, tastes and views providing us with a crucial understanding of the matters we face daily.

Chris Broderick, associate vice president for communications and marketing, saw a need for this style of reporting among PSU students and now guides the bloggers in creating content.

“But I don’t write any of it,” said Broderick, who had high praise for the contributing students. His opinion comes with experience: Broderick worked as a reporter for five different newspapers, including The Oregonian, before coming to PSU. Though Broderick’s background in newswriting certainly helps when working with student bloggers, Broderick clarifies the difference in tone between newswriting and blogging.

“A good newspaper article is mostly informational,” Broderick said. “I urge [the students] to have their own voice.”

He explained that a blog post should concisely communicate one thought on one topic and strive for a personal connection to the reader or viewer. This method is apparent in student blogger Flamur Vehapi’s description of his own writing process.

“The process is very different from my school assignments,” Vehapi said. “For my school, I usually have to research a topic and then write, but for my blogging all I do is observe and listen and then write.

“What makes this process easy is that I do not have to worry about being graded on it,” Vehapi

The beauty of the inevitable Summer Window to screen at Northwest Film Center’s Kinofest PDX BREANA HARRIS VANGUARD STAFF

Wrapped in her lover’s arms on a beautiful summer evening, a woman wonders out loud about the details of the day they met: What if things had happened differently, even by moments? What if she hadn’t been in the right place at the right time?

What if fate hadn’t intervered?

These are questions asked in many romantic films, but for the heroine of Hendrik Handloegten’s 2011 film, Summer Window, presented at the Northwest Film Center’s Kinofest PDX, the answers are more sinister: Meeting the love of her life coincides with a terrible tragedy.

German actress Nina Hoss gives a charismatic and understated performance as Juliane, a half-Finnish translator from Berlin who, while traveling with her boyfriend, August (Mark Waschke), wakes one morning returned to her recent past—a handful of months before she ever met him.

This happens very quickly, giving the impression that her happiness with August was all too brief—something Juliane herself quickly begins to feel as she transitions from summer back to harsh winter, a literal sign that her life was nowhere near as good before he came along.

She relives her days at work and her conversations with her best friend, Emily (Fritzi Haberlandt), a single mother caught in an endless cycle of terrible boyfriends. Juliane begins to believe she is being punished, or that she’d “done something wrong the first time around,” an idea she indirectly confesses to Emily’s 7-year-old son, Otto (Lasse Stadelmann). What should she do differently? What should she do the same, to ensure she finds her way to August again?

Summer Window is not the most strikingly original film. Many of the ideas and devices seem like a mash-up of things we’ve seen before, like a darker version of Sliding Doors. But the story is captivatingly told and explores many compelling themes. The idea that both the very bad and the very good things in life happen for a reason is not new, but it’s rarely presented in such an optimistic light.

In one brilliantly written sequence, Juliane’s love letter to August is juxtaposed with a scene of her calmly describing to her previous boyfriend of nine years, Phillip (Lars Eidinger), the chain of events that ends their relationship. Unaware that these are things she’s experienced, Phillip begins to add to her description. He hasn’t seen their future, but he knows their past, and the patterns they have fallen into.

But in the context of the film, both the patterns of our lives and the moments we finally break them feel inevitable, and that’s not a bad thing. The moment when Juliane decides she must do everything the same, even the smallest details of her life, in order to meet August again never once feels like the wrong or easy choice, like it might in other films with a similar premise. It feels decidedly romantic.

Ultimately, it is the romance and the atmosphere that make Summer Window unique.

Even more than the idyllic and passionate scenes of her relationship with August, the scenes between Hoss and Stadelmann are the heart of the story; Stadelmann gives the film a bittersweet and magical touch as only a child can do.

Despite the grand nature of the premise, Summer Window is a quiet film filled with gorgeous shots and memorable dialogue, even at moments that might feel rushed or anticlimactic.

Buoyed by terrific performances and an ending that feels justly earned, Summer Window is a sharp, elegant film that explores one woman’s journey to deserve the love she’s found.

MILES SANGUINETTI/VANGUARD STAFF

MARIO QUINTANA, a student blogger, works hard to craft compelling stories. said. “That, I think, is the key to good topic selection and better writing.”

The blog’s quality is drawing interest, and Broderick has watched the number of readers increase significantly over the years.

“We should also have a bump because of the new term,” said Broderick, referring to the incoming freshman and transfer students.

These fresh faces will add to the already diverse body of readers, who expect compelling and relatable posts.

COURTESY OF ZENTROPA INTERNATIONAL

NINA ROSS, star of Summer Window, contemplates pulling a Tyson.

Based on an Austrian novel from the 1960s, it is Handloegten’s first feature since 2003.

It was nominated for three German film awards and is among the richest and best work from a country whose contribution to the film world is sometimes overlooked. The film is presented as one of seven selections in the center’s Kinofest PDX, which features modern German cinema.

“The Northwest Film Center is really happy to partner up with Zeitgeist Northwest for another year to present this amazing collection of new German cinema,” said Jessica Lyness, the center’s PR and marketing director.

“Most of these films are critically acclaimed

7

Vehapi expects his writing to attract readers in the Portland area and beyond, “based on the comments and responses I get from my readers who come from various countries and backgrounds.”

Readers will have an abundant supply of fresh content this year, with PSU Chronicles hiring more writers in anticipation of increased demand. While the position does pay, the students have other reasons for wanting to be a part of the site.

Film major Kenny Katz makes videos for the blog, giving him real-world film experience.

“While getting initial video experience under my belt, I met loads of people all across campus which has led to other video and employment opportunities,” Katz said. “I love that there has been such a large effort in recent years to help get students more connected with campus.”

Professional practice is evident throughout PSU Chronicles. It’s clear when reading the site that contributors take full advantage of the opportunity to showcase issues that are important to our school. Events and opinions are clearly headlined and engage the viewer, promising thoughtful ideas on differing topics.

Although the product looks good, it’s the substance that brings readers back. Vehapi explains that the students’ posts are important because they provide peer perspective on current topics.

“I see blogging as a way of bringing up and addressing issues and ideas, but what happens after is more interesting, especially when you see people from all over the world commenting and responding to those ideas and issues,” Vehapi said. “Blogging and vlogging can reach people across the world.”

and have won multiple festival awards, and we’re happy to bring them to audiences by screening them at the Whitsell Auditorium.”

Lyness also noted that several of the selections will be introduced by Portland State professors. Steven Fuller will introduce the film Barbara; Sandra Freels, PSU director of world languages and literatures, will introduce the film Baikonur; and Daniel Pearson will introduce the film Combat Girls.

Following the Saturday screening of Summer Window, there will be a reception in the sculpture garden of the Portland Art Museum. No lover of film or culture will regret attending.

The Northwest Film Center and Zeitgeist NW present Summer Window (2011) Kinofest PDX: New German Cinema Saturday, Oct. 6, 6 p.m.

Whitsell Auditorium 1219 SW Park Ave. $9 general, $8 students

Portland Art Museum reception 7:30–8:45pm Free

6 8

VANGUARD •• THURSDAY, THURSDAY,OCTOBER TUESDAY, JANUARY OCT. FEBRUARY JANUARY 4, 2012 10, 25, 26, 2, 2012 2011 •2012 ARTS •• •OPINION OPINION &ARTS CULTURE & CULTURE

America, this one’s for you Dan Deacon releases first album in four years, and it’s a doozy NICHOLAS KULA VANGUARD STAFF

If this is the first time you’ve ever heard the name Dan Deacon, then I implore you to stop reading immediately and familiarize yourself.

Not for the sake of getting you, the reader, up to speed; no, because the man’s music should be celebrated by everyone with ears.

Deacon’s catalog is very special because it begs to be enjoyed backward—from his latest music to his earliest works. Bromst (2009) is likely his most accessible work, recorded with a live ensemble of traditional instruments, while some of his earlier work, including “A Green Cobra is Awesome vs. the Sun” (2002), should be reserved for only the most dedicated Deacon enthusiasts.

“Cobra” is a 40-plus-minute sinusoidal drone designed for a soundproof room and expensive speakers—the result is really more of a physics experiment, as the sounds appear to rotate around the user rapidly. It’s not for everyone, though I love it, but that’s for a different, nevergonna-happen review.

One can’t speak about Deacon without mentioning his background. The man holds master’s degrees in both electro-acoustic and computer composition from State University of New York’s Purchase College. He’s also a prolific composer, and a decorated one at that: Nearly every piece he’s composed and performed has been universally hailed by critics “Ghostbuster Cook: Origin of the Riddler” was called one of the top 10 classical pieces of 2011

by New York Magazine.

Deacon’s sound is wildly varied—only if you’ve heard them all can you begin to affix a label to the man. If Meetle Mice was your only foray into Deacon’s work, your description of

his sound would differ greatly from someone who’s only heard Spiderman of the Rings.

As resident Dan Deacon authority, I can safely say that the common theme is hyperactive electricity and childlike whimsy. Occasionally, Deacon ventures into maturity—and Bromst certainly demonstrated that—but what about his newest album, America?

Since Bromst was released, Deacon’s had four years, and in that time he’s composed critically celebrated classical pieces. It makes sense that he would borrow some classical bravado for America. And he does—on half the record.

Deacon’s ambitious America serves a dual purpose. The first half seems like an appropriate, logical follow-up to 2007’s Spiderman of the Rings, while the latter half, in all its classically composed glory, seems more of a follow-up to Bromst. America definitely seems like Deacon created a record for the fans, since Bromst was so markedly different from Spiderman. Longtime Deacon devotees finally get continuations of two distinct Deacon eras.

But since they’re two mostly unique musical realms, do they belong on the same record?

Yes, yes they do.

It is unsurprising that an accomplished composer could find a way to gel two different branches of schizophrenic electronic music, and Deacon finds a way. The track are even titled classically— the last four tracks are prefaced with “USA” and a colon to denote a completely separate movement.

However, the transition from the last track on the Spiderman side to the Bromst side isn’t as smooth as it could be; perhaps the record was sequenced for vinyl. But enough about that, you say; how are the songs? They’re really good.

Spirits fell slightly, even among Deacon fanatics, when he self-leaked “True Thrush,” a mild, pop-oriented song that is decidedly short on Deacon’s electronic wizardry. If upon hearing “True Thrush,” you were among the disappointed fans, let your mind be at ease.

Not only are all the other tracks on America incredible, “True Thrush” actually works

sandwiched between “Guilford Avenue Bridge” and “Lots.” The power of the composer is on full display with the track arrangement.

Much of the first half of America sounds like Deacon’s more sophisticated cuts from Spiderman, like “Wham City” and “Crystal Cat.” Maturity is one of the underlying themes of the album, and it feels good. Though they’re great from time to time, and I’m sure Deacon will still play both live, you’ll find no sophomoric tracks like “Snake Mistakes” or “Woof Woof” here.

Instead, you’ll experience new, more seasoned cuts, such as “Lots,” which sounds like Spiderman’s “Crystal Cat” soaked in Valium, and the impossibly dense and punishing “Crash Jam.” If there’s one place that Deacon excels, it’s his frenetic live show, and it’s safe to say that every slice of America would be an absolute blast.

One appropriately named cut is “Prettyboy”; the song is just beautiful. Deacon’s idea of beauty usually takes extreme liberties with subjectivism, but his 2012 vision of the concept is universal.

As for the “USA” quadrilogy, the first track, “USA: Is a Monster” is apt if nothing else. After the mood-setting, soulful arrangement in the beginning, the track takes a sudden turn. The remainder is about as chewy as Deacon’s music has ever been, with his playful vocals poking through the minuscule gaps left in the impenetrable instrumentals.

Later on in “USA: The Great American Desert,” you’ll come across some vocals that sound different—like falsetto, almost—and they float just on top of Deacon’s breathlessly inspiring “flying through space” shimmer-and-percussion feast.

If Deacon hadn’t already said that America is a tribute to his own country, the brass and strings near the end of “USA: Rail” would definitely paint the picture. It’s about as soulful as Deacon has ever gotten—right up there with the deceptively megaton-powerful lyrics of “Wham City.”

Here, on “Rail,” Deacon manages to express his love for the country that birthed him with a magical array of traditional American instruments.

COURTESY OF DOMINO RECORDS

DAN DEACON returns with his new electronic opus, America.

The buildup continues until the last track, “USA: Manifest,” smashes it to pieces with an electrified hammer. “Manifest” should be taught in music classes as an example of how to finish an album— it’s a fantastic choice for a closer. It’s heavy, tight, lighthearted and, even to the final seconds, finishes flawlessly.

Never mind that I’m a total Deacon fanboy; I’ve been reviewing albums for a long time and it’s easy to set aside my own personal biases. I can say with complete impartiality that America begs to be heard by everyone. It’s a wonderfully crafted piece of music that deserves to be spread throughout networks, from loved one to loved one, across generational gaps. Just keep an open mind—this is for America.

Dan Deacon America Domino Records Visit psuvanguard.com/arts/dandeaconamerica to stream Dan Deacon’s new album

The stigma of suicide New York playwright brings his experiences to Portland State MELINDA GUILLÉN VANGUARD STAFF

Depression and suicide are topics junior business major Victor Ngo is very familiar with.

Having worked in student life for three years, Ngo described these as common feelings among new students who are faced with the financial and emotional stressors that accompany college.

“When I came to Portland and worked with housing, I noticed that a lot of students were coming to me with the things they were dealing with,” Ngo said. “When I was a freshman, somebody in the dorms [hanged] himself. The year after, almost the same thing happened— someone jumped. It’s something that’s definitely real and there.”

It is incidents like these that the Center for Student Health and Counseling’s Suicide Prevention program strives to minimize and inform people about. For this reason, on Oct. 11 SHAC will hold a free show titled The Gospel According to Josh, in which Josh Rivedal, a New York actor and playwright, will perform a oneman show inspired by his life experiences.

The show is “centered around a smalltown Jersey boy, as he follows his dreams to Hollywood despite the great obstacle of his life: the tempestuous relationship with his pious father…ending with a final

showdown between him and his father,” according to press material. Afterward, Rivedal will give a keynote speech about suicide and depression awareness.

Rivedal worked on this piece for three and a half months. The title comes from the symbolism of him “becoming a man at the age of 28,” Rivedal said. After a rough breakup and the death of his own father nearly drove him to take his own life, Rivedal felt the urge to write it all down.

“There was a point in my life where I hit rock bottom, and I nearly made a suicide attempt after my own father and my own grandfather did it,” he said. “I was really depressed and upset. My mother came back and helped save me.

From there, when I was coming out of the depression, I decided to take the show to schools and help people who are going through the same pains.”

Carla Riedlinger, coordinator for crisis services and suicide prevention activities at PSU, put the event together. Having worked for seven years with the Suicide Prevention program, Riedlinger said that the event is all about informing people of the resources available for those struggling with depression and suicide.

“What we’re doing is just trying to get as much information out there as possible about risk factors and warnings about suicide—especially to students, because students talk to students,” Riedlinger said. “All the research tells us that they’re talking to their peers. People who are most at risk for suicide don’t usually ask for help, so if people are more aware, they’d know to get them to the help that they need.”

Rivedal agrees that seeking help and becoming informed has not only helped save his life but is helping him save the lives of others. The purpose of his work, he explained, is to pass on a joyful message in times of desperation.

“Even though this isn’t a religious piece at all, the gospel means good news and I’ve got good news,” Rivedal said. “The good news is that you can do whatever you want with yourself in the face of adversity. You can get knocked down seven times and get up eight. You are in charge.

The good news is suicide is preventable. You’re in control of your life. You can do whatever the hell you want, and as soon as I bought into that idea, my life took off.”

SHAC has established many resources for students seeking help through the Suicide Prevention program. The on-call system at the center, for example, allows students to walk in and seek help without an appointment. Riedlinger urges people who need help to seek it if they are having suicidal thoughts.

“There’s so much stigma around it, so it’s hard for people who have suicidal ideas to not have shame. It’s hard for people to talk about it because they feel ashamed about it,” Riedlinger said. “That stigma that has existed forever around suicide is one of the things that we’re trying to break through enough for people to want to get help.”

Rivedal hopes that his performance and keynote will help audience members become more comfortable talking about suicide in a casual setting.

“They’re going to have fun, they’re going to laugh and they’re going to cry, but best of all,

COURTESY OF JORDAN MATTER

they’re going to be better than when they came in,” he said. “It’s a cool and an accessible way to talk about suicide prevention. It’s not how the cast of One Tree Hill talks about bullying, it’s not anything like that; it’s real. It’s a guy in a plaid shirt talking about it.”

PSU’s Student Health and Counseling Center presents The Gospel According to Josh A one-man show starring Josh Rivedal Thursday, Oct. 11 7–9 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom, room 351 Free and open to the public

16 10

VANGUARD •• THURSDAY, THURSDAY, OCT. NOVEMBER 4, 2012 10, • OPINION 2011 • SPORTS

OPINION

EDITOR: MEREDITH MEIER OPINION@PSUVANGUARD.COM 503-725-5692

CORINNA SCOTT/VANGUARD STAFF

Everywhere and Here

We’re not lazy, just inspired Study takes Portlandia seriously: Is Portland really the place young people go to retire?

I Eva-Jeanette Rawlins

t’s safe to say most of us are sick of hearing, “Portland is where young people go to retire.”

Problem is, anyone who has watched the show Portlandia, which coined the overused phrase, will inevitably ask you if it’s true when they find out you’re from the city. As with most jokes, there are always people who think you

couldn’t possibly have heard it before.

Regardless, a pair of Portland State professors don’t think it’s a laughing matter.

Believe it or not, they recently conducted and released a study on it, asking whether or not Portlandia got it right.

PSU’s School of Urban Studies and Planning professors Jason Jurjevich and Greg Schrock analyzed data from the 2000 Census and American Community Surveys from 2005–07 and 2008–10 to “compare migration patterns in Portland to the other 50 largest U.S metros.”

According to their findings, the city has seen a steady influx of young people who “place a greater relative value on noneconomic factors…compared to employment opportunities,” despite the continuing difficult economic times.

Many say that’s just code for “lazy,” but this study confirms what many people

Baa Baa Black Sheep

Diversity on high Looking beyond PSU’s diverse student population

Terry Gaskill-Barsness

A

college campus, when infused with novel ideas that test the preconceptions of its pupils, can become a never-ending source

for inspiration and progressive development. To fortify the influx of fresh ideas, a university must expose students to varying points of view.

Diversity among peers in a college setting is essential to the creation of forwardthinking, globally minded citizens. Portland State understands the responsibility of educational institutions to provide as much diversity as possible.

According to the PSU Diversity Action Plan, the university is “Oregon’s most diverse campus,” which charges

PSU with the task of “seeing that diversity is represented in all facets of its enterprise.”

PSU is fostering a rapidly growing reputation as a university committed to community service. Such dedication of civic involvement inspired the Princeton Review to include PSU on a list of “colleges with a conscience.” Conscience, of course, begins with the ability to empathize. A leader should be capable of empathizing with those she/he serves.

Certainly, the data shows that the student body at PSU is becoming more diverse, with

I know believe: that climbing the corporate ladder and making your first million before the age of 30 isn’t necessarily everyone’s definition of success or good work ethic. Gasp.

The study reveals that between 2008 and 2010, young, educated Portlanders earned an annual average of $42,659—placing them 42nd out of the 50 largest metros surveyed. Contrary to popular opinion, those numbers don’t reflect a demographic unwilling to work. The study shows that Portland was above the average in numbers of those employed or actively seeking employment.

Economist Joe Cortright, after reviewing the report, told The Oregonian that, “If people were here to retire, if they were not working, if they were slackers…that would show up.”

It’s obvious that Portlanders are working just as hard as everyone else. The differ-

ence seems to be that they’re not willing to kill themselves and their social, physical and spiritual well-being to do so.

It’s not uncommon to find educated individuals working two or three jobs, none of which require a degree. Of course, the job market may have something to do with that, but more often than not it’s because they’ve chosen to.

Working at a locally owned coffee shop that emanates aromas of Stumptown and deliciously buttery, melt-inyour-mouth homemade pastries, where everyone knows your name and locals come in two or three times a day to read the New York Times or just to chat—that’s what some would call quality life.

Loving what you do.

Or, like a number of my fabulously creative friends who work a couple of parttime jobs to help pay the rent as they forge their way into the scary yet satisfying world of self-employment,

getting to be one’s own boss is a dream. And many are willing to put up with almost anything to have it.

Portland ranks third highest in the number of self-employed young people in U.S. metro areas. That we have so much unbridled creativity around us may have something to do with it—no one’s telling them what they can and cannot do. No one is saying, “Be here at 9 a.m. sharp and make something!”

They’re out hiking in the gorge. And when the sun bursts through the vast canvas of trees above, hitting them with a ray of inspiration, it just might lead to their highest-selling painting ever.

Being willing to settle for less money and greater freedom, health and creativity isn’t “lazy.” It’s called brilliance—and that, to sheepishly borrow from a giant corporate slogan, is priceless.

students of various colors and backgrounds coming together to increase the vibrancy of this campus. However, it seems appropriate to wonder whether this trend of variance is evident in the makeup of the administration of this college, as well.

When PSU uses diversity as a selling point for the institution, it stands to reason that students want the same clear dedication to diversity within the bureaucracy of the university. And one clear indicator of diversity within a particular group is the presence of distinct ethnic and cultural differences among its members.

According to PSU’s Global Diversity and Inclusion office, there are 53 members of the administrative staff at the university. Five identify as “nonwhite.”

Statistically this means that 90 percent of PSU management are white Americans, compared to 65.7 percent of

the student population who identify as white. Administrators at the executive level see similar statistics, with one out of 10 identifying as “nonwhite.”

It’s important for students to see people from vastly different walks of life being represented within the leadership of their university. Seeing education infrastructure change on a national (and ultimately a global) level requires a greater degree of difference among the policy-makers of educational institutions.

It detracts from the progressive image of PSU that a majority of its leadership positions are held by white men.

Truthfully people my age may be less likely to take seriously a group of bureaucrats primarily composed of middleaged, upper-middle-class white people. While it’s never fair to judge a person or a group by their ethnicity, age or socioeconomic status, the numbers belie the mission of diversity.

However, it’s important to look at how our leaders exemplify the ability of a state-college graduate to succeed.

Beyond demographics, PSU administrators have a vast array of experiences and qualifications. Many have demonstrated lifelong dedication to student advocacy, environmental sustainability and civic responsibility. They are real-world role models for the students they serve.

Despite the lack of ethnic diversity, can you expect this administration to have varied points of view impacting the direction of its policies and procedures? Yes. Are there people within this administration who could offer valuable advice to a prospective state-university graduate? Absolutely.

As college students in an era of education reform, it’s pertinent to know our campus leaders. By understanding who designs your education, you can better affect the outcome to your benefit.

OPINION • THURSDAY, OCT. 4, 2012 • VANGUARD

11

What’s the Big Idea

Plastic: Is it really as bad as we think?

How plastics could be the key to a more sustainable future

Ryan DeLaureal

W

e’ve all been faced with the fatal question: Paper or plastic? At the checkout counter of nearly every major grocery store in the U.S., shoppers are presented with a choice between two types of shopping bag. And the debate over which is the better option continues to plague proponents on either side of the aisle.

The environmentally conscious among us like to weigh in against plastic. Arguments include the harm it does to the

natural environment because of its long process of decomposition, causing it to remain in landfills the world over for thousands of years to come.

Others point out its dread associations with Big Oil, the world’s number one environmental enemy.

However, when weighed against the environmental impacts of wholesale paper production, plastic is—hands down—less harmful to natural habitats.

To make paper, trees need to be cut down. Meeting market demands means the logging industry will cut down thousands of acres of national forest each year.

The U.S. Forest Service estimates that, in 2005 alone, some 52.3 billion board feet of lumber was produced in the U.S. To break it down: An average acre of forest can yield anywhere from 2,000–12,000 board feet of lumber. That

translates to roughly 4 million acres of forest in a given year.

As the world goes green, we might expect a subsequent drop in lumber production.

According to the USFS, however, lumber production has nearly tripled since 1965 thanks to increased demands across the board—housing development to paper production and everything in between.

Witnessing a recently clearcut forest area is a chilling experience.

Clear-cutting is the wholesale destruction of thousands of acres of living organisms, many of which are thousands of years old. It is the erasure, in entirety, of fragile and complex natural ecosystems, home not only to trees, but supporting hundreds of thousands of diverse bird, animal, plant and insect species (many of them still undocumented), which rely on forest ecosystems for their survival.

KAYLA NGUYEN/VANGUARD STAFF

Once an ecosystem is destroyed, it will take hundreds if not thousands of years to grow back to its former state of complexity.

Housing development alone accounts for a third of all lumber use. However, new materials and technologies hold the possibility of reducing the environmental impact of an industry whose very basis is the destruction of pristine natural ecosystems.

Though plastic is a word with many negative connotations, it’s little more than a description for a certain class of organic compounds. Not all plastics are derived from oil; some are even composed of natural and biodegradable elements. Almost all commercially used plastic is

nontoxic, and the actual harm to living things in environments where it’s deposited as litter or in landfills is almost zero. Apart from being an eyesore, there is little to be said against it.

The most sustainable thing about plastic? It lasts forever.

Even with dwindling oil reserves, some plastics will still be available hundreds of years from now to be reused and recycled. The same can’t be said of many other commodities, such as paper or gasoline. What many have argued is a major shortcoming of plastic is actually one of its obvious benefits in a sustainable future.

Despite its Big Oil associations, plastic has little to do

with disasters such as the BP oil spill or global warming.

The vast majority of crude oil is used to produce gasoline— the thing that burns, burns, burns, slowly suffocating the world, and the true culprit behind disastrous spills and melting ice caps.

Most are familiar with the unfortunate sea gull whose head was stuck in a plastic six-pack soda fastener.

Inexpressibly worse is the swift and total annihilation of complete habitats that are home to thousands of animal species just like that sea gull.

It’s about time that we update our cultural consciousness and embrace plastics, new and old, as a part of a sustainable future.

suing for custody or visitation rights as any other father can.

Of the states that do have laws to prevent this, some states only offer protection if the victim is a minor or, in at least one state, the rapist’s child.

Other states have legislation requiring rape victims who conceive to ask the rapist for child support prior to requesting government assistance. Of the states that have exceptions to this, at least five only waive the process for instances of “forcible rape.”

Oregon currently has restrictions that may prevent a rapist from obtaining custody or visitation rights as a direct result of a 2010 paper

from a victim who experienced this. However, this law only applies if there is a rape conviction resulting from the incident that resulted in the victim’s pregnancy. Washington has nothing to prevent this problem.

Approximately 9 out of 100 rapes are prosecuted, and not all lead to convictions, so what might happen should a rapist try to obtain visitation or custody rights in Oregon is still unclear. Many other factors could be involved, especially in a case where the rapist and victim have a prior association. A victim might, at the very least, have to spend additional time and

resources in court facing her rapist.

This is unacceptable. Rape victims already face far too much trauma when going through our legal system.

Just as women who choose abortion deserve the very best care, so do those who choose to keep and parent a child. Being harassed through the court system or having to coparent with a rapist is incredibl.

The Republican Party should take time off from shaming rape victims and instead find a way to support them in at least some of the choices they make—beginning by correcting issues like this one.

A Woman’s Right

Parental rights for rapists?

Another way politicians and courts fail to support women

Shilpa Esther Trivedi

R

ecently the Republican Party approved a platform calling for a ban on abortions with no exceptions for rape or incest.

These same politicians have repeatedly made statements showing a deeply flawed understanding of rape. Rep. Todd Akin, R-Mo., made the false claim that victims of “legitimate rape” rarely get pregnant due to biological processes. Republican Senate candidate Tom Smith equated the experi-

ence of his daughter conceiving out of wedlock to that of a father whose child becomes pregnant as a result of rape.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., who cosponsored a bill with Akin that would attempt to redefine rape so that only victims of “forcible rape” could obtain federally funded abortions, called rape just another “method of conception.”

It’s because of claims like these that the reproductive health care community has focused on the many reasons a rape victim deserves the option of a safe and legal abortion, without judgment.

In response to Akin’s claim, the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released a statement, saying, “Each year in the U.S., 10,000– 15,000 abortions occur among women whose pregnancies are a result of reported rape or incest.” The ACOG also declared: “An unknown number

of pregnancies resulting from rape are carried to term.”

Data suggests that more pregnancies are carried to term than are aborted, as a result of women choosing to have their child or as a result of continued attempts to restrict access to emergency contraception and abortion.

Many women have publicly spoken out about their decisions to keep children resulting from rape, often citing the support they received in doing so from groups like Planned Parenthood (which Romney and Ryan plan to defund if elected). This dialogue highlights the fact that women need options and that every story is unique.

For those who carry a fetus resulting from rape to term, a scary and disturbing fact has emerged.

In 31 states there currently is no law to prevent men who father a child through rape from

12

VANGUARD • THURSDAY, OCT. 4, 2012 • OPINION

That’s What’s the Matter

E-books: the cheaper, the better What new legal settlement means for you

Kevin Rackham

W

ith all of the past few months’ hype about Apple—like the new iPhone and its huge win against Samsung—some not-so-positive news managed to miss being publicized.

The U.S. Department of Justice brought a suit against Apple and five of the six biggest book publishers over the way Apple and those publishers priced books on iBookstore.

Hachette, HarperCollins and Simon and Schuster settled and agreed to pay back $69 million to customers who had purchased books under the pricing model. Apple and two other publishers refused to settle, but the e-book market is going to change a lot.

Apple and publishers had a deal that books could only be sold on iBookstore if they weren’t being sold at a lower price elsewhere. This led

to publishers selling exclusively on iBookstore or, more usually, marking up prices across the board. In the past two weeks since the settlement, e-book prices have been dropping.

Apple claimed in July that Amazon held a monopoly on e-books, and accused the DOJ of siding against the competition. But the DOJ is continuing its suit against Apple, and rightly so.

What’s at stake here is the wholesale model versus the agency model. Amazon has used the wholesale model since it started selling ebooks. The company buys a number of e-books from the publisher, and then sells them at their own price. This is often the way traditional books are sold, and it worked better for the publishers because there was a finite number of books and shipping costs, so the wholesale buyer wasn’t making as much of a profit.

Publishers don’t like this model when it comes to ebooks, because with an unlimited number of e-books and no shipping costs, buyers like Amazon or Barnes and Noble have a definite advantage.

Under the agency model, things work a lot better for the publishers. They set the prices

and then the seller gets a cut (usually 30 percent) of each sale. This is what Apple and the publishers were doing.

Apple’s model definitely had its advantages. A self-published author selling through iBookstore receives 70 percent of a sale’s profit. A self-published author selling through the Amazon Kindle Store only receives 35 percent. Amazon’s model isn’t flawless, and applying the paper-and-ink sales models to e-books is a mistake to begin with.

The way Apple and friends used the agency model isn’t fair, and it’s also counterproductive. Jacking up the prices on e-books doesn’t always lead to higher profits. Cheaper e-books make more money.

Cheap e-books sell like proverbial hotcakes.

Joe Konrath, an author who blogs about the industry and writes thrillers, once broke down his profit from e-book sales. He published five books through Hyperion and selfpublished four others. The Hyperion books sold from $4–8, and all of his self-published books sold for $1.99. He made almost $5,000 more off his self-published books in six months, not only because the publishers weren’t taking a cut, but because more people bought them.

I don’t buy expensive ebooks, and I know a lot of people don’t. Driving the prices of e-books down is a good thing for the publisher and the consumer in the long run, because people are going to buy more e-books if they can afford them.

The DOJ is probably doing the publishing industry a favor with this suit, because now they’re going to have to reexamine both the way they price and the sales model they use. Apple and the other two publishers are in the wrong on this one, and it’s going to be a long year for them if they try to fight it.

Sans the Salt

Just how responsible is PSU for student safety?

University sued for failure to protect student from harm

Alyck Horton

P

ortland State recently found itself on the receiving end of a $1.6 million lawsuit filed by a former student. The suit claims that the university failed to keep the plaintiff safe from harm. Should PSU be held liable?

In 2010, the plaintiff, Clifford A. Richardson, was sitting with a companion outside the Montgomery Court building when he was approached by another resident, Heath Avery, who appeared disgruntled and showed signs of a questionable mental state.

Avery claimed Richardson and his friend were “talking about [him]” and grabbed Richardson by his shirt collar. In response he received two blows to the face in attempted self-defense. Avery then pulled out an 8-inch knife and stabbed Richardson in the abdomen, resulting in

a 3-inch-deep wound and a punctured spleen.

Richardson spent a week in the hospital, accumulating almost $86,000 in medical bills. Avery, originally charged with assault in the first degree, pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree assault and, in January 2011, was sentenced to three years in prison.

Over the year prior to the stabbing, campus security had been called three times by staff and students who didn’t wish to start an altercation with Avery. Students were uncomfortable around him, claiming he would stare unremittingly and continue to do so even after confronted.

Richardson had previously discussed his discomfort regarding Avery with a staff member, but Avery received no discipline. He continued living in the same dorm as Richardson until the night of the stabbing.

The lawsuit makes two main claims: that PSU was negligent for not seeking mental help for Avery and for allowing him to

have the knife despite a policy prohibiting such items.

I’d bet half of the student population is hiding a bag of weed in their sock drawers, which also is against school policy, but nobody is suing the university.

The school can’t be held liable for not searching through students’ possessions. Had staff been aware of the knife, or had it been in plain view prior to the stabbing, then yes it was a lapse in responsibility, but PSU can’t be blamed for something it wasn’t aware of.

In second grade another student bit my arm during an argument in class. The kid had emotional issues, and we were all aware and acted accordingly. Though the bite hurt like hell, I didn’t sue the school for pain and suffering because of the kid’s actions.

It’s almost become an American tradition to sue whenever something bad happens to us.

This trend costs us $233 billion annually, but it costs us more than that—it costs us our dignity. Doctors are refusing to help injured pedestrians on the streets for fear of being sued; we have to sign waivers before we can do anything; and people are pouring water on the floors of department stores in hopes that a slip-and-fall lawsuit will pay off their trailer.

Let’s be honest. If PSU had taken disciplinary action, such as expulsion or eviction, against Avery, and he were diagnosed with a mental illness, that’s a whole new can-of-lawsuit-worms. Had he previously been violent toward someone, that would have justified an investigation. But evicting a guy because he’s creepy isn’t a legitimate argument.

ETC. • THURSDAY, OCT. 4, 2012 • VANGUARD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: ERICK BENGEL EDITOR@PSUVANGUARD.COM 503-725-5691

13

ETC.

UPCOMING EVENTS THURSDAY, OCT. 4

Study Abroad Fair 11 a.m.–2 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom, room 335 1825 SW Broadway St.

The Portland State Education Abroad program is hosting a fair to answer questions about how financial aid and scholarships work with study abroad programs and to offer information about degree requirements, as well as the types of programs available and where they are located. The first 100 students to arrive at the fair will receive a free travel guidebook and all students in attendance can enter to win free international airfare. This event is free and open to all PSU students.

Archaeology First Thursdays 4–7 p.m.

Cramer Hall, room 41 1721 SW Broadway St.

Speakers from academic institution, tribes, and various private and public agencies are invited to Portland State to discuss their individual research and thoughts on policies that shape the way archaeology works in the world today. This is a great opportunity for students, faculty and interested members of the community to meet. This event is free and open to the public.

“Placing”: PSU Department of Architecture Lecture 6–8 p.m.

Shattuck Hall Annex Southwest Broadway and Hall Street

“Dan Wood is principal and cofounder of WORKac, a New York

City-based firm developing architectural and urban planning projects that engages issues of culture and consciousness, nature and artifice, surrealism and pragmatism. The firm’s practice extends from the United States to Russia and China.

Its buildings and projects have been published internationally. WORKac has received numerous awards including several AIA merit awards and the 2010 New York Design Commission award.” — PSU Department of Architecture website. This event is free of charge.

FRIDAY, OCT. 5

PSU at the Square 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

Pioneer Courthouse Square 701 SW Sixth Ave.

Portland State takes over Pioneer Courthouse Square on Oct. 5 to give the community a chance to meet students and faculty, learn about projects PSU is involved with and take part in various activities. There will be plenty of food and entertainment to go around and the event is free to attend and open for all.

Modern Buddhist Student Association Kick-off Meeting 3–4 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 323 1825 SW Broadway St.

The Modern Buddhist Student Association invites you to join them for a special event to kick off the school year. If you have ever wondered what exactly modern Buddhism is about, this event is your chance to learn while you meet new people and

enjoy free food and beverages. Please RSVP to buddhism@pdx.edu.

Viking Fest 6:30–10 p.m.

TriMet turnaround behind University Pointe 1955 SW Fifth Ave.

Head football coach Nigel Burton and the Viking football team offer food from Old Spaghetti Factory, games and prizes an evening in advance to help prepare for the homecoming game.

SATURDAY, OCT. 6

Men’s Football Vikings vs.

Idaho State 5:05–7 p.m.

Jeld-Wen Field 1844 SW Morrison St.

Your Portland State Vikings take on the Bengals from Idaho State University in the PSU homecoming game.

Come and enjoy the atmosphere and lend your support to your team. The game is free for students with valid ID and tickets can be purchased by the public through the PSU Box Office at 503–725-3307 or online from Ticketmaster. Prices range from $14–55.

Portland State of Mind: Concert 8:30 p.m.–midnight Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom, room 355 1825 SW Broadway St.

PSU students and alumni are welcomed for a night of food, fun and dancing with music provided

by KPSU. Other attractions at this

event include a photo booth and door prizes as well as the opportunity for a meet and greet with others who are also associated with the university.

This event is free of charge for all PSU students.

The Wedge: Portland Celebrates Cheese Festival 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Green Dragon 928 SE Ninth Ave.

Southeast Portland welcomes artisan cheese makers from all around the nation at the Wedge Cheese Festival. The festival will include opportunities to sample some of the best handcrafted cheese the country has to offer, seminars in beer, spirits and cheese pairings and fresh cheese making. Games, kid-friendly activities, a cheese-eating contest and artisan grilled cheese sandwiches will be featured at the event as well.

For more information please visit pdxgreendragon.com. A $5 donation is suggested.

MONDAY, OCT. 8

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 10

New Immigration Policy— Deferred Action 4 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 229 1825 SW Broadway St.

Student Legal Services will be answering questions about the new Deferred Action Immigration policy in the Smith Memorial Student Union. Come to learn about what it is, who is eligible for it and what to do. This event is free of charge.

The History of Social Work in Oregon: 50 Years of Social Work Education and More 4 p.m.

Parsons Gallery, Urban Center Building, second floor 506 SW Mill St.

Members of the Portland State faculty invite you to take a look back at the early history of social work in the state of Oregon along with the history of the School of Social Work itself. This event is free to attend.

Indigenous Solidarity Day

PSU Student Flu Shot Clinic

11 a.m.–8 p.m.

Native American Student and Community Center 710 SW Jackson St.

10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 101 1825 SW Broadway St.

The Native America Student and Community Center, along with Healing Feathers and Diversity and Multicultural Student Services, are proud to present Indigenous Solidarity Day. The celebration consists of many events ranging from a guest speaker and traditional games and tours to a potluck and information fair. This event is free and open to all new and returning students. For more information visit pdx.edu/nativecenter.

Portland State of Mind: Portland Mayoral Debate 6:30–7:30 p.m.

Lincoln Hall Auditorium 1620 SW Park Ave.

Contenders for Portland mayor Jefferson Smith and Charlie Hales come together at Portland State to shed light on their individual views and take part in a debate. The event will air live on local news and the radio and is free to attend.

Gulf Cities: From Pearls to FIFA: A Narrative of Doha’s Budding Architecture and Urbanism 7 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 294 1825 SW Broadway St.

The Middle East Studies Center presents Ali A. Alraouf—an architect, urban designer, writer and educator interested in teaching and research within the domain of theory, criticism and creativity in architecture and urbanism—in a presentation that will discuss the economical shift in gulf cities from industrial to creative and knowledge-based, and how Doha has become a model for architectural and urban design.

This event is free to attend and open to the public.

A flu shot clinic will be offered by the Center for Student Health and Counseling for all PSU students will valid ID. The cost is $15, charged to your student account, or free if you are covered by PSU’s Aetna insurance plan.

THURSDAY, OCT. 11

Coming Out Celebration & Resource Fair 11 a.m.–1 p.m.

PSU Park Blocks

The Queer Resource Center has organized a day of refreshments, entertainment and resources to help celebrate those who are members or supporters of the LGBT community on campus.

This event is free to attend.

Dodgeball Tournament 3–5 p.m.

Peter Stott Center 930 SW Hall St.

Portland State calls on you to help fight testicular cancer by playing dodgeball! Participants in the tournament pay a $5 entrance fee (or $30 per six person team) and spectators are welcome to watch the tournament for free. For more information on the schedule, donations and how to sign up visit pdtpdx.org.

Portland State of Mind: Scavenger Hunt 1–3 p.m.

Meet at PSU Urban Plaza

Join fellow members of the Portland State community in a free scavenger hunt around campus. This is a great opportunity to get to know Portland State as a place and connect with other students.

14

VANGUARD •• THURSDAY, TUESDAY, JANUARY OCT. 4, 2012 10, 2012 • SPORTS • ETC.

SPORTS

EDITOR: CORY MIMMS SPORTS@PSUVANGUARD.COM 503-725-4538

A new threat under center

The potential of Portland State’s freshman quarterback ZACH BIGALKE VANGUARD STAFF

It was never going to be easy replacing Connor Kavanaugh, Portland State’s quarterback.

The Vikings coaching staff mulled the decision all summer. Just days before the season opener against Carroll College, head coach Nigel Burton and offensive coordinator Bruce Barnum finally settled on freshman Kieran McDonagh as the starter.

This time last fall, McDonagh was in the midst of guiding Vancouver’s Skyview High School to a berth in the Washington 4A title game.

Now he’s the first true freshman to start multiple games as quarterback for PSU since Neil Lomax in 1977.

Just 18 years old, the business major has thrown for 1,095 yards and eight touchdowns in 2012. He has also added 178 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

But McDonagh has also thrown seven interceptions and given up one fumble this season. It has been a steep learning curve for the freshman, who has experienced both highs and lows during the transition from high school football to college.

While the team is 1-4 overall and 0-2 in conference after last weekend’s loss to Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, McDonagh has shown flashes of promise in his first five starts.

Here are three plays that have demonstrated the dual-threat potential PSU’s new quarterback brings to the position:

Flashpoint 1: Running through defenders (Sept. 1) The Scenario: After a Carroll College Fighting Saints punt, the Vikings took over at their own 22, leading 14-9 with 9:21 remaining before halftime.

The Play: On the sixth play of the drive, the Vikings faced third and 10 at the Carroll 34.

McDonagh took the snap and scrambled right. Eluding two defenders, he cut down the

NEW QUARTERBACK: Kieran McDonagh is PSU’s first true freshman quarterback since 1977. He has thrown for 1,095 yards this season, but the Vikings are yet to win a game.

ADAM WICKHAM/VANGUARD STAFF

middle of the field. Bulldozing into linebacker Joe Dunning, McDonagh finished a 20-yard run to keep the drive alive.

The Result: Five plays later, D.J. Adams leapt into the end zone for what would prove the decisive points in a 38-20 victory.

Flashpoint 2: Controlling a secondary (Sept. 15) The Scenario: After a 79yard touchdown drive, PSU was down 52-0 to University of Washington. They took over the ball at their own 25, 8:46 left in the third quarter.

The Play: On third and five, McDonagh surveyed the field.

He kept his eyes left, tracking Thomas Carter and leading the defense, before finding Nevin Lewis with a step on Marcus Peters along the right sideline.

Lofting a spiral 40 yards, Lewis caught it in stride and beat Peters to the end zone.

The Result: The points prevented a shutout. PSU

would allow no more Huskies points and McDonagh would add a rushing touchdown in the 52-13 defeat.

Flashpoint 3: Fighting to the final play (Sept. 22) The Scenario: Southern Utah University had just taken their first lead of the game at Jeld-Wen Field, up 49-42.

McDonagh and the Vikings took over at their own 33 with 1:29 remaining.

The Play: McDonagh led the offense 65 yards downfield, picking up two first downs on a 25-yard pass to Lewis. On the final play, one yard from the end zone, McDonagh kept the ball and fought for the goal line.

The Result: The officials ruled that McDonagh was short of the goal line. The Vikings fell to 1-3 in their conference opener.

A defense in transition Two games into 2012, head coach Nigel Burton dismissed defensive coordinator Eric Jackson after the defense allowed 401 yards and 45 points against University of North Dakota. Jackson’s departure completed the turnover of the Vikings defensive staff from 2011 after three assistants left in the off-season.

“I just felt as though we needed to make a change in some way to get ourselves to a championship level of play on that side of the ball,” Burton told the Portland Tribune a week after the termination. “And there were some other factors involved, and that was the decision I made and it was a hard one.”

Since Burton took over defensive duties from Jackson, the Vikings have shown mixed signs of improvement. Against Washington they gave up only 220 passing yards and held the Huskies under five

yards a carry. In their first two Big Sky games, they allowed 86 rushing yards a game.

Yet the team is 1-4 after losing last Saturday to Northern Arizona. The defense continues to be strong against the run, allowing 14 fewer yards a game than 2011. The Vikings are ranked 18th in the nation in yards allowed per carry (3.18) and have forfeited just five touchdowns.

The passing defense, on the other hand, allows 45 more yards a game than last year. Their 16 passing touchdowns conceded are tied for worst in the nation. Burton has shifted his secondary, returning Michael Williams to cornerback after experimen– ting with him at safety.

The team’s search for a defensive coordinator continues, though no candidates have yet emerged.

The year of the rookie GINO CERRUTI VANGUARD STAFF

It’s postseason time for baseball, and if you’re a fan who’s lucky enough to have a team in the playoffs, then you’ve probably blown all your vacation time on the upcoming weeks. If you happen to live in Washington, D.C., you’ve most likely quit your job and applied to peddle kettle corn at Nationals Park just so you can watch the Nationals play for the first time ever in postseason action.

Their success is due to myriad reasons: a fantastic pitching lineup that includes Gio Gonzalez, Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, former allstar and current manager Davey Johnson and, arguably most important, rookie Bryce Harper.

Although Harper has cooled off a bit since the All-Star break, he played a significant part in the Nationals’ domination of the National League East division early in the season. His contribution was so notable that he was picked for the NL All-Star team, becoming the youngest position player to do so, at the tender age of 19. Repeat: 19. When I was 19, the only award I could

have gotten was “MVP for most-developed gut in a college dormitory.”

The crazy thing is, Harper is just one of countless incredible rookies this year.

In the pitching arena there’s Texas Rangers wunderkind Yu Darvish, who is about to finish the season with a 16-9 win-loss record and 221 strikeouts with 191.1 innings pitched—that’s an average of one strikeout every inning.

Speaking of rookie pitchers, the current A’s pitching roster is made up entirely of rookies thanks to Brandon McCarthy being pulled after a life-threatening injury, and veteran Bartolo Colón’s suspension. Despite the lack of experience, these rookies have led the A’s to clinch their first postseason shot since 2006.

Of course, I haven’t even mentioned Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout— the leading contender for the American League Rookie of the Year award and the American League MVP award. Even near the end of the season Trout continues to rack up benchmark records—recently, the 21-year-old became the first rookie to achieve 30 home

runs and 40 stolen bases in a season.

To put Trout’s breakout season in better perspective, I have to mention his ridiculous WAR, or wins above replacement, for the season. WAR, by definition, is an all-encompassing stat that factors in batting, fielding, baserunning and more, and compares the data to his replacement (which is typically a Triple-A position player) and is then converted into one easy-to-understand value: wins.

As of now, Trout’s WAR levels off at 10—a feat last accomplished by Barry Bonds in 2004. In other words, Trout has given the Angels 10 wins throughout the season, and considering that the Angels are in Wild Card contention, Trout’s contribution is truly substantial.

As the postseason gets underway, the rookie faction will face a new kind of challenge—nerves. Can they handle the pressure of clinching a league pennant win? Or even a World Series title? I’m excited to find out.

16

VANGUARD • THURSDAY, OCT. 4, 2012 • SPORTS

Vikings sweep weekend

Thursday, Oct. 4

Portland State women’s soccer defeats Montana and Eastern Washington ALEX MOORE VANGUARD STAFF

The Vikings are now on a three-game winning streak after beating conference opponents the University of Montana and Eastern Washington University last weekend. Portland State’s women’s soccer team went the whole weekend without allowing a goal, outscoring their opponents 6-0.

“The weekend went as well as we hoped it would,” head coach Laura Schott said. “Two big home victories against teams that have been playing very well. Credit is due to both our defense and offense on the weekend. We got two shutouts and scored six goals. We had contributions from many players on both ends.”

Even after the Vikings swept the weekend, Schott still believes there is room to improve, and a lot that this team can work on.

“We still need to play consistently for all 90 minutes. We did very well this weekend, but it needs to be something we do every time we step on the field. It’s more about player/game management than a problem or mistake. There are momentum changes in each game, and we need to manage both effectively, Schott said.”

Portland State will play Northern Arizona University

DOMINATING: Daniela Solis dribbles past Montana’s offense. The Vikings are now 3-1-0 in conference play.

The Portland State women’s volleyball team took on firstyear Big Sky opponent Southern Utah to add another win to the Vikings’ undefeated conference standings. The Vikings, now 10-7 and 6-0, came out slow against the Thunderbirds in set one, but went on to a four set match victory. While it took some time to learn how the new opponent played, Viking serving and blocking got the Thunderbirds off-balance and ultimately led to a win at home.

After dropping set one 25-18, the Vikings made the necessary adjustments and dominated the court, leaving the Thunderbirds with just a 0.062 hitting percentage overall.

In set two, the Thunderbirds kept the score close until a kill by sophomore middle blocker Leigh-Ann Haataja at 16-14 cleared a path for a 10-1 run by the Vikings, sealing the set 25-15. From there, the momentum was just beginning: After halftime the Vikings went on to dominate sets three and four 25-12 and 25-14, respectively.

Vikings (6-0) vs.

Northern Colorado (5-1) Peter Stott Center 7 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 5

vs.

Vikings (3-1-0) @ Northern Arizona (2-1-0) Flagstaff 6 p.m.

Forecast: High of 70 degrees, mostly sunny

WOMEN’S TENNIS

ADAM WICKHAM/VANGUARD STAFF

and Southern Utah University this weekend. Both games are on the road.

“This weekend’s road games are very important as the Big Sky rolls on,” Schott said.

A look at the games:

Friday, Sept. 28 vs.

Montana The weekend started against Montana, a team that was 1-1 in conference play coming into the game. Portland State was also 1-1 in Big Sky play, but their offense looked good

in the last game, putting three goals on the scoreboard. They continued with the offensive dominance in the 27th minute. Sophomore Daniela Solis scored off an assist by Kayla Henningsen.

For Solis, it was the third goal of the season. The score stayed the same until the 50th minute, when Solis blasted a shot from just outside the box, which hit a Montana player and the back of the net. The sophomore was not credited with the goal, as it was consid-

ered an own goal. Nevertheless, the Vikings were ahead 2-0, and it stayed that way the rest of the game.

Senior goalkeeper Lainey Hulsizer had her second shutout of the season.

Sunday, Sept. 30 vs.

Eastern Washington (Dam Cup) It didn’t take the Vikings long to score in their third Dam Cup game, with senior Amanda Dutra getting on the board in the 16th

minute. From then on, PSU played strong both offensively and defensively, beating Eastern Washington 4-0.

Dutra wasn’t done after one goal, though. The senior scored in the 51st minute off an assist from senior Megan Martin. Martin also scored later in the game, and freshman Lynsey Gaines capped off the Vikings’ four goals. Solis, who has scored the most goals for PSU this season, had two assists.

“We kind of came out flat,” junior setter Garyn Schlatter said.

But the Vikings pulled together as a team, and in sets three and four they held the Thunderbirds to a negative hitting percentage—the first time this season the Vikings held an opponent to two negative percentages in a match.

Head coach Michael Seemann said that once the team got in the winning mentality they were able to make plays.

“I think our serving came through, but I also saw that our shot selection improved.

We did a better job of timing the block,” Seemann said. “I thought that we were ill-timed in the first two sets, especially, but then eventually we got better at timing and rhythm.”

In shot selection, junior Jaklyn Wheeler dominated.

The outside hitter slammed a match-high 17 kills and seven digs. She was named Big Sky volleyball player of the week for her performance.

Her outside hitter counterpart, senior Megan Ellis, also played a big offensive role with eight kills and a match-high 17 digs.

“They’re coming through every night for us,” Seemann said of the duo. “Obviously what you expect from our upperclassmen.”

On the front lines, sophomore middle blocker Katie O’Brien had one solo block along with four block assists, and behind the line sophomore libero Kasi Clark came up big again with three service aces.

With an opponent that hit a variety of unique plays, serving and blocking were key to disrupting Southern Utah’s play.

“Our servers served really well,” Schlatter said. “They made it a lot easier on our blockers. It was more predictable.”

As the Vikings prepare for another pair of games at home this weekend, teamwork will be a key focus. “Without all 14 people on our team, we don’t really have a chance,” Schlatter said.

The Vikings host Northern Colorado tonight at 7 p.m., and then Big Sky newcomer North Dakota on Saturday at 1 p.m. Both matches are at the Stott Center.

Cal State Fullerton Intercollegiate Fullerton, Calif.

TBA

MEN’S TENNIS Boise State Classic Boise, Idaho TBA

Saturday, Oct. 6

VOLLEYBALL vs.

Vikings (6-0) vs.

North Dakota (3-3) Peter Stott Center 7 p.m.

Portland State beats Southern Utah VANGUARD STAFF

vs.

WOMEN’S SOCCER

Vikings soar to sixth win ROSEMARY HANSON

VOLLEYBALL

FOOTBALL vs.

Vikings (0-2) vs.

Northern Arizona (0-1) Jeld-Wen Field 5:05 p.m.

Forecast: High of 74 degrees, sunny

Sunday, Oct 7

SOCCER vs.

Vikings (3-1-0) @ Southern Utah (1-3-1) Cedar City, Utah 9 a.m.

Forecast: High of 70 degrees, partly cloudy

KARL KUCHS/VANGUARD STAFF

HIGH STATS: Megan Ellis got eight kills and 17 digs against Southern Utah.

The Vikings are on a six–game winning streak.