Portland State Vanguard March 5, 2013

Ringing out the new year

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The Confucius Institute hosts its last event for the Chinese New Year Arts & culture page 6

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Portland State University Tuesday, March 5, 2013 | vol. 67 no. 43

TriMet and Perkowski’s ‘Legos for adults’ ATU butt heads over saftey MAX blind spots and faulty doors among chief concerns Turner Lobey Vanguard Staff

Last week it was reported that the electronic system used to monitor and control light rail activity has a “blackout area” where MAX trains and the Portland Streetcar intersect at Portland State’s Urban Plaza.

The problem, said Bruce Hansen, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, is that the control monitors are unable to track the trains in the area where the two rail systems intersect.

“Operators can’t see either vehicle,” Hansen said. “Controllers wouldn’t know about a collision or incident until after the fact, when someone called them.”

The source of the problem is unknown, but investigations are currently underway. There are similar blackout zones at Southwest 11th Avenue and Morrison Street, and at Southwest 11th Avenue and Yamhill Street.

Despite the fact the MAX and the streetcar have been crossing paths at PSU and in the downtown area for quite some time, Hansen said the problem has just now been brought to light.

“If I’m so intrigued, why isn’t TriMet?” Hansen asked.

See Trimet on page 5

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Marek perkowski, also known as “Dr. Roboto,” poses with one of his robots. Perkowski gave a presentation about his robotics work on Wednesday.

Mary Breaden Vanguard Staff

Do robots have souls?

Marek Perkowski (also known as “Dr. Roboto”), professor of electrical engineering, speculated on this potential, as well as on quantum robotics, during Wednesday night’s presentation on cyber theater and robotics.

“When I was a young person in Poland, building a robot was much more difficult,” Perkowski said, beginning his talk by encouraging people to experiment with building their own robots.

He said anyone can find the materials they need to build a robot at their local Home Depot.

“I call this Legos for adults,” he said. “You just need more pieces.”

Perkowski’s focus has been on building robots that can recognize a variety of gestures and languages and respond in kind.

A robot detects the presence of a person using a series of algorithms to detect facial and body gestures. Perkowski said that robots can use these equations to detect gender. In order to recognize a beautiful person, a robot must first be shown examples of beauty and ugliness.

“You don’t program them, you teach them,” he said.

Perkowski presented the audience with diagrams and photos of a typical robot’s makeup. He suggested See Robotics on page 2

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The Portland cyber theatre project features robots named after significant intellectual figures like this robotic Dr. Albert Einstein.

‘Hands-on Philanthropy’ set for spring PSU senior hopes to inspire next generation of Portland philanthropists Matthew Ellis Vanguard Staff

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Brian Forrester, a senior social science major, speaks at the launch party for Hands-on Philanthropy on Thursday. Forrester hosted the party to raise donations for a philanthropy course he’ll teach through the chiron studies program in the spring.

If the pictures in his binder don’t convince you, the canvasser who’s stopped you between Smith Memorial Student Union and Cramer Hall will turn straight to the numbers.

One payment a month. Twenty-five dollars. One child.

You feel awful as you shake your head, mouth nothing in particular and walk away. If you had a spare $300 a year, you would be more than happy to donate. Your mind wanders: increasing tuition, books, rent, utilities.

After all, you’re a student, not a philanthropist.

Portland State senior Brian Forrester disagrees. This spring, Forrester will teach a course titled “Hands-on Philanthropy” through the Chiron Studies program, which gives undergraduate students the opportunity to teach administrationapproved curriculum.

The class will focus on working alongside nonprofits, with a philosophical look at the nature of philanthropy itself. The kicker? Forrester has managed to raise more than $20,000 dollars in donations that the class will administer to the community.

“It’s really inspiring,” Forrester said. “You have Portland State involved, you have the Schnitzer CARE Foundation involved, and there are a handful of people who have agreed to donate who all have helped me think about the course.”

See philanthropy on page 5

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PSU professor takes expert knowledge to Moscow Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center opened in November Ryan Voelker Vanguard Staff

With the aid of Portland State professor Natan Meir, a new museum funded by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia recently opened in Moscow to international acclaim.

Housed in a massive historical structure, the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center is a unique collection of interactive exhibits showcasing the history of Russian Jews. Meir was one of five experts asked to help bring their story to life.

“It tries to tell, in a sense, all of Jewish history,” Meir said. “But its focus is really between the 18th and 20th centuries, when Russia expanded and took over one of the largest Jewish populations in the world.”

Meir is an expert in Russian Jewish history and is in his fifth year teaching Judaic studies at PSU. He began working on the Moscow project as a consultant

for its content committee in 2007. He explained that it was a new and enriching experience.

“I had never worked on a museum project before, but I felt like I took to it quite naturally,” he said. “It was exciting for me to try and think about how to present a history that I’m very familiar with in a different way.”

Professor Benjamin Nathans, from the University of Pennsylvania, served as chairman of the content committee. The group worked as a team to brainstorm ideas about how to present history in engaging ways.

“A traditional museum is based on artifacts,” Nathans said. “This museum has some artifacts, but it’s much more interactive and high-tech.

There are multiple levels to any given exhibit, and the viewer decides how deeply they want to go.”

In order to reach a wide audience, they focused on making the museum accessible and interesting for people from all walks of life. The interactive aspects contain digital simulations, which immerse visitors in specific environments such

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Natan meir, a PSU professor, helped bring the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow to fruition. as Jewish marketplaces and synagogues.

Not surprisingly, the Holocaust and World War II period plays a significant role in the museum. The exhibits in this section contain a large collection of films, letters and even some military artifacts.

“It’s almost a museum within a museum; you could spend two hours just in that part

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Exhibits at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow feature more interactive technology than artifacts.

the Russian government has garnered much international attention.

Now that their contribution is complete, both professors look back on the experience fondly. They take a lot of pride in their collective accomplishment.

“For each of us, this may be the thing we do that reaches more people than any other project,” Nathans said. “I think for many people it’s an encounter with a foreign culture that can expand their horizons, expand a sense of what it means to be human.”

As for Meir’s horizon, he appears to have been bitten by the museum bug. He’s now been involved with a number of other similar projects, including a current collaboration with the Oregon Jewish Museum for an exhibit that will open next year.

Meir is organizing a trip to give Portland community members a chance to see the museum. For anyone interested in making a visit to Moscow soon, he offers this piece of advice: “I recommend going when it’s warmer than now. I just went in December, and it was very cold.”

Cyber Theatre cast includes robot Newton, Einstein

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alone,” Meir said. “It includes a Soviet tank and airplane, which are actually installed in the museum.”

Meir said presenting the Jewish tragedy was a delicate task. Since World War II was fought on their home territory, it is considered a national tragedy by all of Russia.

“Russian Jews were specifically targeted by Germans for annihilation, whereas other groups weren’t,” Meir explained.

The tolerance center is the last segment of the museum.

The intention is for visitors to reflect on what they’ve learned about one minority group’s struggle in Russia, and then try to understand more about hatred and xenophobia in general.

“It’s too early to tell exactly how broad the tolerance message will be, but I think any reasonable person can only applaud an effort to promote tolerance in Russia today,” Nathans said.

According to Meir, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has voiced specific support for the project and donated one month of his salary to the museum. The association with

Robotics from page 1

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Sonbi, the Confucian scholar, in robot form. Sonbi is a part of the Portland Cyber Theatre Project.

Testimony and treason: Sabin Triangle up for a tale of two sergeants possible redesign Civil engineering students assist with park transformation project

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providing a robot with a fourwheel base to allow “innovative, explorative behaviors.”

At the robot’s base—an intricate work of wires and gearboxes—are sensors that make it possible for the robot to detect and avoid obstacles.

In order to demonstrate a robot’s facial gestures, Perkowski said that he and his students rigged a tablet that had programmed responses that prompted the screen to display a smile or a frown and mounted it atop the robot to serve as its head.

“Everybody I work with feels that every robot has some kind of personality,” Perkowski said. He said he’s been working with psychology students to measure this scientifically.

Perkowski then presented the cast of characters that

comprise his greatest passion: the Portland Cyber Theatre Project, where robots named after significant inventors and scientists can walk and dance.

Much of this was inspired by Korean theater, he said.

“For Sonbi, the Confucian scholar, I used an original Korean mask,” Perkowski said.

Sir Isaac Newton, Dr. Albert Einstein, Dr. Niels Bohr and Schrodinger’s cat also made appearances.

“We performed the play for a few groups of students, but it was boring, so we had to make it more engaging for them,” Perkowski said, shrugging.

Behind a large window in the Engineering Building’s basement, several characters from Perkowski’s robot theater pose mid-gesture. Inside the workroom are plastic boxes filled with screws and gold

plates, the bits and pieces that will perhaps create more characters for the robot theater.

“Little kids surround the robots and completely lose their minds because they’re so happy,” Perkowski said. He suspects that shy and socially awkward people can learn social skills from robot gestures.

In addition to his playful interest in robotic theater, Perkowski is passionate about developing his “quantum robot,” Qubot 1. This robot will use quantum computing to perform actions faster and with more precision.

“Robotics technology that was a dream for many years is here,” Perkowski said.

“Robots are great adventures for students,” he added.

“This is exactly how we should teach people: solving practical problems.”

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dr. naoko shibusawa, a Brown University history professor, lectures about WWII army sergeants on Thursday.

Brown University historian presents prisoner-of-war case study Ravleen Kaur Vanguard Staff

In the aftermath of World War II, two American army sergeants—both prisoners of war—faced harrowingly different futures. One, a JapaneseAmerican intelligence agent, was deemed a war hero. The other, an Anglo-American, was charged with treason.

And yet the similarities between Richard Sakakida and John Provoo were startling.

Speaking at Portland State on Thursday, Brown University history professor Dr. Naoko Shibusawa wove a narrative of two men whose diverging fates upended racialized expectations of the Cold War era.

Shubisawa pieced together their story by sifting through 5,000 pages of trial testimony.

“Both were stationed at Corregidor…a tadpole-shaped fortress island in the Philippines,” Shibusawa said. Both spoke Japanese and were interpreters between American prisoners and Japanese capturers.

Their stories diverged after the war when Provoo, accused of wartime collaboration with the Japanese that led to the death of a U.S. soldier, was arrested.

After eight months of investigation, there was no evidence to prove Provoo’s affiliation with the Japanese, so he reenlisted.

In 1949, Provoo was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army. Only an hour after his release, however, the FBI arrested him and charged him with treason.

Sakakida was also charged with treason, but this charge came from the Japanese, who claimed his Japanese ancestry made him a traitor.

After being held captive and tortured by the Japanese, Sakakida escaped and returned to the Army. A couple of years later, he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was also posthumously awarded a congressional citation.

“Sakakida exemplified that blood sacrifice and heroism were needed to gain acceptance by the nation,” Shibusawa said.

Shibusawa said the case highlighted the postwar emphasis on tolerance.

“Racial liberalism dovetailed with America’s goal to be the champion of the free world,” said Shibusawa, who painted a contrast between wartime racial suspicion and the quick postwar shift to valuing the Japanese as a Cold War ally.

“Cold War liberalism is the opposite side of the coin to Cold War Oriental paranoia,” she added.

Provoo’s arrest made the front page of The New York Times.

“The U.S press was one of the biggest stakeholders in the trial,” Shibusawa said.

“Provoo’s trial gained so much attention that jury members had to be reminded to ignore newspaper, TV and radio coverage of the case.”

One of the key witnesses against Provoo was his fellow sergeant, Sakakida. In October 1952, Sakakida took the stand at the federal courthouse in New York City.

Sakakida was described by The New York Times as “an inscrutable figure behind glittering glasses.” “[Sakakida] riveted the courtroom with his tales of Provoo’s wartime treachery,” Shibusawa said. The only Japanese-American prisoner of war at Corregidor, Sakakida was correctly suspected of being a member of the U.S. Army intelligence.

Provoo, who was gay, was depicted much differently, Shibusawa said.

“Newspapers depicted him as a paragon of American manliness queered in the process, donning khakis with geisha robes,” she said.

Sakakida’s testimony initially seemed conclusive.

“He testified that Provoo was the only American who was allowed free movement, who was never slapped or made to do hard labor,” Shibusawa said.

But cross-examination chipped away at Sakakida’s credibility. “It was established that Sakakida, too, was exempt from slapping,”

Shibusawa said. “He, too, had relative freedom of movement.”

Much of the case against Provoo came from a Japanese Imperial Army sergeant whose testimony regarding Provoo shifted from early letters of praise to an implicating narrative.

“The former enemy now seemed a reliable source of information,” Shibusawa said.

Born in Hawaii to Japanese immigrants, Sakakida was recruited by U.S Army intelligence for his unusually adept Japanese language skills.

Sakakida testified that Provoo, too, spoke relatively good Japanese—but Provoo’s knowledge of the language came largely from a six-month course, Shibusawa explained.

Throughout the cross-examination, Provoo had a calm, even demeanor. But he was found guilty of treason by the jury and sentenced to life in prison.

“If the appellate judge was right, Provoo’s homosexuality influenced the guilty verdict,” Shibusawa said.

But in the end, Provoo won his appeal.

“Although ultimately found innocent, Provoo felt hounded by the treason allegation for the rest of his life,” Shibusawa said.

Provoo eventually became an ordained Buddhist monk. He moved to Hawaii, where he participated in anti-Vietnam War demonstrations.

Shibusawa’s presentation was cosponsored by PSU’s Center for Japanese Studies, the Oregon Nikkei Endowment, the PSU history department and the Portland Center for Public Humanities.

Shibusawa, who is the author of America’s Geisha Ally: Reimagining the Japanese Enemy, underscored difficulties in constructing historical narratives.

“As we sift through testimony, we encounter the problem of arbitrarily privileging some details over others,” Shibusawa said.

“The question isn’t what history is, but how history works,” she said. “Whose versions [of history] gain veracity, and why?”

The Sabin Triangle may be getting a makeover with a little help from some Portland State students.

The neglected area, consisting of concrete, trees and grass located at Northeast Prescott Street and 15th Avenue, better known as the Sabin Triangle, is undergoing the first phases of what could be a major transformation.

As part of their senior capstone, 10 PSU civil engineering students are aiding the Portland community and Architects Without Borders with the project.

The concept for the new park, said Eli Jefferson, who serves as the group’s project manager, is “an area to hold community meetings, yoga classes and plant spaces.” “[It’s also] known as a pocket park,” added Kate Petak, a student involved in the project.

Petak explained that these parks are becoming increasingly common. “They are springing up everywhere, using small and once-idle pieces of land,” she said.

The Sabin Triangle used to be the last stop on a trolley

line, but since then has been filled with concrete and poorly cared for.

A few years ago, after the community agreed on the need for a new use for the space, AWB came up with a conceptual idea for a park that would involve green features such as stormwater bioswales and planter boxes.

The design is expensive, which is where PSU students come into play, Jefferson explained.

“Our job is to do the initial surveying and figure out if this plan is feasible,” he said.

The 10 students are divided evenly into two groups that will survey different issues.

The group headed by Jefferson will survey for ground elevation, groundwater elevation and the potential for contamination in the soil.

The second group, headed

by PSU senior Alex Baumann, will locate sewer lines and make stormwater calculations, among other things.

The surveying will take place over several weekends in the spring.

“We are in the preliminary stages of design,” Jefferson said, adding that there are already obstacles predicted ahead.

“There was once an old gas station on the site,” Jefferson said. They are worried this could lead to major soil contamination.

Jefferson also fears that the sewer lines, which are 100

years old, may pose problems.

Should the costs be too high, the project will be forced to end, he explained.

Students involved said working on a real community space provides them with valuable experience.

Jefferson said that being the project manager and being in charge of coordinating meetup times has taught him to properly manage other people’s time.

“I learned to do things early enough so we have time to make sure our work meets the right standard,” he said.

Jefferson and Baumann agreed this project has improved their communication skills.

“Being able to relate and talk to people who aren’t familiar with the terminology was a huge benefit,” Baumann said of trying to explain engineering concepts to nonengineers.

Petak said that her greatest takeaway was the whole reason she pursued civil engineering in the first place: “I got involved in engineering to help communities,” she said, noting that the project has increased her familiarity with the city’s many design laws and standards.

While the project will not be completed by the time the 10 students will finish their capstone class, they all said they hope to see the next group of civil engineering seniors take on the rest of the project in their own capstone class.

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Eli Jefferson, a master’s student in the civil engineering department, at the Sabin Triangle. Jefferson is one of the project leaders for the renovation plan.

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VANGUARD • Tuesday, March 5, 2013 • News

Crime blotter for Feb. 22–28 Stephanie Tshappat Vanguard Staff

Feb. 22 Hit and run Fourth Avenue Building parking garage Officer Jon Buck took a report from a faculty member who was the victim of a hitand-run accident that occurred on Feb. 19, at 9:35 a.m., in the Fourth Avenue Building parking garage.

Theft Science Research and Teaching Center At 5:18 p.m., Officer David Baker took a report from a male subject who was unable to find his wallet. The victim believes he left his wallet in the first floor men’s bathroom of the SRTC building at noon. The victim noticed his wallet was missing at 4 p.m. and returned to the SRTC to look for it but found it was gone.

Feb. 23 Exclusion Broadway Housing Building At 1:18 a.m., Officer Schuurmans responded to Broadway residence hall after a report of a male subject masturbating on the second floor. Officer Schuurmans contacted nonstudent Elton L. Whittaker and determined no crime had been committed. Whittaker was issued an exclusion for creating an uncomfortable environment.

Car prowl University Place Hotel Officer Buck and Officer Gary Smeltzer responded to University Place Hotel for a report of a vehicle break-in that occurred between 4 p.m. on Feb. 22 and 9 a.m. on Feb. 23. The rear driver side window was broken, and miscellaneous items totaling $102 in value were reported missing.

Exclusion University Pointe Officer Chose and Officer Denae Murphy responded to University Pointe at 4 p.m. at the request of University Pointe security for a welfare check on a male subject who was passed out in the lobby. Nonstudent Jason Torgerson was issued an exclusion. University Pointe security said University Pointe considers the area of the lobby west of the sliding glass doors to be owned by PSU.

Feb. 24 Trespass arrest Parking Structure One At 1:26 a.m., a male subject fled from Officer Schuurmans in Parking Structure One, and after a short pursuit on foot, nonstudent Bradley N. Wright was taken into custody for trespassing. It was determined that Wright was using binoculars to look into the windows of the Broadway, University Pointe and Ondine residence halls.

Feb. 25 Warrant arrest Parking Structure Three At 8 a.m., Officer Chose contacted student Travis Murdock, who was parked in Parking Structure Three, exhibiting suspicious behavior and without a valid parking permit. Murdock was found to have an outstanding warrant for theft and was arrested.

Trespass Extended Studies Building parking lot At 3 p.m. in the southwest corner of the XSB parking lot, Officer Chose and Officer Murphy contacted nonstudent Gregory Hightower for drinking beer with nonstudents Mario Fuentes and Shima Haydarzadehsadrabadi. Hightower was issued an exclusion, Fuentes had a valid exclusion and was cited for trespass, and Haydarzadehsadrabadi claimed to have not been drinking.

Feb. 26 Disturbance Center for Student Health and Counseling At 3:15 p.m., Officer Baker and Officer Brian Rominger responded to a report of an aggravated and uncooperative student who refused to leave SHAC. The student claimed he had been treated unfairly by SHAC staff and had been asked to leave by Dr. Mark Bajorek. Bajorek gave information to file a formal complaint and asked the student to leave because of his aggressive behavior.

Marijuana incident Parking Structure One At 11:20 p.m., Officer Chris Fischer contacted nonstudent John Vo, nonstudent Sabath Lim, nonstudent Wattena Myers and nonstudent Trien Nguyen in a vehicle on the roof of Parking Structure One. All subjects admitted to smoking marijuana, and two glass pipes and a small amount of marijuana were confiscated.

Feb. 27 Marijuana incident University Honors Building Officer Rominger and Officer Baker contacted nonstudents smoking marijuana on the north side of the University Honors Building. One subject was an unidentified white adult female; the other subjects, Michael J. Jorgensen, Jacob M. Birdwell and Victoria M. Sevin, were issued exclusions.

Feb. 28 Vehicle break-in University Center Building At 4:47 p.m., Officer Rominger received a report from a student whose backpack, containing two textbooks, had been stolen from his vehicle while it was parked at the University Center Building. The rear left passenger window was broken.

Class profile: ‘Sports and Entertainment Management’ Gwen Shaw Vanguard staff

Students may neglect to think about what their professors did before coming to Portland State or what they do outside of teaching, but given the scholastic diversity of PSU’s faculty, there’s no doubt many professors have interesting stories and rich experiences they can pass on to their students.

J.E. Isaac is a case in point.

Currently an adjunct professor in the School of Business Administration, Isaac carries a diverse resume of accomplishments achieved prior to landing at PSU. After Isaac finished undergraduate school at the University of Kentucky, he pursued law school at the Florida State University College of Law. Upon completion, Isaac practiced law in Florida for three years before making the decision to move to a new city.

“I circled three cities on the map of the U.S.: Seattle, Denver and Portland,” Isaac said.

“I went to visit all three, and I had a friend that lived here and showed me around, and I just fell in love with it here.”

Isaac moved to Portland and practiced law in the area for a couple of years before he decided it was time to do something more creative. With no previous management knowledge, he began managing a local band, Quarterflash. After hooking up the band with Geffen Records, they went platinum and became internationally known.

Eight years in the music industry went by before Isaac felt the need for another change. In 1988, he was given the opportunity to work with Paul Allen, who had just bought the Portland Trail Blazers and was in the process of transforming the team from a sports franchise to a full-service sports entertainment company.

Allen was looking to build an arena because, at the time, the Memorial Coliseum was the smallest and third-oldest arena in the NBA and lacked the modern amenities necessary to fully monetize the franchise. Isaac was brought in to begin work on the Rose Garden Arena project.

Hired as director of game operations and merchandising, Isaac said he immediately worked to establish a new retail arm that included a store downtown and others around the state.

“I demonstrated that I was good at doing due diligence on businesses and developing them, and that led to my promotion to vice president of business development,” he said.

Isaac continued to climb the ladder, becoming vice president of business affairs and then senior vice president of business affairs. In addition to his work with the Blazers,

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J.E. isaac will bring his diverse experiences to the classroom next term.

Isaac also held positions in Allen’s other companies, including the Seattle Seahawks.

After 24 years with the team, Isaac left in the summer of 2011 to take a long vacation.

“I needed it,” he said. “It was really a grueling pace and workload that I had while I was with the Blazers.”

Despite the need for a break, Isaac said he wasn’t ready for retirement.

“I wanted to use the knowledge, expertise and connections that I had built up over 30 years of working in sports entertainment in Portland. So I took a job consulting,” he said.

Isaac was asked to design and teach a course in sports and entertainment in the summer of 2010 and found he thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now Isaac spends his time teaching the course at PSU while maintaining his job as a consultant.

“It gives me the freedom to travel, which I like to do. But still feel like I’m giving back and staying firm on things,” he said. “It’s just been really fun.”

The course that Isaac teaches at PSU is called “Sports and Entertainment Management,” and as the title suggests, it’s about the sports and entertainment industry.

Isaac said that most sports franchises nowadays are far more than just a football team or a basketball team.

They often own and control their own venue, as well as their own food and beverage company, and put on concerts and events outside of sporting games.

“They are really full-service sports entertainment companies,” Isaac explained. “This class is designed to allow students to understand how that industry works and also to point out opportunities for them to be a part of that.”

In addition to the experience Isaac brings, students in

the class are also exposed to an array of guest speakers, including people in high-profile positions like the chief operating officer of the Portland Timbers, the former chief operating officer of the Trail Blazers and the president of the Winterhawks.

“I try to bring in people who are longtime executives.

I want to give the students opportunities to hear from people with experience beyond mine,” Isaac said.

Isaac incorporates a lot of multimedia into his lessons and tries to make it as interesting for the students as possible.

Students get to go on a field trip that changes from term to term that showcases what it’s really like to be a part of the field.

The class involves a lot of discussion and a final project that helps students understand real-life sports and entertainment. Two years ago, during the NBA lockout, Isaac was able to split his class into two groups, the owners and the players, and had them negotiate their own deals.

“I’m extremely impressed with the student body at PSU. I don’t know if this is true in other schools, but in the school of business the students are older, and they already have been in or are currently in the workforce, and they are going to school for the right reasons,” Isaac said. “They are there to learn and to advance their careers. They pay attention, they work hard. Most of the students here are serious students, and they’ve just been a pleasure to work with.”

The class will be offered next term and is primarily for upper division and graduate business students, but qualified students from outside the School of Business Administration will be considered on a case-by-case basis, space permitting. If interested, contact Isaac at jisaac@pdx.edu.

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philanthropy from page 1

Mayor charlie hales speaks about the many ways to give at the Hands-on Philanthropy launch party on Thursday.

Hands-on launch party raises more than $20K for class Forrester works as a consultant and strategist for Strategik Solutions and spends time plugging away at the grassroots level for nonprofit organizations. He also canvassed for Portland Mayor Charlie Hales during his campaign.

But even with such a packed resume, Forrester’s inspiration came from a botched attempt to raise money while visiting, ironically, a high school course designed to teach students how to distribute donated money—just like Forrester’s course aims to do.

“I thought, you know, I was young, they were young, they are going to give me money for sure, and then they asked me a ton of hard questions, and I was like…oh no. This was harder than I thought it was going to be,” he said.

“They didn’t give me a dime, but I remember thinking what a cool idea [that class] was.”

With the help of Ben Anderson-Nathe, Forrester’s faculty advisor, the course was officially submitted for inclusion in the Chiron program. Next, Forrester realized he had to use his professional

network to see if he could raise a pool of money for his class to work with.

But that plan was derailed after a chance meeting with the director of the Harold and Arlene Schnitzer CARE Foundation, who in turn introduced Forrester to Arlene Schnitzer. Schnitzer offered a $10,000 donation—if Forrester could find another $10,000 to match it.

“When I call people up and say…I’m looking for a match to meet the Schnitzer Foundation[’s], they are like, ‘Oh! Arlene is invested in this?

OK, let’s hear more,’” he said.

“It’s a stamp of approval but also a real symbol of how much they supported the idea.”

Forrester’s plan was to break the match donations down into a series of $1,000 donations from business leaders and philanthropists in the Portland community. One such donation came from Bill Dickey of Morel Ink. “I’ve met [Forrester] a few times before and spotted him as an up-and-comer,” Dickey said. “But I could tell he was invested in this—he was asking all the right questions.”

Forrester spearheaded his final donations on Thursday, hosting a launch party for Hands-On Philanthropy at the Picnic House. Peppered throughout the crowd of 60 were committed investors such as Dickey, Forrester’s faculty advisors and potential donors ready to hear Forrester’s pitch.

Hales was also present and spoke to the potential donors on Forrester’s behalf.

“The great thing about Portland is that here you aren’t who you are when you got off the boat. You are what you choose to do,” Hales said.

“And I’m just so excited that someone here is taking his idea he scribbled off the back of a napkin or something, and has made it real, in his community, in his neighborhood, in his school.”

By the end of that night, donations were still rolling in.

More than $20,000 was raised for Forrester’s class, all of which would go into the pool for students to use, as PSU waived the usual registration fee for Chiron coursework to be listed in the academic bulletin.

Ultimately, Forrester and those who donated hope this

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TriMet spokeswoman refutes ATU allegations

karl kuchs/VANGUARD STAFf

Max trains and the Portland streetcar intersect at PSU’s Urban Plaza. The ATU is concerned about this “blackout area.”

This story comes amid other safety concerns surrounding public transportation and underlines a struggle between TriMet and the ATU. The news of the blackout zone follows concerns about the safety of TriMet’s buses and rail systems. A recent YouTube video revealed a MAX train traveling down Interstate 84 at highway speeds with its doors open.

Addressing these concerns, the ATU issued a statement that said, “TriMet workers say that open doors on traveling trains are just the tip of the iceberg…

Management has been alerted repeatedly to dangerous problems on the light rail system, yet has failed to take action.”

Hansen is quoted in the document expressing concern for worker and public safety. “Our workers are afraid that a passenger, a member of the public or one of their co-workers is going to be injured or killed. It’s that simple.”

The statement also indicated that transit workers have provided a list of railcar doors “seriously in need of an overhaul.

“The mechanics are worried about the serious damage that could occur if one of these 90-pound doors falls, especially if it happens when the train is moving,” Hansen said in the statement. “Anyone can look at the Type 2 and 3 cars and see that the doors are sagging. That’s a clear sign of potential failure.”

Roberta Altstadt, a spokeswoman for TriMet, issued a response to KOIN news refuting these claims.

“As part of an ongoing campaign to discredit TriMet, the ATU alleged that the MAX system is unsafe. These allegations questioning the safety of the MAX system are absolutely false.

“The allegations are meant to deflect attention from contract negotiations.

“TriMet has repeatedly asked the ATU leadership to come to the table to negotiate excessive health care costs and other contract loopholes. They have refused to do so.

“TriMet’s dedicated safety team and union mechanics, operators, controllers and field staff work every day to ensure the system—both bus and MAX—is safe for TM riders and their fellow employees,” Altstadt said.

Regardless of the circumstances, Hansen said the ATU is dedicated to making TriMet and the public aware of safety issues so they can both practice proper safety procedures.

“We’re willing to educate,” Hansen said. “It’s about moving forward.”

The Amalgamated Transit Union has created a website, transitvoice.org, where commuters and citizens can stay updated on the issues and voice their concerns.

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course will help to illustrate that philanthropy is not limited to how much money any one person can give out of their own pockets. Instead, learning what Hales called “habits of the heart” can help facilitate an understanding that giving can be done in many different ways, whether

you are the one giving the money or you are the one offering a helping hand.

Even with the groundwork laid, Forrester was quick to note that the bulk of the work is still ahead.

“It’s an amazing feeling to have so many people— community leaders, friends,

students, colleagues—come together all in one place to support you in turning a vision into reality. But this is just the beginning; the real fun starts on the first day of class,” he said.

The course begins April 1 and can be found on the course schedule at pdx.edu.

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Arts Arts & Culture & Culture • Tuesday, •Tuesday,March Jan. 31, 5, 2013 • VANGUARD

VANGUARD ••TThursday, Tuesday, uesday, THURSDAY, TUESDAY, Jan. March JANUARY OCTOBER Nov. FEBRUARY JANUARY 31, 8, 2013 5,2012 2013 10, 25, 26, •2, 2012 2011 ARTS •2012 • ARTS ARTS ••&•OPINION OPINION CULTURE &ARTS &CULTURE CULTURE & CULTURE

ARTS & CULTURE

EDITOR: Louie Opatz ARTS@PSUVANGUARD.COM 503-725-5694

Art department happenings Writing to cope PSU art school to celebrate makeover with open studios, exhibits, party Jeoffry Ray Vanguard Staff

This Wednesday, the Portland State art department is having something of a rebirth.

Wednesday’s exhibition, titled “Say My Name, Say My Name,” will feature an array of events, including artist open studios and a bingo match.

Each of the departments within the school, from art history to graphic design, will host exhibitions and events in celebration of the students and a department-wide makeover.

Even the garage will have a show, a “happening” hosted by the university’s fledgling Time Arts Club student group. A multimedia mix of performance, video and dance music, the happening will have all the trappings of an art party.

Manny Reyes, who organizes events for the Time Arts Club, spoke about the nature of the happening, an event with a long tradition in contemporary art.

“Happenings mean something different to different people,” he explained. “What’s consistent is that it’s an event that brings people together for performance art. It’s really an avenue to experiment.”

Ernest Wedoff, a Master of Fine Arts student involved with the club, agreed.

“Nobody will boo you or anything, so it’s really open,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to try something new.”

The garage happening will be a first for the club, which typically hosts monthly events in Neuberger Hall.

Each happening is an all-ages event, for which the club entirely reassembles the studio space into a festive environment where musicians or disc jockeys set the soundtrack as artists feature video and experimental performance art.

“It’ll be fun, because we’ve never heard of anything like that here before,” Reyes said.

“The garage is kind of a trash center, but we’re going to make it beautiful.”

Reyes credited the idea to the art department curator, Patrick Rock.

“It was his idea that someone do something in the garage,” Reyes said. “As the one responsible for many of the galleries on campus, he’s also been very helpful with some of the logistics, such as projectors.”

The club itself is open to anyone interested in the happenings, with members ranging from students in the art department to those in business or film. Both Reyes and Wedoff underscored the importance of collaboration and participation to the club’s objectives.

“The collaboration aspect is something I’m really interested in,” Wedoff said. “These collaborations I’ve been working on—I never would have thought about them without the club. I feel like it’s really advanced my art practice.”

Both Reyes and Wedoff pointed to the club’s technical wizard, Tim Ferrell, as another example.

“He’s kind of a tech guru,” Reyes said. “He’s really sort of our muscle. He’s definitely the one behind [the scenes], keeping things running.”

Wedoff, who works extensively in printmaking, spoke about his work with Ferrell. The pair often combine projection and print to create a vivid visual experience.

Best-selling author Cheryl Strayed visits Portland State Melanie Cope Vanguard staff

COURTESY OF Megan McGinley

“I feel like in my collaboration with Tim, the projections are more like another layer of print,” Wedoff said.

But the garage happening is just one aspect of a greater programming itinerary by the department.

In addition to department-based events, artist Chase Biado will host a series of exhibitions, collectively titled “You New Bad Things,” in the Art Building’s MK and Lobby galleries as well as in Neuberger’s Autzen Gallery.

“It is a look into a conversation and collaboration amongst peers, an endeavor in earnestness to contextualize and question the cultural currency of the ‘contemporary’ in contemporary art by individuals working across current pluralistic lines and methodologies,” Biado wrote in a statement about the show.

The event will also feature mini-lectures by the art history department and an exhibition by the graphic design department throughout the Art Building annex. The Friends of Graphic Design group will also host a photo booth in the annex.

The overarching event is a chance for the school to celebrate its new face as it undergoes a series of structural changes, including a name change and potential staff shifts.

“The school is reinventing itself,” Reyes

explained. “A lot of things are going to change. The whole thing is about creating a new beginning. And to showcase talent, because that’s what we do.”

Both Reyes and Wedoff are excited about for their upcoming show, and they pointed to greater things ahead, both for the department and for their student group. Reyes pointed to the final happening of winter term, which will occur in Neuberger on March 22.

“That’s the mega-list,” Reyes said. “It will be bigger than any happening we’ve done yet.

More performers, more art, more music.”

Wedoff also expressed general excitement to be a part of the club.

“I feel like we’ve been lucky; we’ve had a lot of great talent,” he said. “It’s really a blessing to be a part of the Time Arts Club.”

PSU’s School of Art and Design presents Say My Name: School of Art and Design Open House

Jessica Miller Vanguard Staff

While the Chinese New Year may be drawing to a close, the celebrations aren’t over quite yet.

The Confucius Institute at Portland State has one more trick up its sleeve.

Rounding out a month’s worth of parties, cooking demonstrations and galas, the “Guzheng Lecture and Recital” will be the last event held by the Confucius Institute in celebration of the Chinese New Year.

The Chinese guzheng, a part of the zither family, is believed to be the predecessor of the Japanese kato, Korean gayageum and Mongolian yataga. Using between 21 and 26 strings (most have 21), the guzheng was formerly made of silk but is now usually made with metal or nylon.

The instrument’s shape has remained unchanged over centuries, though playing styles have. While the guzheng is considered a string instrument, unlike the violin it is not played with a bow or a separate piece of equipment, but by plucking with the player’s fingers and fingernails.

Ancient celebrated players had long, wellgroomed fingernails that they maintained for years. Modern learners often don artificial nails, made from turtle shells, to play.

The two musicians performing at the event are Hai Bi and Li Ruisi, who were specifically selected by the Confucius Institute.

Bi performed last June at the institute’s annual gala and currently teaches guzheng lessons in addition to being a local artist, according to Meiru Liu, the institute’s director.

Li Ruisi attended the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, whose notable alumni include Tan Dun, composer for the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Ye Xiaogang, whose composition “Starry Sky” was part of the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing in 2008.

“It’s the most famous conservatory in China,” Li said.

Currently, Li is studying at the postbaccalaureate level, pursing music performance here at Portland State while her husband works on his doctorate in computer science, also at PSU. “I also teach the guzheng at Wisdom Arts Academy,” Li said. “I also teach private lessons—not a ton, but just a few. When I lived in China I had more [students], like 20 or 30.”

When asked if she had other hobbies outside playing or listening to music, Li laughed and shrugged her shoulders.

“No, it’s music, making music or even selling it,” Li said. “Selling the CDs and talking to the people are…good way[s] to share this music.”

Li’s portion of the lecture, titled “The Nature and Emotion in Guzheng Music,” will provide “some introduction into the instrument and the different schools and techniques applied to instruments,” Li said.

As Cheryl Strayed stood on the Smith Memorial Student Union ballroom stage last Monday night, she recounted a story about how a copy of her best-selling memoir, Wild, was recovered by a hotel staff member who had never read a book in English; the woman had introduced herself to Strayed on her book tour.

“She told me there were so many similarities in the book to her own life and her own struggles that she couldn’t believe it,” Strayed said, “and as she told me all this, she was weeping.”

The crowd remained silent as Strayed continued.

“We all have more in common than we think.

That is the beauty of literature: how it connects people,” she said. “Many people look at the art of memoir as a narcissistic form, but through this art, if you allow yourself as a writer to go deep into your own story, into the real truth, the deep, dark truth, sometimes, it allows for that connectedness to happen, and readers identify with your story.”

Wild, which Oprah chose to be part of her revamped book club, documents Strayed’s 1,100mile journey along the Pacific Crest Trail.

“Cheryl’s book Wild has greatly inspired not only women, but men like me,” said Michael

McGregor, the director of Portland State’s creative writing master’s program, in his introduction at the beginning of the night.

One couple in the audience, Angel Lopez, a circuit court judge for Multnomah County, and his wife Wendy Squire, a local attorney and Portland State alumna, had both read the book.

“My 85-year-old father recommended it,” Squire said. “He said it was the best book he had ever read.”

Lopez felt that Strayed’s candor was what readers connected with so deeply.

“Strayed is so open and honest in her writing,” Lopez said. “She discloses just about everything. That is the mark of a brave soul.”

Lopez had heard about Strayed’s book several times last year while presiding over the drug treatment court for Multnomah County.

“During some downtime, one of the defense attorneys had mentioned the book,” Lopez said.

In the book, Strayed writes about her struggle with heroin use, which was one of the issues that Lopez had initially been curious about.

In Wild, Strayed’s journey begins when her mother dies at age 45, leaving the 22-year-old to deal with the “unbearable pain” that came into her life. “My world split in two,” Strayed said. “Those of you who have lost someone who is essential to you know exactly what I’m talking about.”

At that age, Strayed “was still trying to define [herself].” She grieved in both “noble and respectful ways” and “self-destructive” ways. “Heroin,” Strayed explained, was “one of those ways.

“I needed attention. I needed to be dangerous. I needed to take risks,” Strayed said. Heroin was one the ways in which she filled these

daniel Johnston/VANGUARD STAFf

poet at the podium: Cheryl Strayed addresses a rapt audience last week at PSU. needs, along with “wild sexual promiscuity.”

Eventually she came to grips with the reality that these things, heroin in particular, were “really fucking up my life.”

In the middle of 1994, when she was working through the “process of escaping the clutches of heroin,” she began to ask herself, “Why do I even need to be here? Why do I exist and what do I have to contribute?”

As fate or circumstances would have it, some time that same year Cheryl was standing in line at an REI in Minneapolis, waiting to buy a shovel, when she noticed a book, The Pacific Crest Trail, Volume 1: California.

She read the back and as she did she felt a “blooming in her chest.”

“It was so magnificent and so much bigger than I was,” Strayed said of the trail. It was

PSU Art Building, Art Building annex and Neuberger Hall Wednesday, March 6, 5–7 p.m.

Drinks and refreshments provided in Neuberger’s Autzen Gallery and Art Building Lobby Gallery

Ringing out the new year The Confucius Institute hosts its last event for the Chinese New Year

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buried in books: The library and PSU are encouraging community reading with their Everybody Reads program and it’s attendant short story competition.

guzheng-ing h.a.m.: Ruisi Li plucks the strings of the guzheng, an ancient Chinese instrument. Li will be performing on campus this weekend as part of the Chinese New Year celebration.

The write stuff COURTESY OF Ruisi Li

Li plays both traditional styles, called “North” and “South,” and more contemporary guzheng styles.

“There are subgroups, of course, with these styles,” Li said. “But the North style sounds more speedy [and] exciting, and the tune is strong. The South style is slower [and more] gentle, and the sound quality is very mellow.”

Li said that Bi, her co-lecturer, will cover the history of the instrument and will also play three pieces of his choosing.

The pieces Li is planning on playing—“Spring comes to the Xiang River,” “The Tunes of Qin Mulberry” and “River of Blood,” a concerto with piano—are each inspired by poems that are, in turn, inspired by the instrument itself.

“I want people to know the development of the instrument, the general knowledge of the instrument and the cultural background,” Li said.

This tie between music and culture is exactly what Liu, the institute’s director, wants to

communicate to the audience.

“We hope that lots of students, staff and faculty come,” Liu said. “Especially…students studying the Chinese language. This program is a wonderful way to show how music and culture are integral to learning.”

Liu expressed hope that this event would help to gather feedback from the community about how to go about offering guhzeng classes at PSU for credit.

“We want to work with Hai Bi…and get more instruments to begin a teaching course in the guzheng,” Liu said.

PSU’s Confucius Institute presents Guzheng Lecture and Recital Friday, March 8, 6:30 p.m.

PSU School of Business Administration, room 490 Free and open to the public

NASCC hosts short story awards ceremony Mike Diallo Vanguard Staff

It’s that time to start stressing about the end of the term, and for students who are heading into three weeks of projects, prep and performance evaluation, the only savior is the study break.

Instead of spending your free hours binging on House of Cards or Dexter reruns, consider leaving an afternoon open for a different kind of light entertainment.

Everybody Reads, a community reading project by Multnomah County Library, is collaborating with Portland State to present its Short Story Contest Award Ceremony and Reception next Monday at the Native American Student and Community Center on campus.

Jeremy Graybill, the library’s marketing and communications director, appreciates the support from the university.

“PSU has been an Everybody Reads partner since 2006,” Graybill said. “Prior to that we sourced all the scholarly programs, lectures, et cetera, on our own. It was a lot of work.

“For us, [the collaboration] helped with the workload of having to create all that programming,” Graybill said. “The faculty at PSU have all the great expertise and come up with such good, interesting programming.

“It has been a great partnership,” he added.

“PSU has added a fantastic new dimension to Everybody Reads. PSU faculty and students have also been very involved with cross-promotion and even creating thoughtful blogs about previous year’s authors and events.”

Being the bookish city that it is, Portland attracts writers from all over the country, and PSU is a campus with a number of skilled student and staff writers. The city and the school are both visited regularly by high-profile writers.

Why the need for Everybody Reads?

“The program asks a very simple question and returns a basic, hopeful answer: What if everybody read the same book?” Graybill said.

daniel johnston/VANGUARD STAFf

“We’d talk to each other about issues that matter, and we’d celebrate the power of books in creating a stronger community.”

Touching on a much larger concept, Everybody Reads is concerned with how we consume entertainment and how much enjoyment we derive from discussion and contemplation of these stories beyond the initial reading.

Everybody Reads’ driving idea—that if you build a network of readership and conversation, then the medium as a whole will be strengthened—is a powerful one.

Still, instant gratification is a difficult thing to ignore, and recreational reading must compete with television, music and film, all of which are quicker forms of entertainment with bigger audiences, especially among students.

Fact is, choosing that novel on the bedside table gives you a story to enjoy, but not in the talk-around-the-water-cooler way that other forms of entertainment offer an audience who has watched or listened to the same thing: a communal work they can share.

“That’s the goal,” Graybill said. “To use literature and shared experience to create new opportunities for growth, knowledge and excitement for reading.”

Now in its 11th year, Everybody Reads continues to promote the concept of community

at this moment, just like she describes in the book, that the journey began.

“What’s more important than the story is the reason I took [the trip] and the meaning I made of the experience,” Strayed said.

Strayed explained with a smile that, just as there was a certain moment in time when she knew that she would take the 1,100-mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail, there was also a specific moment when she knew that some of the material she had initially intended for an essay would end up becoming a book.

Recalling the night before her trip commenced, Strayed said, “My life was still fucked up in all these ways, but one thing I knew: I was going to take this hike. I had been telling all these people that I was going to do this.”

Thinking back on it years later, Strayed knew she had to bear the heavy pack and hike the trail. She had to bear the unbearable some way, somehow, and she did. That pack was symbolic of the world she was living in, one without her mother—a world that had proven to be unbearable.

“That was the truth, but I [could] accept it by keeping on the trail and taking it one step at a time,” Strayed said. “My mother was dead and she always will be, but I can be all right.”

PSU English major Camilla Martin voiced a common reaction to Strayed’s speech that evening.

“She’s so honest,” Martin said. “It’s beautiful the way she is blunt and gentle. She is an amazing writer.”

“Visiting PSU is like coming home,” Strayed said, referencing a memoir-writing class she taught here a few years back.

“Cheryl coming to PSU [to] speak was an exciting way to kick off PSU’s new lecture series,” said McGregor, who, along with the rest of the audience, welcomed her back with a deafening round of applause.

reading with events and discussions based on the work of that year’s selected author.

Multnomah County Library has selected Sherman Alexie as this year’s author and has created a program around his books The Absolutely True Story of a Part-Time Indian and Ten Little Indians, the latter of which is a collection of short stories.

Short stories seem to be discussed even less often than novels among college-aged readers, when it seems they would be the perfect solution to attention-span and convenience problems.

Great short stories are extremely satisfying and thought-provoking, and in cases like the “Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, often work better to address high-concept plots with grace and subtlety than meandering epics with a few inspired monologues.

Countless authors have seen the need for short writing as a tool to illustrate moments clearly and concisely, eliciting intense emotion through focused storytelling.

Great short stories have the potential to produce thoughtful discussion, and those involved in Everybody Reads hope that their short story competition next week will do just that. In fact, the deadline for submitting stories has been pushed back to March 8 in hopes that more stories will be written and turned in.

“The short story competition is just an opportunity for people to share their writing,” said Felicia Arce, student program coordinator at the NASCC. “Other students get the chance to dance, sing [and] make art, and we wanted to open it up to writers as well.”

The upcoming event marks the first time the NASCC has put on a short story competition where winners will read from their work, and it leads into the center’s “Taste of Cultures” event that night.

Multnomah County Library and PSU present Short Story Contest Award Ceremony and Reception Part of Everybody Reads Native American Student and Community Center 710 SW Jackson St. Monday, March 11, 5 p.m.

Free and open to the public

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VANGUARD ••TThursday, Tuesday, uesday, THURSDAY, TUESDAY, Jan. March JANUARY OCTOBER Nov. FEBRUARY JANUARY 31, 8, 2013 5,2012 2013 10, 25, 26, •2, 2012 2011 ARTS •2012 • ARTS ARTS ••&•OPINION OPINION CULTURE &ARTS &CULTURE CULTURE & CULTURE

Jewish lives in photo and paint Jewish museum to show World War II-era art Jeoffry Ray Vanguard Staff

The Oregon Jewish Museum is bringing together collections of work focusing on both the past and the present, the political and the painterly.

Beginning this week, the museum will open a pair of exhibitions, each featuring Jewishthemed work. A series of World War II-era photographs titled “Pictures of Resistance: The Wartime Photographs of Jewish Partisan Faye Schulman” will be shown, along with the mixed media work of local artist Sidonie Caron.

Caron, a painter who has shown throughout the Pacific Northwest, will display her Jewishthemed work in an exhibition titled “We Are Our Brothers’ Keeper.” Both exhibitions, which began last week with an opening reception, will run through April 24.

“The partisan show is really remarkable,” said the museum’s curator of exhibits, Shoshanna Lansberg. “This was a female photographer and a partisan fighter during World War II. The sheer difficulty of her situation as a woman in that time and place makes it pretty powerful in that respect.”

Born in pre-war Poland, Faye Schulman was spared by the Nazis during the German occupation because of her skills as a photographer.

She escaped, however, joining a Russian partisan brigade. There, she served as a nurse and a photographer, documenting the many aspects of their struggle.

“She would have to bury her camera and her film at times,” Lansberg explained. “They were moving around all the time because secure areas came and went. It’s really remarkable that her photos survived.”

Schulman currently lives in Toronto. The partisan exhibition is part of a traveling show developed by the Jewish Partisan Education Foundation, an organization working to educate people on the lesser-known side of Jewish rebellion against the Nazis during World War II. “These Jews were responsible for blowing up thousands of armored convoys and thwarting the Nazi war machine in countless ways,” according to the foundation. “This information has the power to transform people’s perception of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust.”

The concurrent work on display, by Portlandbased Sidonie Caron, will feature pieces from her career as a fine artist. Her paintings range from the abstract to minutely detailed landscapes and figurative works.

Though her overall body of work covers a range of subject matter, Caron will exhibit her specifically Jewish-themed material at the museum—work, she explained, that doesn’t often get shown elsewhere because of the subject’s specificity.

“I’ve mostly just kept it over the years,” Caron said. “The Jewish community was very small at the time, and there was no audience for this work.”

Caron also explained that this body of work developed when she and her husband began to explore their heritage in greater depth after their son moved to Israel. Her husband studied and wrote and she took to the brush.

The museum wanted to showcase work, like Caron’s, that has not been widely shown.

adam wickham/VANGUARD STAFf

Then and now: An old and a current portrait of Jewish photographer Faye Schulman on display.

“Part of our mission is to make sure we’re highlighting work not seen in other places,” Lansberg said. “She calls this her Jewishthemed material. This work highlights her personal connection with her family. For me, it highlights the connection between the old world and the new. Some are seen as ruins, some in their current state.”

Many of Caron’s works feature places—various synagogues, or Jewish temples, throughout Europe and the Middle East. One work features a Greek monastery tucked into the desert. Others feature temples in such places as Budapest, Poland and Berlin.

“I did a series of European synagogues that are absolutely historic,” Caron said. “Not many of them survived the German occupation during World War II.” But Caron noted that her Jewish-themed work is only one aspect of her overall body of work. She also paints vivid depictions of Portland and its surroundings. She ties her work to her overall approach to making art.

“My emphasis has always been on growth and development,” she said. “I want to explore things and respond to my environment. In my work, I go back and forth and move around.”

Located in the Pearl District, the Oregon Jewish Museum works to educate visitors about the Jewish experience through an assortment of exhibitions and programs.

“We really see our work as preserving the history of the Oregon Jewish experience,” Lansberg said. “We want to show that there is a distinction, but also there is a lot of connection to other aspects of the community. We like to balance our historical content with our art exhibitions.”

In addition to exhibition, the museum also features programs such as lectures and films, often tied to their shows.

To tie in with the Schulman exhibition’s partisan theme, the museum will screen Edward Zwick’s 2003 film Defiance, which depicts the lives of partisan fighters.

Screened in collaboration with PDX Hillel, the museum will show the film tonight.

“Defiance is a free screening,” Lansberg said.

“If students are interested in attending, we’d love to see them.”

Oregon Jewish Museum presents Pictures of Resistance: The Wartime Photographs of Jewish Partisan Faye Schulman and Sidonie Caron: We Are Our Brothers’ Keeper Feb. 27–April 24 1953 NW Kearney St. $6 adults, $4 students, free for members For museum hours and more information go to ojm.org

Radio India Portland professor to discuss community radio in India

Tamara Alazri Vanguard Staff

Uttarakhand is known by many as the “land of the gods” and is home to three of India’s biggest radio stations: Kumaon Vani, Heval Vani and Mandakini Ki Awaz.

When community radio was established in India in 1995, it was seen as a way to promote freedom of expression and create social change, but because local communities faced issues of government monopoly, underprivileged populations felt their voices were not getting a fair chance to be heard.

These small government-owned radio stations only serve a small part of the community and target a certain social class, but often overlook important issues of social and rural development.

“Community radio doesn’t have a huge audience, but it is important for communities to have power while covering important issues like gender, health, race and politics,” said Dr. Priya Kapoor, a communications professor at Portland State.

Kapoor will deliver a lecture, “Community Radio in India: A Social Movement or Grassroots Globalization,” on campus next week to discuss these issues.

For more than a decade, communities in India have been fighting to shift from government-owned radio to commercial broadcasting.

“The role of community radio that local governments own remains transparent, which is important to keep democracy relevant,” Kapoor said.

The development of community radio in India has been an ongoing issue, but the country

is working hard to empower communities. In a nation that speaks more than 14,000 languages, it’s easy to understand the ongoing struggle and frustration that underprivileged communities have endured with hopes of getting their voices heard.

“Some of the biggest problems community radio faces are the prohibition of news and current affairs,” Kapoor said.

While many college students are surely aware of the ongoing social movement in India, Kapoor hopes to make it a familiar subject within the PSU community.

“This lecture will educate attendees on how democracies work and how media policies are created in India,” Kapoor said.

The Institute for Asian Studies, which sponsors and promotes seminars, conferences and cultural events, is sponsoring the event as they look to promote public awareness in research, training and development in all parts of Asia.

“We anticipate this lecture [will] draw a typical audience that includes students, faculty and community members,” said Sharon Carstens, director of Asian studies.

Community radio got its start in the mid’90s in India’s northern state of Uttarakhand.

It became a means for rural development and an important tool for informing local communities.

“This is a geopolitically important area that is growing, and people must become more aware [of ] it,” Kapoor said. “We want the power of sustainable radio to speak to the interests and desires of grassroots globalization.”

Kapoor began studying social mobilization and economic development at a time when nobody talked about radio. When radio was first introduced, the government controlled the news and radio stations, giving local citizens little opportunity to be heard.

“The people wanted to hear about fashion, health, gender,” Kapoor said. “People wanted to talk about this and radio was the only way to go about this.”

Kayla Nguyen/VANGUARD STAFf

PSU professor Priya Kapoor will discuss the emergence and importance of community radio in India this week on campus. Kapoor, a communications professor, feels that community radio can “keep democracy relevant.”

Community radio in India is a social movement that transformed from earlier historical movements like the Chipko movement and Save the Seeds movement. In the small village of the Garhwal Himalayas, women fought for human rights and the rights of their forest by hugging trees to prevent deforestation.

“The trees were being cut for commercial purposes, and this was a time when the youth became involved,” Kapoor said.

The movement greatly impacted much of India’s policy today, while shaping its developing world.

The Save the Seeds movement was also involved with the Chipko Movement, and became known as a community movement that worked at protecting India’s natural ecosystem.

Kapoor firmly believes in continuing to inform our local communities about the importance of social developments in this grassroots movement.

The PSU community and the Institute for Asian Studies are working to bridge the gap between community and commercial radio.

The institute has plans to further its relationship with Asian universities.

“A committee has been meeting to develop proposals for exchange relationships with South Asian universities and expanded opportunities for both students and faculty to research and work in South Asia,” Carstens said of the institute’s future plans.

The Institute for Asian Studies presents Community Radio in India: A Social Movement or Grassroots Globalization A lecture by PSU professor Dr. Priya Kapoor Thursday, March 7, 6:30 p.m.

PSU’s 5th Avenue Cinema. lecture room 90 Free and open to the public

16 10

OPINiON • Tuesday, March 5, 2013 • VANGUARD

VANGUARD •• Tuesday, THURSDAY, March NOVEMBER 5, 201310,• 2011 OPINiON • SPORTS

OPINION

EDITOR: Meredith Meier OPINION@PSUVANGUARD.COM 503-725-5692

Disarming the dangerous

The road to redstate serfdom

NRA cries ‘foul’ on universal background checks for gun purchases

Conservative minimum-wage opposition is the new feudalism

A Critical Glance Adam E. Bushen

Deeply Thought Thoughts © zug.com

Benedict XVI’s greatest hits Retiring pope leaves a sordid tale for the textbooks Concepts and Commentary Janieve Schnabel

I

’ll get the Emperor Palpatine joke out of the way early: “Let the hate flow through you.” OK, I’m done. Moving on.

It’s no secret that Pope Benedict XVI’s retirement has led to a lot of curious clicks on his Wikipedia page. Plenty of people are wondering what he did and how he’ll be remembered. The short version is this: Benedict was a complete dick, and anybody else will be an improvement.

To be more specific, Benedict will be remembered for undoing 25 years of AIDS prevention in Africa; delegitimizing women in positions of power in the church; and, most importantly, covering up child abuse in the church and protecting the priests accused of molesting these children.

As most people know, the Roman Catholic Church has long been against the use of contraceptives of any sort.

While the previous pope, John Paul II, made statements about the immorality of condom usage, he did not suggest eliminating their use. Instead, he stated that abstinence was the only way to avoid contracting HIV and reminded his followers that contraceptives were a sin.

Benedict, however, said that condom usage actually increased the odds of contracting HIV, and that their use made sense only for already-diseased prostitutes. In so doing, he cast condoms in a

11

negative light—not simply as a sin, but as an object intended solely for prostitutes that doesn’t actually help anyone in the long run.

That’s bad enough without me providing commentary on Benedict’s eyebrow-raising views on male prostitution. I’ll kindly refrain.

His views on women were even worse, though. It’s no secret that Catholicism has some very choice beliefs about women, in general. This is a church, after all, that spent a few hundred years slaughtering women who spoke their minds, thought critically about their life choices and tried to be independent.

Benedict hails from an oldworld school of thought that says women are inferior to men. John Paul at least made an effort to present women as equal to men; in his 1988 letter Mulieris Dignitatem, he said that “both man and woman are human beings to an equal degree.”

He later elaborated that men and women are equal under God but that their roles in the church may differ because of the way churches are run.

Never one to underrepresent his views, Benedict declared his opposition to women as equals as often as he could. In fact, while Benedict’s Catholic Church faced heavy scrutiny over allegations of priests sexually abusing children, the Vatican crafted a document of crimes against sacraments and morals. In this

document, they equated ordaining women as priests with a crime on par with pedophilia.

Benedict also focused much of his work on eliminating access to contraceptives and good family planning for women, as well as pushing a pro-life agenda to the detriment of women everywhere.

These are not the moves of a person who likes women.

What he will be remembered for most, however, is his handling (or non-handling, as it were) of the Catholic Church sex abuse scandals. He protected the priests accused of sexual abuse, often defending them in spite of incriminating evidence. He also struggled to rationalize the abuse, providing such gems as “priests are also sinners,” and “less than 1 percent of priests are guilty of acts of this type.”

It’s expected that Benedict will stay in the Vatican after the new pope is elected, likely to avoid prosecution for child endangerment. He’s previously been named as a defendant in such cases, and it’s entirely possible he could be prosecuted again. However, by remaining in the Vatican, he will retain his immunity and be untouchable.

A good move for someone who knows he’d be found guilty.

All in all, Benedict was a terrible human being and a horrible role model for young people. It’s a relief that there will be a new pope so soon. Hopefully, the next pope (perhaps Peter the Roman, as stated in St. Malachy’s prophecy?) will manage to not mess up Africa, hate on women and protect pedophiles.

It’s a long shot, but we can dream.

Ryan S. Cunningham

T

hey are everywhere.

More join their ranks with each passing day. You may even be one yourself.

They scrub zinc countertops and wax windowpanes; they mow suburban lawns to a fine crop; they take your order at the register and then catalyze the industrial chemical reaction that transforms a pulp of corn flour and rotting cabbage leaves into a Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme.

They are the minimumwage laborers of America, and our society would atrophy without them. These sufferers are the bedrock that supports the fragile superstructure of white privilege. Without them our skin would break out in oozing pustules for lack of public sanitation, our children would coalesce into gangs of knife-wielding street thugs, and uncaffeinated American office workers would quiver helplessly under their paperwork-inundated desks.

These sufferers are the bedrock that supports the fragile superstructure of white privilege.

But oh how little we appreciate them. We do not talk down to or verbally berate doctors, lawyers or—the real villains!— financial consultants as we do baristas, custodians or adult video store clerks.

These men and women languish in a dismal cycle of poverty. At the current federal minimum-wage rate of $7.25 per hour, a full-time worker earns only $15,080 a year. This is more than $8,000 under the federal poverty level for a family of four. Minimum-wage workers can barely afford to feed, clothe and shelter themselves, much

less raise families or invest in their futures.

So why is it that congressional Republicans—the sunny-eyed advocates of the American dream and its pull-yourself-up-by-yourbootstraps optimism—are hostile to President Barack Obama’s goal of raising the federal minimum-wage rate to $9 per hour?

The president made a strong commitment to a national minimum-wage increase in February’s State of the Union Aspirations-for-aBright-Future Extravaganza.

Aside from taking the working poor off a diet of boiled cabbage and sawdust, the increase should benefit the whole economy. “For businesses across the country, it would mean customers with more money in their pockets,” said the Henry Fordchanneling president.

The GOP has countered with pronouncements of “equality of opportunity” informed by the classical economics dogma that minimum-wage laws increase unemployment: “[The president] spoke of workers’ minimum wages, instead of their maximum potential,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Don’t mind getting screwed over now—someday it could be you doing the screwing!

But new studies that challenge the theoretical linkage of higher wages to higher unemployment makes the conservative minimum-wage hike opposition look anachronistic.

Many employers squeeze additional productivity out of higher-paid workers, and many business owners note that higher-paid workers are better motivated and have higher morale.

There is little to back up the GOP assertion that higher wages would crush small businesses. In fact, Holly Sklar of the organization Business for a Fair Minimum Wage said that low wages undermine many businesses’ consumer base.

With the unraveling of economists’ ivory-tower

shibboleth on the minimum wage, this columnist can see the root of the minimum-wage opposition: conservatives’ paradoxically anti-capitalist desire to return society to a feudal state.

The recent mortgage foreclosure crisis deprived many Americans of their hard-earned property. Compounded by gaping economic inequality, this means that the poorer are just getting poorer and more indebted.

The conservative cabal and their GOP ciphers need just one final push to drive the unwashed hoi polloi horde into manorial servitude.

If the financial elite can continue to force crushing interest payments down the throats of a wage-enslaved American workforce, a new class of the dispossessed will have no choice but to seek their feudal lords’ charity.

R

ecently, Sen. John McCain told NBC’s Meet the Press that legislation to increase background checks for gun purchases will get support across party lines.

Members on both sides of the aisle advocate the legislation, which aims to close loopholes in the current system. During the interview, McCain said, “Obviously, we want to do everything we can to prevent guns from falling into the hands of people who are mentally unbalanced, or criminals.”

The move for increased background checks is reflected in a recent Quinnipiac University poll, which found that 92 percent of voters are in favor of universal background checks.

While McCain supports increased background checks to keep guns out of the wrong hands, he has no qualms with assault rifles or high-capacity magazines. He points to the 2011 shooting in Norway as an example of the failure of

banning high-capacity weapons, even though Norway has some of the strictest gun laws in the world.

I grudgingly admit he’s got a point: The size or caliber of the weapon shouldn’t be the main issue. Though I’d love to see the destruction of every automatic weapon on the planet (and I do believe that legislation to ban high-capacity weapons will someday be passed), it’s hard to argue against McCain’s logic.

The point should be to keep potentially dangerous individuals from getting any weapon.

If we can make the background check system secure enough, the caliber of weapon purchased shouldn’t matter, because the individual purchasing it will be proven to be emotionally and mentally sound and won’t pose a threat to society.

Not everyone sees universal background checks as a benefit to society, though.

The National Rifle Association recently announced it

Compounded by gaping economic inequality, this means that the poorer are just getting poorer and more indebted.

The new aristocracy will then beneficently revive the social patronage relationship (the ol’ you-give-me-your-firstborn-daughter-and-I-giveyou-a-thatched-hut-for-yourself-and-your-11-childrenand-23-goats-and-all-yourcombined-garbage-and-feces relationship) that was the essence of the Dark Ages.

But that ain’t so bad, right?

Having a fixed and secure position at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder beats the hell out of the slavery of paying 18 years’ worth of interest payments on the loans you took out to finance your liberal arts degree. Republican legislators may as well come out with the truth behind their opposition to the minimum-wage increase so that together we may embrace a destiny that is nasty, brutish and short.

Benjamin Ricker/VANGUARD STAFf

will debut a new ad campaign blasting the “consequences” of universal background checks.

During the announcement, CEO Wayne LaPierre said, “This so-called universal background check that you’re hearing about all over the media…is aimed at one thing: It’s aimed at registering your guns…and when another tragic opportunity presents itself, that registry will be used to confiscate your guns.”

Call me dense, but I fail to see the negative consequences.

How in the hell is the mandated registry of guns a bad thing in any shape or form? Registering a gun creates accountability. If you own a gun, don’t go commit a crime or kill anyone and there won’t be an issue. Be responsible and no one will come and take your beloved highpowered rifle.

That the NRA opposes implementing a system that ensures gun-owner accountability raises many questions. Perhaps it realizes how much of its membership depends on criminals and the mentally/emotionally unstable being able to buy guns.

I’d love to remind LaPierre of Gerald Hume’s story: Hume, a known schizophrenic with a history of violent behavior, was living under the care of his 77 year-old mother, Janet, in Oklahoma City. After a few days of not hearing from Janet and knowing Hume’s condition and history, relatives contacted the police and requested they pay Janet a visit.

On the first two visits, everything seemed fine. Prior to the police’s third visit, a family friend informed police that Hume had gotten hold of a handgun and three rifles. When they arrived, police were kept at bay for 11 hours while Hume barricaded himself in the house.

Hume then attempted to fire on police before he was subdued.

Officers subsequently found Janet’s body in a bedroom—Hume admitted to shooting her in the chest.

How did someone who heard voices and required treatment and previous mental-health interventions with the Oklahoma City Police Department procure a stock of weapons? He purchased them himself—from a nearby WalMart and a local gun shop.

He passed background checks at both locations.

With LaPierre blasting the “negative consequences” of improved and universal background checks, it’s clear that individuals like him are as big a threat to society as the Gerald Humes of the world. The former enables the latter.

© les stone

What the frack?

Obama ‘wants’ to battle climate change but still promotes controversial practices Conversation Nation Megan Hall

P

resident Barack Obama surprised many during his second inaugural address by making a big push for advancements against climate change. It seemed as if we might see a different version of Obama in his second term.

While on Jan. 26 there may have been hope for battling climate change, the story’s changed. Obama’s State of the Union address contradicted that notion; he not only lacked specifics, he also showed that we’re settling in for another four years of compromising rather than spearheading change.

The president partnered talk of battling changes in weather patterns with praise for American-drilled oil. He used the word “pipeline,” and even if it wasn’t necessarily meant to reference the Keystone XL, it’s difficult not to think that hints are being dropped on the American people. Furthermore, he received great applause for his intention to speed up permits for oil and gas extraction.

This oil extraction he talks about is, in large part, hydraulic fracturing.

The debate over hydraulic fracturing (or hydrofracking, as it’s commonly known) has escalated over the last several years, yet many are unfamiliar with the term. It happens frequently in the Northeast, in places like upstate New York and Pennsylvania, which are situated on top of the Marcellus Shale, a unit of marine sedimentary

rock that contains natural gas reserves.

Extracting natural gas or oil using hydrofracking requires pumping water, sand and hundreds of chemicals at very high pressure into wells to open cracks in a gas reservoir. The process requires large amounts of freshwater—according to Source Watch, an estimated 70–140 billion gallons of freshwater is used each year in the U.S. to fracture 35,000 wells.

Water used in the process becomes toxic after the extraction of the natural gas or oil, making it unusable for agriculture and undrinkable for animals and humans.

One of the major concerns for those living in the Northeast is that the drilling occurs deep in the ground and could affect underground aquifers that sustain the region’s water supply.

The opposite side of the argument, however, is that we’re running out of options.

Hydrofracking not only helps to sustain our high fossil-fuels consumption, it also provides work for those who live in many of the oilrich areas where mills have been shut down and agricultural work is dying out. The issue has received significant attention, especially in films such as Gus Van Sant’s Promised Land, starring Matt Damon, which came out in December 2012.

When I heard the president say that we were drilling at home more than ever, I couldn’t help but feel

disappointed. On the one hand, we’re finally addressing climate change, and on the other, we’re promoting activities that we know destroy our environment.

There’s a huge contradiction in acknowledging that we need to stop pumping pollutants into the air, yet in the same breath advocating for a process that pumps pollutants directly into our water, not to mention the billions of gallons of water used in the process.

Indeed, we’re in a tight bind. There is opposition to both the Keystone XL pipeline (which would run a pipe from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, through the U.S. and down into the Gulf of Mexico) and the continued invasion of countries with high oil reserves so that we can command their resources.

We need oil because we can’t stop consuming it. In climate change we see the very damaging effects of our dependency, yet we shift our attention to a different process that doesn’t prevent the pollution of our resources.

There’s no question about where the toxins come from or how undrinkable a water supply becomes as a result of hydrofracking.

Certainly, the president addressed the growth of wind farms and solar power arrays, but what we need is a real plan, a forceful one that explains the damage we’re doing, not to an unseen population oversees, but to people within our own country.

In short, we need a climate change plan that addresses the real trouble we’re in, not one that sugarcoats a method for oil and gas extraction that poses serious risks.

12

ETC. ETC. •• Tuesday, Thursday, March Nov. 8, 5, 2013 2012 • VANGUARD

VANGUARD • Tuesday, March 5, 2013 • Opinion

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Erick Bengel EDITOR@PSUVANGUARD.COM 503-725-5691

5–7 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 294 1825 SW Broadway

Online comments

Guest speaker Matthew Hernandez will be at the Smith Memorial Student Union to facilitate a discussion about how specific cultural customs can influence religious beliefs and FREE why this is important.

The story doesn’t stop when the print hits the page. Don’t like something you read in the Vanguard ?

Want us to cover a story? Do you feel there’s more to be said? You have the opportunity to praise us or rip us apart. Post a comment online or write us a letter. Tell us what you think. Here are some online highlights from psuvanguard.com.

“Smoke-free challenge introduced at PSU” Vol. 67 No. 42 JC Feb. 28, 2013 I am thrilled this article was published by the Vanguard as I was unsure how to voice my thoughts on the overall status of the program as a non-smoker (outsider?) looking in.

Although the Fresh Air Challenge is met with good intentions, I am reminded daily what a joke of a campaign this is as walk through campus, dodging cloud after cloud of loitering smoker within the “corridor”. Many typically smoking next to “No Smoking” signs. Whether it is cluelessness on their part or an F U to the system, I can never tell. As I get closer to the building entrances, I witness smokers exiting (Cramer, Smith, etc.), with unlit cigarette already clutched eagerly in their mouth, ready for their fix. They pause slightly to blaze up only two steps out of the existing door, then continue walking, leaving a trail of smoke behind for all to enjoy as they saunter merrily away.

Here’s the problem: Enforcement. There is none. Without enforcement (ie: Ticketing those who violate smoking within a Clean Air Corridor) this is nothing more than lip service, cheery, colorful signage and window clings.

Portland is too polite to say anything to the offenders, so PSU enforcement should.

Are you listening Ms. Balzer!?!

Friday, March 8

Undergraduate Student Conference: The Middle East 9 a.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union 1825 SW Broadway

Aiden Fields March 1, 2013 It blows my mind that people can be so ignorant toward the fact that /maybe people have different goals than them./ Not everyone is a health nut that does every thing in their power to be as healthy as physically possible. There’s nothing wrong with that.

This is legitimately nothing more than institutionalized bigotry.

Also the notion that second hand smoke /in open air environments/ poses a health risk is a joke.

miles sanguinetti/VANGUARD STAFf

PSU’s conservation challenge A sustainability effort or just a publicity stunt?

Ms. Fudge’s Sweet Nothings Stephanie Fudge-Bernard

P

ortland State is currently competing in a national residence hall conservation challenge. The Campus Conservation Nationals started on Feb. 18 and will keep going until the start of “dead week” on March 11.

Right now, the university is competing against more than 175 colleges and universities across the U.S. looking to show off their “greenness” by reducing energy and water use in campus residence halls as well as by lowering total greenhouse gas emissions on campus.

CCN is the nation’s biggest electricity- and waterreduction competition for colleges and universities. The competition focuses on oncampus housing because residence halls account for a large chunk of the energy use, water use and total greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to a university’s ecological footprint.

Instead of counting all oncampus housing options as part of the challenge, PSU’s chosen to use only the Broadway Housing Building, Ondine Residence Hall and Stephen Epler Residence Hall. The three dorms are competing against each other and will then collectively represent PSU in the national competition. What this means: Only 30 percent of PSU-owned residence halls are represented, but we all will have the unequivocal pleasure of sharing whatever successes or failures the exclusive three end up with.

So what does this exclusive club of Ondine, Broadway and Epler have in common? They are where First Year Experience students—aka freshmen—live.

To put it bluntly, PSU has found a cute way to leave out the majority of its students while targeting a tiny demographic of still-acne-ridden teenagers. Granted, we get a lot of funding for these blemished youths, but it still seems preferential, like the university’s playing favorites despite the fact that, according to the 2011–12 Annual Statistical Report, PSU’s average student age is 27.9 years.

The challenge may also seem redundant to residents living in Epler, which is already designed to “capture the benefits of natural elements” according to PSU’s website. The dorm uses fans to preheat air and relies on its building design to eliminate the need for air conditioning.

Broadway also has many energy-efficient designs. It uses low-flow fixtures that reduce water usage by as much as 20 percent. The building also saves on energy by using high-efficiency lighting in common areas, heat-controlling window films, Energy Star appliances and a slew of other eco-friendly trimmings.

Essentially, PSU has entered its students into a competition that centers on reduction even though we’ve already reduced our “footprint” just by choosing those housing options in the first place.

PSU’s website further insults its students by asking: “When was the last time you dined by candlelight?” Considering the fact that candles are among the restricted items in all PSU housing, it’s irrational and insulting to ask housing residents why they aren’t choosing to use them.

Environmental awareness and sustainable practices contribute to PSU’s appeal—are, perhaps, the university’s biggest appeal. Holding an arbitrary competition that only a select group of students can participate in seems more like a publicity stunt than an honest attempt at creating a better, more sustainable world.

Still, the conservation challenge isn’t entirely exclusive to our already sustainably inclined housing residents.

There have been a handful of campus-wide events that every student who stumbles upon can participate in. Key word: stumble. It’s not like the university’s really publicizing this.

Coming up on March 11 is a “drop a load of e-waste” day in Ondine’s lobby at 1912 SW Sixth Ave. Students can bring their old cell phones, laptops and other motley electronics they no longer use, and PSU will recycle them.

There’s also a “Spring Community Carnival” at the Native American Student and Community Center to celebrate sustainability with food, games and “fun.”

Regardless of the university’s motives behind the competition, and its somewhat futile choice of residence halls, perhaps more students will get into the conservation spirit and take it upon themselves to make their own homes more sustainable.

© john stahl

It’s the economy, stupid! Have you ever thought the economy could be funny?

Dr. Yoram Bauman has some insight and good jokes for you. See his stand-up comedy at PSU’s Market Center Building, room 123, today from 3-4 p.m.

Tuesday, March 5

Snapshot Lunch Noon School of Business Administration 631 SW Harrison St.

Portland State’s School of Business Administration invites you to enjoy lunch and listen to speakers from the faculty, student body and related organizations talk about the innovative processes and global engagement initiatives taking place through the school. To register, contact Kari Davies-Mason at davies3@pdx.edu.

FREE

Take Back the Night/Bike Back the Night committee meeting 5–6 p.m.

Women’s Resource Center lounge 1802 SW 10th Ave.

Join the community in helping to end sexual violence, promote awareness and support survivors at the Take Back the Night/Bike Back the Night committee meetings set to plan an event for Sexual Assault Awareness Month held at the Women’s Resource Center. No FREE registration is required.

Florestan Trio performs Beethoven, Shostakovich and Mendelssohn 7:30 p.m.

Lincoln Performance Hall 1620 SW Park Ave.

Help Portland State celebrate a long history of the Florestan Trio in association with the school by attending a concert featuring the work of three master composers. Tickets are $25 for the general public, $20 for seniors and $15 for students with valid ID. Tickets may be purchased on Ticketmaster or at the door at the time of the event.

Comedy, Economics and Climate Change 3–4 p.m.

Market Center Building, room 123 1600 SW Fourth Ave.

Dr. Yoram Bauman offers the unique experience of discussing economics and the serious subject of climate

change in a stand-up comedy setting.

For more information and a background on the man himself, visit standupeconomist.com/about.

FREE

Wednesday, March 6

Disability and Oppression: Understanding the Historical and Social Stigmas of People with Disabilities 4 p.m.

Academic and Student Rec Center, room 620 1800 SW Sixth Ave.

The Portland State School of Social Work presents a workshop dedicated to coming to a better understanding of the struggles that people with disabilities have faced for the last 50 years and working to explore language and etiquette that can help.

For more information visit pdx.edu/ FREE ssw/sswce.

Film screening: The Secret Life of Words 7 p.m.

Oregon Holocaust Resource Center 1953 NW Kearney St.

The Secret Life of Words is the first film to be screened during a series sponsored by the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project. The subject of the film deals with the attempt to build intimacy between people after the suffering of great trauma.

FREE

Thursday, March 7

Graduate School of Education Open House Noon–2 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 238 1825 SW Broadway

If you are interested in looking into a career in education, this open house will help you discover what your opFREE tions are at Portland State.

Matthew Hernandez: How Custom Influences Religious Belief and Why It Matters

The Portland State Middle East Studies Center invites any and all undergraduate students to come to the Smith Memorial Student Union and connect with their peers and learn more about the Middle East by participating in or listening to FREE student-led talks.

First Annual Drug Policy Film Festival 1–7 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 228 1825 SW Broadway

Kick off the first day of a film festival focused on drug policy that stretches over two days. Free food and a Qand-A will be featured as well. For more information and show times visit pdx.edu/events/first-annualdrug-policy-film-festival?delta=0.

FREE

Let’s go to Israel! A Presentation of Travel Opportunities

5:30–7 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 047 1825 SE Broadway

Portland’s Israeli Shilcha (emissary) and Natalie Nahome will present information on different ways that you can travel to Israel, such as studying abroad FREE or participating in service trips.

Guzheng: Lecture and Recital 6:30 p.m.

Education and Business Administration Building, room 490 631 SW Harrison St.

The Confucius Institute at Portland State presents a recital featuring two experienced musicians performing music on a unique Chinese instrument. Along with these performances will be a lecture about the history of the instrument and its significance FREE to Chinese culture.

Saturday, March 9

Shimmy! Shake! Shindig!

7 p.m.

Bossanova Ballroom 722 E Burnside St.

The Bossanova Ballroom presents a burlesque to rival all others in and out of town. Dancers, music and drinks are waiting for you at the Shimmy! Shake! Shindig! Tickets range from $10–100. More information about the event and where to purchase tickets can be found at bossanovaballroom.com. 21+

13

ETC.

Opera stage director Kristine McIntyre and conductor coach Robert Ainsley will be offering a free master class for students with an FREE interest in vocal studies.

Dad’s Group 4:30–5:30 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 462 1825 SW Broadway

If you are a father as well as a student at Portland State the Resource Center for Students with Children welcomes you to Monday meetings, where you have the chance to connect with others in your position FREE and enjoy some free snacks.

Tuesday, March 12

Portland State Convenes: The Future of Criminal Justice and Public Safety in Oregon 7 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union Third floor ballroom 1825 SW Broadway

The combined efforts of Portland State President Wim Wiewel and The Oregonian bring a town-hallstyle discussion to campus that will talk about sentencing, corrections and public safety proposals currently being debated by the Oregon FREE State Legislature.

Monday, March 11

Vocal Area Master Class 3:40 p.m.

Lincoln Hall, room 75 1620 SW Park Ave.

= on PSU campus FREE = free of charge FREE = open to the public 21+ = 21 and over

14

VANGUARD •• Tuesday, TUESDAY, March JANUARY 5, 2013 10, 2012 • SPORTS • ETC.

SPORTS

EDITOR: MARCO ESPAñA SPORTS@PSUVANGUARD.COM 503-725-4538

No luck at the Stott Center Vikings lose last two home games, are eliminated from tournament play Zach Bigalke Vanguard Staff

Miles sanguinetti/VANGUARD STAFF

michael harthun looks for an opening against Northern Colorado on Saturday. The Vikings fell to the Bears 85-75.

After losing on Thursday to the University of North Dakota, the Vikings had to win their final three games to stay alive in the race for one of the seven playoff spots in the Big Sky Conference.

But a second-half run by the University of Northern Colorado on Saturday effectively ended those aspirations, as the Bears claimed an 85-75 victory on Senior Day at the Stott Center.

Portland State’s seniors— guards Michael Harthun and Lateef McMullan and forwards Michael Harvey, Martin Whitmore and Renado Parker—were honored for their contributions to Vikings basketball in a pregame ceremony.

Head coach Tyler Geving rewarded the quintet by naming them the starting five in their final game in the Park Blocks.

PSU came out hot against the Bears, as Harthun paced the offense with 14 first-half points. Midway through the half, Dre Winston Jr. hit a 3-pointer to cap a 14-5 run over the previous four minutes and give the Vikings their largest advantage of the game at 21-13.

But the Bears slowly chiseled away at the lead, capitalizing on a two-minute stretch without Harthun on the floor to eliminate the gap and take a 44-41 lead into the locker room.

The teams traded the lead back and forth throughout the first eight minutes of the second half. Harthun cooled off after halftime, going 2-for6 to finish with 18 points. Junior Aaron Moore picked up the slack, scoring a team-high 20 points in 31 minutes, but Harthun’s dip in production proved costly as the Bears finally grabbed a lead they would not relinquish.

Northern Colorado guard Tate Unruh let a slight smirk slip as his 3-point attempt banked off the backboard and through the hoop to give the Bears a 57-56 lead with 12:10 left. The basket sparked a 24-8 run by the Bears over the next seven minutes that extended

the visitors’ lead to 17 with less than four minutes remaining.

“That was a big basket,” head coach Tyler Geving said of Unruh’s shot after the game.

“I thought we played pretty well up until that point. I don’t think he was calling glass on it, but it went in, and it was obviously a big play for them.”

As they had so many times already this season, the Vikings caught fire in the final few minutes of the half, going on an 11-4 run to close out the game, but by that point the Bears had already put the contest out of reach. The loss sent Portland State to 8-18 on the season. Though they finished 9-6 at the Stott Center this season, the Vikings are just 5-13 in Big Sky play with two road games remaining and have no chance of reaching the conference tournament. They’ll close out the season on the road this weekend, with their last two games coming against Weber State University on Thursday and Idaho State University on Saturday.

“We still need to come out and practice and do the right things,” Geving said. “Everybody has to look in the mirror and make adjustments.”

Hawks fall to Everett Blazers roll past Silvertips score upset on the road Bryan Zinschlag Vanguard Staff

The Portland Winterhawks are clearly the Western Hockey League’s best team—most nights.

The Hawks were dumbstruck Saturday night as they fell 4-2 to the Everett Silvertips on the road. After a five-game winning streak, Portland has lost three in a row, stifling the momentum they would have liked to carry into the postseason. The loss to Everett was undoubtedly the most improbable during that streak.

Portland entered Saturday night’s contest with twice as

many points as the Silvertips, and had outscored them 44-16 thus far this season. Despite the Hawks’ usual torrent of shots on goal (45), they only managed to net two of them, both supplied by assistant captain Ty Rattie.

The Winterhawks took a 1-0 lead in the first period when Rattie capitalized on a penalty shot. Less than a minute later, Everett’s Kohl Bauml scored on the power play with assistance from Manraj Hayer and Mirco Mueller.

Meanwhile, Silvertips goalie Austin Lotz stifled the Hawks’ attack. Among those goalies that play regularly, Lotz is statistically among the WHL’s worst, but he may have played the game of his life on Saturday, saving 43 of 45 shots from the league’s best offense.

karl kuchs/VANGUARD STAFF

ty rattie scored two goals against Everett, but Portland lost 4-2 on the road.

The scoring commenced in the middle of the third when Silvertips captain Reid Petryk scored with assistance from Joshua Winquist and Ryan Harrison. Rattie promptly followed with a power play goal, assisted by Seth Jones and Hawks captain Troy Rutkowski, evening the score at 2–2 with seven minutes to play. On yet another power play, the Silvertips took a 3-2 lead with two minutes remaining, as Bauml earned his second goal of the night with assistance from Landon Oslanski and Connor Cox. Hayer added an empty net goal in the final seconds and the Silvertips secured a wellearned win.

With six games remaining in the regular season, the Winterhawks will look to turn things around as they prepare for the WHL playoffs.

While the Hawks’ offense has been consistent all season, the performance of veteran goalie Mac Carruth will be pivotal for their championship aspirations. They also stand to gain from improved discipline; Saturday night showed them that no matter the opponent, yielding five power play opportunities will never make for an easy night.

The Winterhawks will not have to wait for their chance to avenge Saturday night’s defeat. They host the Silvertips tonight at 7 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Timberwolves

Portland defeats Minnesota for season sweep

j.j. hickson and the Blazers scored a solid win at home against the Wolves.

Alex Moore Vanguard Staff

The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves handily on Saturday night, notching an emphatic 109-94 win over their Northwest Division rivals. Damian Lillard scored 24 points to lead the team, while J.J. Hickson contributed another double-double with 18 points and 16 rebounds.

The game marked the return of former Blazer favorite Brandon Roy to the Rose Garden, although he didn’t see any action on the court. Roy has suffered many setbacks to his comeback this season as knee trouble has drastically limited his play. The three-time all-star spent the game sitting behind the Minnesota bench but received a standing ovation from the crowd.

With the win, the Blazers swept the Timberwolves in the season series for the fifth time in the last six seasons. Minnesota’s high expectations this year have been derailed by injuries—the team had only had nine players suited up to play against Portland.

Still, a victory was by no

© Bruce Ely/The oregonian

means a given for the Blazers, who have struggled with consistency all season. Portland was determined to come out strong and did exactly that, jumping out to a lead in the first quarter that they would hold throughout the game. Minnesota kept the game within striking distance but couldn’t keep up with the Blazers, and Portland scored a much-needed win to get within striking distance of the eighth playoff spot in the Western Conference.

A good sign for Portland was the play of Eric Maynor, the guard acquired from the Oklahoma City Thunder at the trade deadline this year. Maynor

struggled in his first two games with the Blazers but got into a groove against the Wolves, contributing seven points and a career-high 12 assists. Portland will need Maynor to continue to develop his game in order to alleviate some of the nightly pressure on Lillard.

The Blazers now move on to a difficult portion of their schedule, with upcoming road games against the Memphis Grizzlies, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls and Thunder all slated for March. Tip-off for tomorrow’s matchup with the Grizzlies— currently in the fourth spot in the Western Conference standings, is set for 5 p.m.

16

VANGUARD •TTuesday, uesday, Jan. March 31, 2013 5, 2013 • SPORTS • SPORTS

Women’s basketball toppled by Northern Colorado

Recent results

Postseason hopes come to an end in Greeley

Men’s basketball

Rosemary Hanson Vanguard Staff

© steve Brenner/go viks.com

allison greene rises up for a shot against the Northern Colorado Bears.

Going into the game against the University of Northern Colorado on Saturday, a lot of things had to go right for the women’s basketball team to make it into the Big Sky tournament. Along with a win against the Bears, the Vikings would have needed multiple upsets within the conference in order to have a shot of snatching the final playoff spot. Portland State stayed with Northern Colorado for a good portion of the first half, but the team clearly felt the loss of injured forward Angela Misa on the defensive end as the Bears cruised to a 63-48 win.

For head coach Sherri

Murrell, it’s clear what the team needs to work on going forward. “We all have to get physical [on defense],” she said. “This is a physical conference—everyone is playing at another level right now, and we have to match that and play above that.”

The Bears, now 18-10 overall and 15-4 in conference, proved that they deserve to be one of the top two teams in the Big Sky, taking control early and going ahead by as many as 19 in the first half.

The Bears outshot PSU from the field and from behind the three-point line by a wide margin, going into the locker room with a 39-22 lead.

The second half was no better. The Bears continued their aggressive play on offense, stretching the lead to 30 midway through the half.

The Vikings chipped away at the difference for the remainder of the game, but the Bears came away with a comfortable victory.

Sophomore guard Allison Greene led the Vikings with

16 points and six rebounds, while Keaton McFaddden and Allie Brock chipped in six points each. No one on the Vikings was able to keep pace with Northern Colorado guard D’Shara Strange, however, who scored 28 points on 11-of-17 shooting in 25 minutes of play.

PSU is now on a five-game losing streak, their longest of the season. They’ll wrap up the regular season with two conference matchups at home. First up for the Vikings are the Weber State Wildcats on Thursday at 7:30 p.m., followed by the Idaho State Bengals on Saturday at 2 p.m. Though the postseason is no longer in the cards for PSU, the season isn’t over yet.

“Finishing strong—that is the number one focus,” Murrell said. “We’ve been on the road five games straight, which is unheard of, and we had to endure it. We are looking forward to getting back home and finishing strong in front of our fans.”

Walking the line between fandom and reality Drew Lazzara Vanguard Staff

I’m not ashamed to admit that whenever I play basketball, even if it’s just shooting hoops, I am pretending I am in the NBA. Pretty much everything that entertains us in the modern world is predicated upon the idea of imagination. In a lot of ways, personal taste just boils down to one’s ability to let go and be transported by something. The more fantasy (usually involving ourselves) we can invest in a given mode of entertainment, the more we respond to it.

It’s easy to see this idea at work in something like Dungeons & Dragons, in which you are imagining yourself into a world of fantasy. But everything that entertains us operates on the same principle.

Entertainment Tonight, UFC pay-per-views, poetry, NASCAR, the Oscar red carpet special, CSI, rock ’n’ roll, Lowrider Magazine, celebrity rehab, The Real World, Twitter—all that stuff is about pretending. It almost never feels like that, but that’s because the stuff we love absorbs us entirely, in extremely convincing ways.

Perhaps no form of entertainment is as effective in this regard as professional sports.

They are by far the most

vs.

North Dakota Vikings

74 66

Top performers Aaron Moore: 16 points, 15 rebounds, 3 steals

Saturday, March 2

Women’s basketball

@ Northern Colorado Vikings

63 48

Top performers Allison Greene: 16 points, 6 rebounds

Men’s basketball

vs.

Northern Colorado Vikings

85 75

Top performers Michael Harthun: 18 points

Hoop dreams interactive way to pretend.

Even if you are just a “passive” fan, you no doubt subscribe to the notion of home field/ court advantage, which is the idea that crowd noise and energy can alter the outcome of a contest. It is such a powerfully imagined insertion of ourselves into the game that it became real—fans willed it to life. The difference, of course, is that you can also literally play sports. I’m sure I’m not the first to make this observation, but a pickup game of basketball is the ultimate in live-action role-playing.

Which I think is completely healthy and also totally awesome. I’ve got a fantastic imagination, and I love basketball, so pickup games are pretty much Game 7 every time (except for the wheezing, windsucking and soaked T-shirts).

But I also believe that we are so invested in this fictional world that we forget that, for professional athletes, it is very real. I think those of us who are really absorbed by it have a tough time reconciling something fundamentally invented with its verifiable, flesh-andblood counterpoint. We’ve got this wardrobe, and we’re stepping into NBA Narnia. We expect the amazing creatures we meet there to behave exactly like they do in the stories.

But those stories are inventions, just like our perceptions of pro athletes. They bear no more than accidental resemblance to the truth, and that’s where we get into trouble. We expect athletes to behave like we do when we pretend we’re in a Game 7. We want them to

Thursday, Feb. 28

Softball

vs.

Vikings UC Riverside

11 3

Top performers Brittany Hendrickson: 2-for-2, HR, 5 RBI

NBA

vs.

Blazers Minnesota

© jonathan daniel/getty images

Superfans get caught up in the spectacle of organized sports, bringing a level of passion to the arena that borders on psychosis.

109 94

Top performers J.J. Hickson: 18 points, 16 rebounds Damian Lillard: 24 points, 6 rebounds

WHL say interesting things and to revere the game in an almost mythical way. We expect them to have loyalty to a city and a franchise, to be good and uncommonly righteous people, to lift teams and communities onto their backs and carry them to greatness. We expect them to ruin their health for us and for the game, because that’s what we pretend we would do.

An athlete lives in a real world, though, and that world is defined by an entire lifetime of being the very best at one specific thing. It’s defined by a sense of competition so fierce that most of us wouldn’t understand it at all. Succeeding against this competition breeds a degree of ego and self-sustenance that would be totally unhealthy in our lives.

The NBA makes the highly competitive and ego-driven

world of finance seem ridiculous by comparison. There are thousands of businessmen and women in this country, but only about 360 elite pro basketball players in the entire world. It’s probably good that we turn them into characters—I doubt we’d recognize them as human otherwise.

What’s interesting to me is that the rest of us fans live in a real world, too. No one’s rooting for us; we are not the object of anyone else’s fantasy the way pro athletes are. We don’t do all of those things in our offices or classrooms that we expect athletes to do on the court. We don’t mythologize the part-time jobs we work to pay the rent, or think of interesting and insightful quips to describe the deeper meaning of the grande, no-whip iced mocha we just served.

But wouldn’t it be totally awesome if we did? If we could concentrate just a portion of the energy we devote to the fantasies that entertain us on imagining our own lives, think how invested in that fantasy we could become.

I think that’s the greatest metaphor that sports (or music, or literature, or fashion or anything that inspires us to imagine) has to offer.

In our non-fanasy lives, we face almost constant pressure to be grounded, serious individuals. Why compensate by wasting all our efforts on inventing some sort of mythical pro athlete through whom we might live out our dreams vicariously? I’d rather try to make that world as close to my own as possible, often as possible. After all, it’s Game 7, and the clock is ticking.

@ Everett Winterhawks

4 2

Top performers Ty Rattie: 2 goals

Sunday, March 3

MLS

vs.

Timbers 3 New York 3 Top performers Diego Valeri: 1 goal