Portland State Vanguard May 14, 2013 by Portland State Vanguard

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Portland State University TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2013 | vol. 67 no. 59

Wage fraud, nepotism alleged at University Place Hotel

A family-friendly graduation

Allegations raise oversight questions, concerns Coby Hutzler and Ashley Rask Vanguard Staff

A group of Portland State employees have filed grievances with the university claiming that their bosses stole their tips, demanded kickbacks and practiced nepotism—favoring family members for special treatment and advancement. Vietnamese housekeepers who work at the PSU-owned University Place Hotel reached out to the labor union that represents them and other service employees on campus, Service Employee International Union Local 89, in March. The union began an investigation and filed the first of the workers’ grievances with PSU’s Human Resources Department on April 12. At press time, 30 days had passed with no response from the university, prompting SEIU to “bump up” the complaint to the office of university President Wim Wiewel. “There’s a little sweatshop going on right in the heart of our university,” See hotel on page 5

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Cassie ArroyO will be getting her diploma alongside her daughters Lily (pictured) and Ava. Arroyo will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and human development.

Resource Center for Students with Children will make commencement a fun event Stephanie Tshappat Vanguard Staff

When Portland State student Cassie Arroyo graduates in June, her two daughters, Ava, 4, and Lily, 2, will be standing alongside her in their own caps and gowns at a special ceremony for student parents designed to be fun for kids of all ages. “When you have kids, I feel like they’re your biggest motivation to get done and finish your degree,” Arroyo said. “I felt it was important to have my daughters involved [in this

accomplishment].” She will be graduating with her bachelor’s degree in psychology and human development. Arroyo’s experience echoes that of many student parents—school has affected the whole family. “It’s been a really long road for me,” Arroyo said. “When my oldest was small, she would just sit with me and watch me do homework—but with my youngest, she would rip the pages of my books, [so I had to start doing] all my studying after she went to bed.”

PSU’s Resource Center for Students with Children is putting on its first family-friendly graduation event this year, with a theme based on the Dr. Seuss book Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Lisa Wittorff, the coordinator of the RCSC, said that involving children in their parent’s college experience increases the child’s success as well. “Studies have shown [that] when children are at college with their parents they have more success in [attending and completing college themselves],” Wittorff said. “[This event] honors graduates but also recognizes the contribution of the children. [Having a parent attending college] can be very hard [for them], especially for older children.” The graduation will be held on June 7 from 6 to 9 p.m. in Hoffman Hall. It

will feature a carnival atmosphere, with a bounce house for the kids, a disc jockey, a Mexican food buffet, VooDoo doughnuts and a photographer for family photos. The RCSC is also providing caps and gowns for the children of graduating students to wear while walking with their parents to receive their certificates. The RCSC realizes that PSU’s regular commencement can be difficult for students with children to attend—either they try to find child care for the event or bring their kids along. But the center wasn’t sure what sort of response to anticipate when they sent out the email announcing the event. “The event filled right up to capacity almost as soon as we sent out the See family on page 4

Dalai Lama enlightens Portland with wise words Spiritual leader addresses spirituality, the environment, global peace and activism Ravleen Kaur Vanguard Staff

“Looking at this tiny world from a distance in the galaxy…this is our only home,” the Dalai Lama said, gesturing eloquently with his hands. With humility and humor, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, spiritual and former political leader of the Tibetan people, addressed thousands of people gathered at the University of Portland’s Chiles Center. He spoke of the need to cultivate respect for others; genuine friendship across religious lines, he

said, is the key to building the kind of cooperation needed to tackle environmental crises. In a two-part event on Thursday called “Spirituality and the Environment,” the Dalai Lama sounded on themes of pluralism and harmony. It was the first public event of “The Dalai Lama Environmental Summit” held May 9–11 and was hosted by Maitripa College. The event was moderated by KGW anchor Laural Porter. “We are all the same human beings,” the Dalai Lama said, calling on people to look past religious, racial and national barriers. “This planet is a multireligious planet,” he continued. “We should not harm each other in the name of religion.” See TIBET on page 2

The Dalai lama visited Portland for a series of events last week.

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The 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, ended his stay in Portland after the “Dalai Lama: Environmental Summit” event Saturday afternoon, where he shared his beliefs about universal responsibility, compassion and the problems facing our future. The day-long event, hosted by Maitripa College, the only Tibetan Buddhist college in the Pacific Northwest, took place at the Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum in North Portland. The events focused on the environmental problems our planet faces. An “Environmental Summit: Universal Responsibility and the Global Environment” roundtable discussion was followed by a public address by the Dalai Lama titled “Inspiration for the Global Environment.” Topics varied from solutions for global pollution to the necessity of compassion. “Taking care of our world simply means taking care of our home,” he began. Beginning at 9:30 a.m., the Dalai Lama sat down with a panel of environmental and political leaders to discuss global environmental issues. The nearly full coliseum was engrossed in the discussion led by David Miller, the host of the OPB daily radio show Think Out Loud. The panel consisted of David Suzuki, an award-winning scientist and environmentalist; Andrea Durbin, the executive director of the Oregon Environmental Council; and Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber.

The Dalai Lama (whose sense of humor shined through the otherwise somber subjects) joked that while he had been able to escape from his home of Tibet to India, when our planet deteriorates we will not be able to escape so easily. Laughing, he added that the moon doesn’t seem very hospitable. The group moved on to discuss carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, heavy deforestation, overpopulation, the wealth gap and under-regulated chemicals in food and water. “We have passed too many tipping points to go back,” Suzuki said of the condition of our planet. The problem, he explained, is that “for 99 percent of existence, we knew we were embedded in nature and our existence relied so heavily on nature.” He offered as examples the hunter gathers and farmers of previous centuries. “In the past 100 years, there has been a huge shift from agricultural farm life to the big city,” Suzuki said. “Our highest priority is our job.” All members of the panel agreed with Suzuki that as a society we have lost sight of our priorities. Suzuki and Kitzhaber both explained that fear of the cost of addressing environmental issues has led to a very slow rate of action. “We elevate our economy above the environment which sustains it,” Suzuki said. Kitzhaber proposed that an economy that more accurately addresses and values environmental damage would be part of a solution. The

tibet from page 1

Regional spiritual leaders contributed to the conversation with messages of universal peace

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Donning a Portland Pilots visor along with his maroon and saffron robes, the Nobel Peace Prize winner spoke of his lofty position with modesty. “If I thought of myself as ‘His Holiness’ or as a different man from others, then there would be uneasiness [in my mind],” the Dalai Lama said. In his opening remarks, he spoke of the shared values of forgiveness and peace across religious traditions. He compelled religious followers to practice with sincerity, not just preach, admitting that religious followers can often be hypocritical. “All religions have a message of peace,” the Dalai Lama said. To actually live out ideals of peace, people must cultivate genuine harmony with one another, he said. The Dalai Lama added that an insistence on “only one truth,” or one right way of living, is contradictory to the ideals of pluralism.

“I am Buddhist…but I mustn’t develop an attachment to my religion…I can’t make everyone Buddhist…we have to live side by side,” he said, also addressing of the need to bring those unaffiliated with religion into the fold of cooperation. “We must combine faith and reason” in fighting environmental problems, he stressed. During the first part of the event, the Dalai Lama was joined by a panel of spiritual leaders from across the religious spectrum, who gathered to invoke common principles of cooperation and respect for other people and the planet. As spiritual leaders offered their prayers and hopes for the environment, the respectful silence in the Chiles Center was palpable. Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim, a leader of the

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Children presented flowers to the Dalai Lama during his three-day visit to Portland last week.

world needs an economy that both works within the confines of the world’s resources and moves everybody up, he said. “We need to change our relationship to consumption,” Kitzhaber said. The Dalai Lama said that in an efforts to do his part to protect the environment he never leaves the room without switching off the light and always takes showers rather than baths. “Initiative must start from the individual. It helps if each of us do something to make a contribution,” he said. However, all members of the panel insisted that, while individual efforts are important, it is political action that is needed. “So often I hear people say, ‘I support the environment, but I am not an environmentalist,’” Durbin said. She explained that the politicizing of environmental issues has damaged efforts to prevent further harm to our planet.

“Lets find a shared platform of agreement and build on that,” Suzuki suggested, saying that the need for clean air and water is a basic human necessity that cannot be denied. “Air should be every community’s priority. Same with water. If we can’t agree that those two things are our most basic needs, then it is hopeless,” Suzuki said. After a lunch break, the Dalai Lama returned to address the public for another hour and a half. The discussion, led by Academy Awardnominated director Darren Aronofsky, focused on the importance of compassion, love and affection. Following the Dalai Lama’s initial public address, questions pulled from Twitter were posed by both Aronofsky and Anthony Kiedis of the band the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In the discussion, the Dalai Lama defined love and kindness as the wish for others to be happy. “Compassion,” he said, “is genuine sense of concern.”

And in order to practice compassion, the Dalai Lama said that “we need practice of tolerance and forgiveness.” He also insisted on the importance of affection, especially in the early years of a child’s life. “Affection brings energy and tireless efforts.” At the end of this final address, every member of the audience participated in the traditional offering of the khata, or ceremonial scarf, to the Dalai Lama. Throughout the address, the white ceremonial khatas had been distributed to make for a grand, final “thank you” as he exited the stage. In keeping with events hosted in the Dalai Lama’s honor, finance and expense details were made public. Of the $850,000 taken in from a Thursday event at the University of Portland and Saturday’s event, $300,000 will be donated to several charities and causes, including a 30 percent donation to the Maitripa College. The remaining $550,000 will reimburse expense costs.

Confederated Tribes of Siletz, grew emotional as she spoke of the earth’s fragility. “What the trees breathe, I breathe,” Pilgrim said. Many panel members stressed the importance of respecting all life on earth. “Each organism has a unique role to play,” said Imam Muhammed Najieb, the leader of the Muslim Community Center of Portland. Rabbi Michael Cahana of Congregation Beth Israel agreed, saying, “All things have purpose of their own, outside of human beings.” Panelists saw hope in changing attitudes. “My generation didn’t think about the environment,” said Father William Beauchamp, the president of the University of Portland. “But today’s collegeaged people are very aware.” Environmental consciousness begins with tiny steps, the Dalai Lama said. “My own silly contribution is to always [turn] off the light when leaving a room,” he said. “It’s in everyone’s interest to take care of the environment,” he added. Environmental

degradation hit close to home for the Buddhist spiritual leader. The effect of global warming on the Tibetan plateau is as extreme as it is at the north and south poles, he explained. “Some people say Tibet is the roof of the world—very clean,” said the Dalai Lama, who was exiled from his homeland more than 50 years ago. “When I came to India, I was surprised that I could not drink water from the stream.” During the second half of the event, the Dalai Lama delivered a lecture on global responsibility and the nature of the mind. He explained that the mind is the nexus between spirituality and science, stressing the malleability of the human brain. “We all have the potential to develop our sense of compassion,” he said. The bonds that arise between a mother and child through affection, he said, can emanate toward global peace. “[If you have] a strong belief in the oneness of human beings, then automatically [with that] comes a sense of global responsibility,” the Dalai Lama said.

Despite scientific advancements, the 20th century was one of bloodshed, the Dalai Lama said. “We must believe that the 21st century can be a century of peace,” he said. “How? Through nonviolence. My interest is your interest. “This must be century of dialogue, not century of weapon,” the Dalai Lama said. “Humanity, generally speaking, is really fed up [with] violence,” he said. “Once you have a genuine care for other people’s well-being, there is no room for killing,” the Dalai Lama said. “Compassion…leaves no room for exploiting or bullying others.” “We need to nurture basic human values through education,” he said. “That is how to build century of peace and understanding—through education, not prayer.” The Dalai Lama injected humor into his talk. After veering off the subjects listed in the program description, he addressed his digression. “Sometimes my talk and subject in program don’t go together,” he said to audience laughter.

NEWS NEWS NEWS NEWS •• TUESDAY, TUESDAY, • •TUESDAY, TUESDAY, JANUARY JANUARY MAY MAY 14, 24, 17, 1, 2013 2012 • VANGUARD

Healing trauma with conversation

Crime Blotter for April 29–May 3 Stephanie Tshappat Vanguard Staff

April 29 Theft Millar Library, second-floor computer lab

Dori Laub talk reveals power of sharing, words Ravleen Kaur Vanguard Staff

A middle-aged Holocaust survivor gazes distantly at the camera as she recalls being herded into cattle trains and then, without realizing what she was doing, handing over her baby to Nazi officers. But at the time, she only experienced handing over a “bundle,” not a baby. “I think I was numb. There was no baby, I was alone with myself. Now all my life I’m alone,” the woman says to her interviewer, psychoanalyst Dr. Dori Laub. Laub projected this and two other Holocaust survivor video testimonies in the darkened Multicultural Center at Portland State on Thursday evening, during a lecture called “Re-establishing the Internal ‘Thou’ in ‘Testimony of Trauma.’” The event was part of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project series at the Portland Center for Public Humanities and was co-sponsored by the Oregon Holocaust Resource Center. Born in 1937 in Czernowitz, Romania, and a survivor of the Holocaust himself, Laub is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale University and a practicing psychoanalyst in New Haven, Conn. “On one hand, they remember

too much; on the other hand, they remember too little,” Laub said of Holocaust survivors. Founder of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale, Laub has centered his scholarship on the concept that victims of

“Being listened to in interviews brings together disjointed memories.” Dr. Dori Laub

extreme trauma do not fully know or internalize the details of the trauma they experienced. Extreme trauma, Laub has found, obliterates the “internal thou,” the inner self with which a person converses in order to make sense of happenings. In another video testimony screened during the lecture, a man was rendered speechless when asked by Laub to revisit a particularly painful memory. Only after his fourth attempt at speaking did a narrative begin to emerge. “Being listened to in interviews brings together disjointed memories,” he said. “But [the survivor] must begin with not knowing what she knows.” Testimony revives this inner dialogue with an “internal thou,” Laub explained to an attentive, sometimes emotional, audience that consisted of students, professors and community members.

“Symbols are needed to communicate with oneself. For Holocaust survivors, there was no internal symbolization,” he said. Laub began videotaping Holocaust testimonies in 1979 and has since participated in more than 120 sessions. “Every experience of survival, of retelling, has creative aspects in it,” said Laub, who spoke of artistic representation of genocide as a useful vessel for the process of testimony. Retellings like Maus, a graphic novel that depicts the author’s process of drawing his father’s Holocaust testimony as a world where Jews are mice and Germans are cats, using symbols and narrative to retell the untellable, Laub explained. Laub often guides survivors away from memorized retellings—often used for self-protection—and into authentic testimony. He said narratives often lose their color when repeated. “There has to be discovery. There has to be something creative, new, interactive, for it to really make a difference,” he said. “We never called it therapy, but it had a therapeutic effect.” The process of filming testimonies brought in a third witness to the interviews— the camera. “I tend to forget there’s a camera,” Laub said, “until you see the cameraman crying.”

Officers Brian Rominger and Shawn McKenzie received a report from a female student that her Bose headphones were stolen when she momentarily stepped away from her desk on April 24. Arrest

At 10:20 a.m., Officer Jon Buck arrested an unknown Portland State student for menacing and disorderly conduct; the student was cited in lieu of arrest. No further information. Criminal mischief Parkway Residence Hall

Officer Buck received a report at 8:38 a.m. from a female student who said she parked her car on April 28 at 10:30 p.m. and, when she came back on April 29 at 8:06 a.m., there was a large dent on the hood of her vehicle and the side mirror on the passenger side of her vehicle was broken off. April 30 Arrest Lincoln Hall, third-floor men’s restroom

Officers Gregory Marks, Nichola Higbee, McKenzie and Rominger contacted nonstudent Michael Eno, who was found sleeping in the men’s restroom at 7:10 a.m. During a search, drug paraphernalia was found. Eno was cited in lieu of arrest for criminal trespass, attempted possession of a controlled substance (heroin) and issued an exclusion order. Exclusion Southwest side of Parking Structure 3

Officers McKenzie, Buck and Rominger contacted nonstudent Danny Butler, who had a bed on the ground with miscellaneous items scattered around it. Butler was issued an exclusion. May 1 Theft Academic and Student Rec Center, room 001

Officer Higbee received a report from a student that a wallet was stolen from the student’s backpack while the student was on break between 11:15 a.m. and 11:25 a.m. Exclusion order Academic and Student Rec Center, first-floor men’s restroom

Officers David Baker and Denae Murphy contacted nonstudent Mark Smith, who was visibly intoxicated and smelled of feces. Smith was found able to care for himself and issued an exclusion order at 8:04 p.m. Suspicious circumstances Broadway Housing Building, second-floor computer lab

Officer Brenton Chose received a report at 11:15 p.m. of a suspicious male following residents into the building. The unknown male PSU student was contacted and he said he was a resident of Broadway but didn’t want to spend money on an access card. The student was advised he must have an access card to enter the building in the future. Graffiti Peter Stott Center, south exterior wall

Officer Peter Ward located new graffiti at 11:25 p.m.

Rally pushes new ideas Faculty encouraged to submit proposals, research Brandon Staley Vanguard staff

When it comes to its students and faculty, Portland State is a hotbed of creativity. The Office of Innovation and Intellectual Property is holding a Research Innovation Rally from now until June 30 to encourage faculty members to share their ideas and research for a chance at winning up to $20,000. “The rally is a directed program to increase our engagement or increase people’s engagement with us,” said Joseph Janda, the director of the OIIP. “We’re inviting people to come forward, bring [their ideas and research] to us. We’ll sit down, we’ll look at, we’ll do an evaluation, we’ll talk through it. We’ll see if maybe there is a patent in there somewhere or if license and copyright might help the project.”

Submissions will be evaluated by an external group of judges, who will choose the top three submissions. The winning submission will receive $20,000 in unrestricted research funds. The other two submissions will receive $5,000 in proposal development funds. Janda said there are two possible kinds of submissions— patents and copyrights—and that there are certain requirements submissions must fulfill to be considered for the rally. “For the patentable kind we’re looking for submissions that are falling out of research projects that are about ideas or gadgets. If something is patentable, if it’s novel (meaning if it’s never been done before in the world), if it’s useful and if it’s non-obvious,” Janda said. “It can’t have been published yet. That’s sort of an important criteria.” Submissions falling into the less tangible realm might be considered copyrights. “For copyrights, it’s a little more wide open in terms of

what can be submitted,” Janda said. “What we’re really looking for is written works: research tools, instruments, pieces of software that people feel are interesting enough to want to push out outside of the university.” The rally is restricted to PSU faculty members, but Janda noted that faculty members with strong research groups who have students involved in their projects are welcome to bring their ideas. The Research Innovation Rally might be one of the best ways for PSU faculty members to submit their patents and copyrights, as Oregon state law prohibits faculty members from filing on their own. Faculty members must go through the Office of Innovation and Intellectual Property. “There are situations where we have waived those patents back to them, and we have done so on a number of occasions, but at the very least they have to run through our office anyway,” Janda said.

May 2 Theft Millar Library, fifth floor

At 2 p.m., Officer Gary Smeltzer received a report of a stolen laptop when a student left it unattended after the student got a nosebleed and rushed to the bathroom. May 3 Burglary Neuberger Hall, room 247

Officer Baker received a report of a backpack and a plastic bag with clothing being taken between April 23 at 8:40 p.m. and April 24 at 3 p.m. Marijuana seizure Stephen Epler Residence Hall

Officers Buck and Smeltzer seized an unknown amount of marijuana, a grinder, a glass pipe with marijuana residue, a digital scale and a small bag of suspected marijuana seeds from a student’s room at 11:13 p.m. Unauthorized access Broadway Housing Building

At 6:27 p.m., officers Buck and Baker responded to a report of a male subject trying to get into room 370, occupied at the time by two female students. The subject was located and determined to be a student at PSU who said he was trying to find the computer lab on the second floor and admitted to gaining access to the building by following residents onto an elevator. The incident was forwarded to the Office of the Dean of Student Life. Hit and run Parking Structure 3

Officer Baker received a report from a student who said she parked her vehicle at 5:30 p.m. and returned at 10:44 p.m. to discover fresh damage to the passenger side of her vehicle. Theft Millar Library

Officer Smeltzer received a report at 1 p.m. from a student who reported her backpack and laptop were stolen when left unattended while she went to the restroom.

VANGUARD • TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2013 • News

Family from page 1

In caps and gowns, children get to join their parents as they get their diplomas

Professor profiles: Derek Tretheway

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Professor Derek Tretheway teaches students about thermodynamics and fluid dynamics.

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Cassie Arroyo, background, will be graduating from PSU in June. Here she plays with her daughters Lily, background, and Ava. email, but there is a waiting list available,” Wittorf said. Student Joanna Bartlo, who will be graduating with her doctoral degree in math education, has two sons, Quinn, 4, and Leo, 2, and will be attending only the RCSC graduation event. “I wasn’t planning on walking [at commencement] because I didn’t want to spend that much time away from my kids, but it is really important to my advisor to hood me,” Bartlo said. “This is a great compromise—we get to mark the moment, and I get to be with my kids. It’s great to know there are options.” Bartlo earned her master’s degree in science and teaching mathematics and has been

attending PSU since 2004. She ended up taking a three-year maternity leave in the middle of her college career to have her boys. “When my oldest son was a baby, I would take him with me to grant meetings and just take a box of plug protectors [for the electric outlets],” Bartlo said. “But once he started crawling and walking it just got too hard, and I realized I wanted to spend that time with him at home.” When asked if her being in school has been hard for her boys, Bartlo said no. “For both of them, it’s all they’ve known their whole lives, me being in school,” she said. “My oldest talks about

wanting to be a teacher, but I don’t think he realizes what me graduating means.” Arroyo is the first of her family to graduate from college, so attending the regular commencement ceremony is very important to her parents, especially her mom. “My mom really wanted me to walk, and I talked to friends of mine who hadn’t walked and regretted it, so I’m attending both [the regular commencement and the RCSC graduation,]” she said. Arroyo’s oldest daughter, who wants to be a police officer, said she is excited to walk with her mommy at the RCSC graduation and likes that her mommy goes to college.

Derek Tretheway is an associate professor in the thermal and fluid science group in the mechanical engineering department of the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science. Tretheway did undergraduate research while earning a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He got a summer research position with a faculty member his junior year and, realizing how much he enjoyed the work, he continued researching into his senior year. “That’s kind of what made me decide to go to graduate school,” Tretheway said. He ended up going to the University of California, Santa Barbara, to get his doctoral degree in chemical engineering. He shifted his research from chemical engineering to

mechanical engineering by doing his postdoctoral work with a new mechanical engineering professor at Santa Barbara. “Together, we were looking at flows at a micro scale,” Tretheway said. They were measuring flows and trying to see if the things happening in normal-sized flows were still occurring at the micro scale, and it turned out they were not. “There were some reasons to believe they weren’t because now their surface effects were so large relative to the volume,” Tretheway said. He said this work is what got him into micro fluids, which is what he is researching now. Tretheway is currently teaching many classes at different levels in the department. He teaches junior-level required courses on topics like thermodynamics and fluid dynamics. He also teaches some senior-level classes and

graduate courses in mass transfer, fluid mechanics and microfluidics, which is his primary research area. Though the field encompasses many aspects, he explained that it’s basically the study of very small volumes and the fluid mechanics of these small things. One of the questions he focuses on is how to move fluids through these small structures efficiently. He mentioned that a big part of microfluidics is the fact that you have a “lab on a chip.” It’s not really that small, but the whole instrumentation usually takes up just a tabletop, as opposed to an entire lab needed in other fields. Tretheway said that while looking at industry and faculty jobs, Portland just came up out of the blue. “I didn’t know much about PSU. To be honest, I didn’t even know it existed,” Tretheway said. But there was a position open in thermal fluid sciences and, since he had the background, he applied. “When I came up and visited, I liked the feel of the university. It reminded me of Santa Barbara before it really took off. It was sort of like it was ready to take off. And it is still going that way. It’s taking off, I think. I had that feeling and I like that feeling,” Tretheway said. He also enjoys Portland, and the area surrounding the city. “I’m pretty much an outdoorsman. If it’s outdoors, I probably do it,” Tretheway said. He fishes, hunts, crabs, hikes and occasionally goes camping. He said he tries to ride his bike to and from work as much as possible. He loves to just get outside and do things, and he has two small children that keep him busy.

Ondine hosts weekly Bible studies Life Talks draw crowds with down-to-earth discussions Vincent Alexander Vanguard Staff

Portland State’s most visible campus events seem to often have a political bent. Student marches, documentary screenings, bake sales, even the inescapable ASPSU election—there is often a sense that the participants have come together because they chose the same side on a critical and divisive issue. On Thursday evening, 15 students met in the Ondine Residence Hall lobby. The topic? Friendship. Life Talks, founded by campus minister Joey Andersen and his student group, Impact, have been on the calendar every week for more than a year. The meetings are informal and loosely structured. After introductions, Andersen reads a Bible passage and asks

the group how it relates to their life. After a few minutes of discussion, he reads another passage. Then another. Members drift in, switch seats, start side conversations. This is more youth group than seminary. And this “not too intimidating” approach is exactly the point. Andersen started Impact in winter 2012, hoping to “provide an environment where students can learn more about God and the Bible,” he said. In addition to Bible studies, Impact also organizes various volunteering efforts—working with the nonprofit Hope Worldwide in soup kitchens, holding sports tournament fundraisers and helping students move in at the beginning of each term. More than anything, though, Impact is about social networking, participants said. “These people are my closest friends now,” said Hannah Consenz, a sophomore music major who has been attending the Life Talks almost since

the beginning. The half hour of casual chatting in an hourlong meeting gives students a chance to make their own connections with each other and the material. This approach extends to the marketing of events, almost nonexistent by PSU standards. After a brief postering campaign, Andersen allowed the group to simply grow at its own pace, relying on word of mouth to recruit new members. This is how Matthew Hartman, another sophomore music major, came to the group. Invited by a friend last spring, Hartman quickly integrated into the group and joined the Portland Church of Christ, from which Andersen and other ministers organize various campus ministries throughout the Portland area. In turn, he invited his friends. He even met his roommates at the Life Talks. The Impact Bible studies are held each Thursday from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the lobby of Ondine Residence Hall.

riza liu/VANGUARD STAFf

Hannah cosenz, Lauren Dodson, Martha Flores, Chelsea Anderson, Kristin Acker, Candace Cheney and Ali Figueroa gathered at the Thursday Life Talks meeting.

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Class profile: ‘Chemistry of the Environment’

hotel from page 1

PSU has terminated employment for the hotel’s general manager

Gwen Shaw Vanguard Staff

Employees at PSU’s University Place Hotel have filed complaints—ranging from nepotism to wage fraud—with the university. The hotel’s general manager and house keeping supervisor have been let go. said Marc Nisenfeld, the president of SEIU Local 89. “I would hope that they’d be a little more conscious of what’s going on in their own backyard.” University Place General Manager Dennis Burkholder and Housekeeping Supervisor Kim Nguyet Thi Christian were both terminated by PSU on May 7. “We did determine a loss of trust,” said Scott Gallagher, PSU’s communications director, of the staffing changes at the hotel. “We thought it’d be best to have a fresh start.”

The backstory Gallagher said that in late February human resources received an anonymous letter detailing several of these allegations, primarily concerning supervisors at the University Place Hotel. “[We] immediately put people on administrative leave,” Gallagher said. Gallagher explained that the university’s investigation of the nepotism allegations revealed that only one supervisor was found to be related to the people

she oversaw; she was consequently demoted. By March, many of the workers had been waiting for weeks for the university to respond to requests for a translator. “They got tired of it and came to the union,” said Bao Nguyen, an organizer with Service Employees International Union Local 503 and a Vietnamese speaker, adding that the workers’ complaints referenced incidents that dated as far back as 2006. The union then filed a series of grievances with the university, some as recently as May 8. The university interviewed 15 people, including anyone who was mentioned in the grievances. Bao said that he’s spoken to at least six people who’ve been affected; many of them were wary of speaking out for fear of termination. Gallagher also said that PSU investigated claims of kickbacks, in which workers received manager-approved pay for hours they hadn’t worked—pay that was then demanded back by supervisory or managerial staff. Allegations of tip-stealing are also being investigated.

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“We were not able to substantiate evidence of kickbacks,” Gallagher said. Nisenfeld, the union chapter president, said that documentation exists to back up the workers’ claims. “I have no reason to not believe what we’ve been told by these workers,” he said.

What comes next? The investigation has raised numerous questions about management practices in other departments at PSU. “Things are going to happen,” Gallagher said. “We handled it the best way that we could.” While most of the housekeeping staff are temporary workers hired under one-year contracts, more of them are joining the union. So far, 15 of the 21 workers have unionized. Nisenfeld said that he’d like to get these grievances resolved within the next week or two, but admits that it may be some time before that happens. “If the administration were to cooperate with us,” he said, “we’d wind it up a whole lot quicker.”

Everyone knows about major environmental issues like climate change and ozone depletion. However, not everyone knows that there is a chemical connection between most of these environmental problems. James Pankow, a professor of both chemistry and civil and environmental engineering, teaches a class that explains just how that interrelationship works: It’s called “Chemistry of the Environment.” “The class tries to provide a chemical explanation to all of the major environmental issues,” Pankow said. Climate change is an example, he said. It’s caused by greenhouse gases, but it’s not just the presence of the gas that is the issue. “Greenhouse gases are naturally in the environment— that’s not a problem that they are there—but the problem is that the levels are increasing,” Pankow said. For this class, students look at what a greenhouse gas is, its composition,

and how it causes the climate to warm. “The class really explains the many issues and ongoing crises that will determine the future of generations,” student Ian Melzer said. The class meets twice a week, and for each lecture Pankow provides students with a set of the notes he will use. Each set includes a variety of information in the form of text, graphics and pictures. Each year, Pankow spends five to six hours reformatting the notes and updating the information. “The only solution is to distill down the text and a variety of other sources to a format that’s very compact and useful,” Pankow said. The environmental issues he discusses include fossil fuels, coal, air pollution, pesticides and alternative energy sources. All of these house smaller topics within them as well. “My philosophy is that I don’t expect that anybody is going to become an expert on any of the things I talk about,” Pankow said. “My goal is that all of the students, if they are working and taking

it seriously, will understand the basics of how every one of the major environmental problems work.” He wants students to be able to sit down with someone and explain the basic “hows” and “whys” of the issue. In addition to weekly lectures, students are assigned homework sets. The assignments focus more on the chemistry and math sides of the material, and there are problems to be worked out and calculated. Shannon Shabram, a student in the course, said that as a biology major she really enjoys the work. “The information presented is relevant to current global issues, and Pankow is incredibly helpful with homework sets.” The class is primarily intended for engineering and chemistry students, but is available to anyone. The only requirement is that students must have at least a general chemistry background. Currently there are only about 20 people enrolled in the class, but Pankow said he would really like to see registration grow to around 100 students.

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VANGUARD ••TThursday, TUESDAY, uesday, THURSDAY, TUESDAY, Jan. MAY JANUARY OCTOBER Nov. FEBRUARY JANUARY 31, 14,8, 2013 2013 2012 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

Bunuel’s caged bird sings Northwest Film Center screens Tristana Breana Harris Vanguard Staff

“In order to keep a woman honorable, you must break her leg and keep her at home,” says Fernando Rey’s dastardly pervert, Don Lope, early on in Luis Bunuel’s 1970 film, Tristana. This statement becomes ironic for him in Bunuel’s tale of 1920s Spain, where a helpless and beautiful girl takes revenge on the rich and powerful man who corrupts her. Tristana screens this weekend at the Northwest Film Center in downtown Portland. Catherine Deneuve stars as the title character, an orphaned girl of 19 who becomes the ward of Don Lope, an atheist intellectual in the Spanish city of Toledo. These days, it’s hard to imagine a 19-yearold being adopted, but I suppose her alternative prospects would have been fairly grim, something Don Lope creepily reminds her of later on. Tristana was released three years after Belle de Jour, and 26-year-old Deneuve was at the height of her fame, so Bunuel’s French investors insisted that he cast her. Her incredible beauty lends itself to the overall look of the film, but it’s a little hard to imagine her as a wide-eyed innocent. Of course, Deneuve’s Tristana doesn’t remain innocent for long. Don Lope is both a surrogate father and a strange kind of master to Tristana, and he makes it clear from the beginning that he doesn’t like her leaving the house. It’s soon obvious that he is looking for a wife, not a daughter, and she becomes essentially his sexual property. Tristana’s only companions are Don Lope’s housekeeper, Saturna (Lola Gaos) and Saturna’s

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Catherine deneuve stars as the titular character in Luis Bunuel’s 1970 film, Tristana, which is screening this weekend at the Northwest Film Center. mute son, Saturno (Jesus Fernandez). Eventually, Tristana begins to resist his power over her freedom and meets and falls in love with artist Horacio (the dashing Franco Nero). When Horacio learns of her situation, he manages to get Tristana to leave the city with him. She returns to Don Lope two years later with a tumor that results in the amputation of her leg. That’s when the power in their relationship shifts. Tristana might return from her proverbial sea change physically crippled, but her mental and emotional strength compounds until at one point she is even referred to as “diabolic.” Deneuve’s performance vastly improves as she watches her former captor grow weaker. Has she become a monster? Has she become what Don Lope made her? Instead of being the melodrama Tristana could have been, the story is grotesque, surreal and strangely triumphant.

Bunuel first had the idea of adapting Benito Perez Galdos’ novel Tristana in 1962, but difficulties with the script and the Spanish censors sidetracked the project for a number of years. It was an international production, with Deneuve and Franco’s voices dubbed into Spanish. French and English dubbed versions were also released, finally, in 1970; the film was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Tristana is not a particularly hopeful film, but neither is it particularly morose. It’s a complicated study of two people who thrive on each other’s weaknesses, presented in a version of Bunuel’s classic style. Tristana’s recurring dream of Don Lope’s severed head swinging from a church bell evokes a representation of the grotesque inner life boiling beneath Deneuve’s exquisite face.

The character of Saturno, whose role is increased in the film version, serves as a sort of mirror for Tristana even as she repels and teases him. It’s the kind of film you could spend a long time analyzing. Roger Ebert said it was born of Bunuel’s great obsessions with sadomasochism and demolishing religious morality. Indeed, Tristana does have a warped but deeply-felt affection for Don Lope, who transitions from her victimizer to her victim. The power play in the relationship is the central focus, even if it’s sometimes unclear what Bunuel is really trying to say. Ultimately, while you can tell Tristana was made with little money, and while the film could actually benefit from being stretched beyond its 98-minute running time, it really works. It’s a compelling film, not only for the complicated Freudian psychology behind it but also for the uniqueness of the narrative. Tristana and Don Lope are both fully realized characters and Deneuve, while seeming slightly miscast, gives Tristana a mysterious allure that resonates through the entire movie. The Northwest Film Center is screening the newly restored version of what is often called the quintessential Bunuel film: It’s profound, cynical and yet eminently watchable at the same time. Tristana remains a testament to the famous director’s ability to create an intricate world and then let the rest of us live in it.

Northwest Film Center presents Tristana Whitsell Auditorium 1219 SW Park Ave. Saturday, May 18, 7 and 9 p.m. Sunday, May 19, 7 p.m. $9 general, $8 students

Byzantium, not Constantinople UCLA professor Sharon Gerstel to lecture at PSU Megan Fresh Vanguard Staff

How did average folks in the ancient world find a sense of community, and how would knowing about their day-to-day routines illuminate the connections between their lives and our own? Dr. Sharon Gerstel specializes in this kind of thing. Her lecture this Friday, “Landscapes of the Late Byzantine Village and Monastary: A View from the Morea,” will explore the evolving landscape of the Morea, the medieval Peloponnese—a region we would now call southern Greece. The term “Byzantine” comes from “Byzantium,” an early name for the city of Constantinople (now Istanbul) and is used to describe the later years of the Roman Empire. Gerstel, a professor of Byzantine art history and archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles, focuses on the intersection of ritual and art in her work. Her knowledge of underexplored aspects of the period, such as landscape and monument painting, sets her apart from others in her field. She is the author and editor of many books on archaeology and won a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2011. Gerstel is excited to visit Portland for the first time, and she looks forward to bringing her topics of interest to Portland State. “I’m interested in looking at the Morea, a very famous region, and thinking about how the landscape has been inhabited by different groups of people,” Gerstel said. “I’m looking at

the pieces of evidence—of art and archeology— to understand the communication, how people lived, interacted and…cohabited. “I will show images of skeletons and excavated trenches and also look at the land,” Gerstel continued. “People will walk away from this lecture knowing a lot about this microregion.” Gerstel has personally been involved in excavations in Greece as a field director and ceramics specialist, and her personal interest was triggered by a memorable undergraduate professor who loved Byzantine studies. “I burst into tears when he taught the Fourth Crusade,” Gerstel said. Gerstel is clearly an academic who knows the human side of historical study and its capacity to move and inspire. “I think the lecture will be exciting for several reasons,” said Karen Carr, president of the Portland chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America, which is also sponsoring the event. “Firstly, she works on landscape, which is a relatively new and exciting area in archaeology. It’s so important to consider the relationships among sites, and not just each site in isolation. People live in communities and organizations, and Gerstel is doing important work figuring out how people thought about their surroundings. How did their religion—and the monasteries that represented it—help people in southern Greece to build a sense of community?” Carr asked. “Second, she writes about ordinary people,” Carr continued. “We know so much more about rich people, palaces, forts, temples and churches than we do about villages and villagers. And yet most people in the ancient world were farmers. I’m looking forward to a chance to hear more about those farmers.” As is so often the question with historical lectures, how does this apply to us today?

Byzntine scholar Sharon Gerstel will lecture on campus Friday evening. “Greece is a country in crisis right now,” Carr said, “and the more we know about the past, and how people have dealt with crises there before, the more we can see what would be good responses to the crises now.” Friday’s event is presented by the Middle East Studies Center Lecture Series and cosponsored by the Department of History and the Portland chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America. The Middle East Studies Center is an interdisciplinary hub on campus for students, faculty and staff with an interest in the Middle East, located in East Hall, room 318.

“Our work on campus includes supporting faculty members doing work on the Middle East as well as supporting students with resources and scholarships,” said Elisheva Cohen, the center’s outreach coordinator. “Three years ago, [the MESC] was designated a national resource center by the Title VI program of the federal government,” Cohen said. “This gives us the mandate to work on and off campus to promote and share knowledge about the Middle East. “We do that by hosting public lectures such as this one, as well as film screenings and panel discussions,” Cohen said. Gerstel’s lecture will give attendees some indepth knowledge about the way people lived in a much-discussed historical era, and will also illustrate the way they organized their lives among the villages and monasteries of the time. Even if you are not an art history or archaeology student, what could be cooler than getting to see the everyday treasures of bygone civilizations? The lecture’s abstract gets into this mythopoetic side of things, noting that the Morea region has “been romanticized in myths of the Crusades and lamented in Greek songs of loss.” Duly noted: This topic has been fascinating humans for quite some time.

PSU’s Middle East Studies Center presents Landscapes of the Late Byzantine Village and Monastery: A View from the Morea Friday, May 17, 7:30 p.m. PSU School of Business Administration auditorium, room 190 Free and open to the public

Arts Arts&&Culture Culture• •T TUESDAY, uesday,MAY Jan.14, 31, 2013 • VANGUARD

Singing their way to Seghizzi Portland State Chamber Choir throws fundraising concert for Italian trip Elisha Feliciano Vanguard Staff

“[At] the concert…you will see 36 students pouring their hearts out onstage,” said Ethan Sperry, conductor of Portland State’s Chamber Choir. Sperry and the choir have been accepted to compete in an international competition in Italy this summer: The Seghizzi International Competition for Choral Singing is one of the oldest and largest choir competitions in the world. The Portland State Chamber Choir is the first American choir selected to participate in several years. They will be in Italy July 18–20. This Friday and Sunday, the choir will perform a benefit concert to help fund this unique opportunity. The Portland State Chamber Choir has been around for nearly 40 years and has earned a stellar reputation. This past year they released a CD, Drop in the Ocean, that received positive reviews in national magazines. In February they were selected to perform at a music educators’ conference in Portland; they were one of only three groups selected to perform out of 27 university choirs that applied. Sperry, the head of PSU’s choral program, has been the choir’s director for three years. “It’s a smaller group of singers,” Sperry said. “They’re all really well-trained and dedicated…I feel like the group can pretty much do anything that a professional choir can do. Any genre, any style. You’ll hear that at the concert. “We’ll sing important European sacred

The Psu chamber choir performs under the direction of its conductor, Ethan Sperry. Sperry and the choir will be heading to Italy this summer to perform at a prestigious choral competition. music, pop songs, music percussion, music from other countries and pretty much everything in between,” Sperry said. “It’s one group of singers, but the voice is the most versatile instrument that’s ever been invented. These singers know how to use their voices in every possible way. It’s a really talented, versatile and hardworking group of singers.” There is a song called “Arrivederci, Roma” about the sadness of leaving Rome. The Portland State Chamber Choir concert is called “Arrivederci, Portland!” to express its members’ sadness at leaving Portland, but also their excitement about where they will be going.

The concert will include many arrangements, from well-known titles such as “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen and “MLK” by U2 to a rendition of “Amazing Grace” by a young composer from Latvia, along with various other musical pieces. “One of the advantages [for] PSU, I think, is that we have by far the strongest music program in the Northwest, and are also one of the cheapest schools in the country,” Sperry said. “Part of the reason I think this place is so successful is because we do provide an amazing education and we do it at a fraction of the cost. So we’re able to recruit very good singers here, and I think they more than get their money’s worth.”

St. Stephen’s Catholic Church in Laurelhurst is an excellent acoustic setting for the Friday night concert. The church holds 400 people, and there is hope that the event will sell out. Each performance will be between 75 and 90 minutes long. “You can’t just go onstage and be technically good—you actually need to go onstage and share some of yourself with the audience,” Sperry said. “You can just get onstage and try to make a pretty sound, sing a tune, don’t crack the high notes or whatever. Or you can think about the words that are written in that piece you’ve chosen to sing, make them your own, deliver them from your own standpoint and communicate it.” Sperry pointed to one song, “A Boy and a Girl,” that captures what makes this concert so special. “A Boy and a Girl” is about “this couple whose love is so innocent that it literally continues into eternity,” Sperry said. “Even after they’re dead, they don’t need to say anything to each other; it’s just obvious that they still love each other. “The last minute of the piece, the choir doesn’t even say a word—it’s just humming,” Sperry continued. “There [are] all these moments of silence in between each phrase. We played it at our first concert. There were over 600 people there and you could’ve heard a pin drop. Somebody has captured in music this idea of love beyond the grave. The whole audience was just sitting there in awe.”

The Portland State Chamber Choir presents Arrivederci, Portland! Friday, May 17, 7:30 p.m. St. Stephen’s Catholic Church 1112 SE 41st Ave. Tickets at the PSU Box Office pdx.edu/boxoffice or 503-725-3307

Beauty shop Lebanese film Caramel screens on campus Tristan Cooper Vanguard Staff

Going to a movie in a theater is a lot like going to the barber or the hairdresser: You sit down in a chair, lean back and, for a predetermined amount of time, are captive to an artiste (or so you hope). There’s something terrifying but also soothing about relinquishing control and becoming completely vulnerable. And as with any good haircut or movie, you walk away slightly transformed. Portland State’s Middle East Studies Center will attempt to transform viewers at a screening of the 2007 Lebanese film Caramel tomorrow evening. The film will be followed by a discussion led by Lina Gomaa, a senior instructor of Arabic in the World Languages and Literatures program at PSU. “[Caramel] highlights several important issues with women in the Arab world, and highlights [them] intensely,” Gomaa said. It sounds severe, but on the surface Caramel is a very accessible personal drama. The film centers around six women living in Beirut, four of whom work at the same salon. For the most part they all have normal, everyday problems often seen in American films. Jamale spends most of the film concerned about aging after her divorce. Rima finds herself attracted to a female client who comes in increasingly frequently. The salon owner, Layale, is stuck in an affair with a married man.

The women in Caramel are so believable in their normalness that at times it’s easy to forget the film is in Lebanese. This casts the distinctly Middle Eastern moments in even starker relief. Much of the film revolves around the engagement and upcoming wedding of one of the hairdressers, Nisrine. She’s worried about what will happen if her husband and his family find out that she’s not a virgin. Later in the film we see her in a doctor’s office. Nisrine’s dilemma highlights some of the cultural differences that Caramel depicts. “In some countries, including Egypt and Lebanon, they…kind of fake that, especially if they go and get married,” Gomaa said. “So she had an operation.” This fraught moment isn’t obvious or telegraphed; the struggles of these women are expressed with subtlety and tact—there’s no roundtable scene where the ladies all explain their troubles so we know what should be “fixed” by the end of the film. Some of the most powerful moments in Caramel are the ones unspoken: Jamale close to tears in the bathroom, forging a used tampon to fool others (and herself ) into thinking she hasn’t hit menopause; Rima’s euphoric smile when her client finally decides to cut her hair. Two sisters, Rose and Lili, exist mostly apart from the other four hairdressers: Rose considers herself responsible for the mentally disabled Lili, and she grapples with how to balance that duty with her own desire for happiness. Rose’s unspoken moment is equally powerful and simple as she wipes makeup from her eyes. The buildup to these turning points is understated, to the point that they sound like part of a

Four female friends deal with life’s hardships and joys together in the 2007 Lebanese film Caramel, which is screening on campus this week. person’s daily routine taken out of context. Director Nadine Labaki, who plays Layale, crafts Caramel so that it’s sweet enough to consume but ambiguous enough to serve as a discussion of taboo issues in the Middle Eastern world. Gomaa hopes to dissect the problems each of the women raise with the discussion after the screening. Though she’s an authority on the subject, Gomaa will play off of the audience’s gut reaction to the film. “I’ll give more space for the audience because their questions will lead to discussion more than me talking, trying to tell them what they think,” Gomaa said. Those involved in Middle East and women’s studies will probably get the most from the movie and the post-screening talk, but anyone is welcome to join the conversation.

“This is a good movie for [people] to see the commonalities [and] the differences between American society and Arabic society,” Gomaa said, “in [regard to treatment of ] women and the different challenges women face. Gomaa recommended the event to students in programs other than Middle East studies as well, saying, “It will just give him or her a new perspective that the world is different, and it opens up their horizons.”

PSU’s Middle East Studies Center presents Caramel Wednesday, May 15, 7 p.m. Smith Memorial Student Union, room 294 Free and open to the public

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First thursday art lovers were out in droves this month at Urban Art Network’s First Thursday fair on Northwest 13th Avenue between Hoyt and Lovejoy streets (below), where painter Amy McDermott showed her work (left). Backspace (right), in Northwest Portland, had Theo Holdt’s work on display.

First Thursday outdoors May sunshine brings the Pearl District’s street gallery to life Jeoffry Ray Vanguard Staff

The sun’s return brought First Thursday back outdoors, and the Vanguard made sure to stop by the Pearl District to check out the monthly street gallery exhibitions. The Pearl’s First Thursday art walk features a range of arts and crafts displayed by vendors spread along Northwest 13th Avenue between Hoyt and Lovejoy streets. Starting at 5 p.m., the monthly event stretches into the evening and attracts people from throughout the city. Many visitors walk through and browse, but others come to spend money on works of art ranging from paintings and prints to ceramics, jewelry and even puzzles and puppets. Local painter Angela Raines was one vendor working the walk, selling prints and originals of her fantastical and dreary bunny-themed works. “I paint the world as if the bunnies were the people,” she explained. “I basically paint about things I don’t understand, things I love and the things I wish were true.” Raines, who started showing at street fairs at Northeast Alberta Street’s Last Thursday event, noted that she’s a bit of a newcomer to the downtown fair. As a full member of the fair, which is hosted by the volunteer-based Urban Art Network, she will have a first-priority booth throughout the year. “This is my first year working downtown,” she said. “When I started on Alberta, I got the

street fair fever. But last year I noticed a lot more of a performance vibe there.” The street gallery doesn’t confine itself to paintings: Vendors also presented works such as wire sculptures, woodcraft displays and hand-designed clothing. The organizers require prospective vendors to submit hand-crafted works, so all goods are one of a kind or limited edition and created by the artist themselves. Another artist at the fair was local woodcarver Kent Forrester. Forrester, a retired professor, displays his intensely crafted woodwork puzzles once a month with help from his wife, Marie. The puzzles come in a variety of shapes and sizes, many carved in exotic woods, and are often inspired by historical works by artists such as Picasso and Escher and Japanese woodblock prints. “I’m always working on new pieces,” Forrester said. “I’m a bit of an insomniac, so I lie in bed thinking about what I can make next.” Forrester, who has shown at Portland’s Saturday Market, pointed out that while sales can be light at the Pearl District street gallery, the atmosphere is friendly and nonjudgmental. “I like it; it’s cheaper than some of the other spaces in town,” he said. “It’s very informal. A lot of people like to walk around and look at things.” The local businesses also get involved. Many cafes and restaurants along the stretch open their doors, host concurrent events and even play music for patrons in an effort to contribute and attract business. One coffee company, Nossa Familia, offered samples and tunes for passersby, providing space for partners to also share their own stories and products with potential customers.

“We feel really fortunate to have found such a fantastic location,” said Sarah Smith, Nossa Familia’s vice president of sales and marketing. “The art walk gives us a great opportunity to tell our story.” The company, a family-operated coffee company that internalizes its entire chain of production, just opened its first retail location along the art walk stretch, Smith noted. In addition to offering its own wares during the street gallery, Nossa Familia also opens its space for gallery exhibitions, including an upcoming Rapha bicycle exhibit. Smith pointed out that Nossa Familia wants to join the First Thursday experience by reaching out to visitors. The coffee shop is just one location that brings music to the street gallery, livening the evening. “People will come in and ask what’s going on,” she said. “The music is definitely a draw for us. We want to be a part of the overall experience.” The Vanguard ended the night with a visit to Backspace, where Portland-based painter Theodore Holdt displayed his expansive collection of works. Holdt dominated the coffee shop’s northern wall with an installation of 240 7-inch-by-7-inch paintings, meticulously arranged and titled with the lines of a poem authored by the artist. “I do a lot of chance operations,” Holdt explained. “I had finished all the work before I titled them. I would pick one out of a box, and the name would just come to me. I randomized them. I have a real attraction to dealing with chance, even in the work itself.” The result of his titling process, which spanned three days, was a poem that Holdt chose to offer instead of a traditional artist’s statement. The works, individually small, range

from sketch-like representations to works of gestural abstraction. Taken as a whole, they pull together to command the space, offering hints of a narrative that asserts the viewer’s complicity in completing the story. “I kind of like the idea that it’s one big painting,” Holdt said. “Standing back, its kind of a field—almost more of an installation.” Holdt also showed several larger paintings— intensely detailed pieces with a note of surrealism and a play between abstraction and visual representation. Though he noted a sharper attention to particular detail in the larger works, Holdt also pointed out that each painting emerges from a shared process. “They start the same way, with a lot of gestural playing,” he said. “From there, I meditate a lot over the work. Some areas end up becoming more defined and others are left more loose. I like the idea that people can read their own meaning into things.” Holdt asserted that he strives to leave meaning in the hands of onlookers and critics. He pointed out instances of buyers contacting him after having found impressions of their own imaginations in his work. “I’m not really building a meaning,” he said. “I kind of want to build a living painting. You can look at it every day and see something new.”

For more info on the exhibits visit Urban Art Network urbanartnetwork.org Nossa Familia familyroast.com Backspace backspace.bz

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VANGUARD •• TUESDAY, THURSDAY, MAY NOVEMBER 14, 2013 10, • OPINiON 2011 • SPORTS

OPINION

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

Counter Coulter Sometimes it’s better not to speak One Step Off Emily Lakehomer

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KPSU aims for FM Getting KPSU on FM will allow PSU’s diverse student body to share its unique perspectives with the greater Portland area A Critical Glance Adam E. Bushen

PSU, Portland State’s student-run radio station, wants to become the first college FM station in the Portland metro area—if they can raise enough funds to do so. A commercial-free and nonprofit radio station, KPSU has been broadcasting since 1994, providing a variety of opinions and musical selections. To help raise funds to obtain the proper radio signal and purchase the equipment needed for the move to FM, the station is hosting a Radio Revival series that will include concerts, trivia nights, “friend-raisers,” community art shows and a car smash. I suggest that everyone attend at least one event to help the cause, so check out the station’s page at kpsu.org/radiorevival. If enough funds can be raised to get KPSU on FM, it would be a tremendous benefit to both the university and the community. With such a diverse campus, which KPSU strives to represent, the station would continue to provide multiple perspectives that members of the Portland community outside of PSU don’t normally get. We have students here that hail from all over the world and have a closer connection to world events than the average American citizen. They stay current on international topics that most Americans simply don’t follow. By using their access to our campus’ diversity and variety of

interests to bring PSU to a larger audience, KPSU can provide Portland residents with a perspective previously unavailable to them. As KPSU Director James Turk said in an interview with PSU’s Office of University Communications, “We can make an important contribution to the public dialogue.” In addition to contributing to the public dialogue by sharing the unique and varied outlooks and experiences of PSU students with the Portland metro area, KPSU can also cover issues overlooked by the mainstream media. For the average person, “news” consists of the same five or six stories covered again and again. Unless you’re actively searching for a variety of news, the world’s events are filtered through a pretty narrow funnel and often distilled to mainly U.S.-related news. Unfortunately, AM/FM radio and television are two huge news mediums that fail to offer diverse stories (with the notable exception of NPR). This is where KPSU can fill a void. Using our student body’s pool of unique and diverse voices, KPSU can cover stories that are ignored by the Fox Newses and CNNs of the world. KPSU can provide international news that will be of interest to Portland’s international residents. A foreigner living in the U.S. has little access to news of their home country or region of the world outside of

the Internet. KPSU could offer news stories that relate to a larger variety of people and that will enhance the worldview of those who otherwise hear so little about the world outside of the U.S. Plus, it would be nice to get a Portland-specific perspective on national and world news events. A great backstory of the effort to get KPSU on FM airwaves is the creation of the Local Community Radio Act. This act, signed into law by President Barack Obama in January 2011, was put in place in order to highlight the importance of and need for local, educational and nonprofit radio stations that disseminate a variety of opinions and perspectives to create better and more knowledgeable citizens. The signal that KPSU wishes to obtain—Low Power FM—became available when the act was signed into law. I cannot commend the creation of this act enough. As previously mentioned, mainstream media outlets are shamefully biased and don’t even have the decency to hide it. Our government’s recognition of the need for diverse news outlets is something that we should all applaud and support. Turk recognizes this need and the benefits. “This is the first time in 10 years that these signals have been available to organizations [like ours] and we don’t want to miss this chance,” he said. We can prevent this by supporting KPSU efforts, so go see one of the shows and celebrate the opportunity to provide a diverse news outlet to the Portland metro area.

elebrities often make really off-color remarks. In the past few years we’ve dealt with rampant racism, sexism and ableism pouring from the media floodgates with little more than a hand-slap as a reprimand. We all know that the things political commentators say should be taken with a grain of salt, but that doesn’t excuse blatant idiocy. Ann Coulter isn’t the crowning glory of political commentators. She’s made some extremely problematic and imprudent remarks about political happenings, media scandals and foreign policy. Even if she hadn’t previously said these awful things, nothing excuses her latest bout of ignorance. The tragedy that struck Boston last month was a horrible event that will be on all our minds for years to come. Ever the politically correct gal, Coulter stated that bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsnaraev’s wife should “be imprisoned for wearing a hijab.” Yeah, that’s right. Coulter went on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show (because who else would allow this to go unchecked?) and stated, “This immigration policy of us assimilating immigrants into our culture isn’t really working. No, they are assimilating us into their culture. Did she get a clitorectomy, too?” A clitorectomy is the surgical removal of the clitoris, the practice of female genital mutilation prevalent in many African countries. Good job, Ann, good job! Let’s all give her a round of applause. Not only was her statement racist,

unnecessary and pretty much as awful as you can get during a time of crisis, she later claimed it was a joke. She said that onstage at Syracuse University to let adoring fans (apparently she has some) and haters alike know that when you’re Ann Coulter it’s OK to make racist jokes and make light of a devastating tragedy. All Coulter did was take a question on the bombing and turn it into a segue to a discussion on her flawed and ridiculous stance on immigration. Major side-eye going on here. What’s really cute is how quick fellow Republicans were to defend her. Nicholas Staiano, a member and chairman of the New York Federation of College Republicans, said that while he didn’t agree with what Coulter said verbatim, he believes there will always be a place for humor in politics. He told Syracuse’s The Post-Standard that “We have serious issues, but we’re allowed to laugh about them.” Yeah, we’re free to make light of tragedies by marginalizing minorities and singling out individuals based on their beliefs and their relation to a bombing suspect. Bravo. And that’s the danger in shows like Hannity’s. While, yes, we should be able to make fun of politics and international and national events, there are some things we just shouldn’t say. Some will jump to say that I’m just another left-wing-washed college student, and maybe they’re right, but I would never say something like what Coulter said. Hannity and Coulter’s

conversation is available online, along with the televised broadcast. The entire thing comprises racial profiling, conservative and reactionary jargon and continuous marginalizing speech designed to rally radical conservatives and piss off liberals who masochistically watch the program. At one point in the broadcast Coulter stated, “We’ll take Russia’s radicals, we’ll take the illiterate, low-skilled workers from all these other countries. We’ll take their old people and put them on our supplemental security and Medicare.” Yeah, that’s mostly true, but then she said: “Immigration policy is supposed to be to make your country better, not to make it worse and to create all those problems.” Hannity even said that he’d be willing to waterboard the bombing suspect’s younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Back in 2009, Hannity offered to be waterboarded himself to prove that it’s not a form of torture. He never went through with it. Regardless of whether you identify with the Democratic Party and left-leaning individuals, there’s a reason Stephen Colbert, Bill Maher and other liberal folks aren’t under fire as often. The things they say are satirical. We’ve known this for years. The sad thing is, Coulter said she was “joking”—but given her follow-up commentary and past statements, I just don’t believe her. Fox News and other rightleaning news channels put these commentators on pedestals for a reason: They bring in high ratings because viewers either cheer them on or watch in disgust. I suggest you think twice before laughing off this racist humor. This isn’t OK in any way. Ever.

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OPINiON • TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2013 • VANGUARD

Natalie Maines shakes off the Dixie dust

Arrested again

Welcome back! Everywhere and Here Eva-Jeanette Rawlins

atalie Maines, front woman for country girl group the Dixie Chicks, just released a solo album—and it’s killer. Gone are the fiddles and banjos and perfect reedy harmonies, replaced with a harder, raspier sound. But one thing remains: that unmistakable voice. As usual, she lets her voice loose, only holding back when songs beg for a nuanced melancholy (which is basically every song on the record). It’s a heavy album, weighted perhaps by her last few years of silence. In a matter of days, Maines went from America’s country music darling to one of its most hated citizens, so she might have a thing or two to say about disillusionment. You may remember when, in 2003, Maines criticized the impending Iraq War while performing at a London concert, saying she was ashamed that then-President George W. Bush was from her home state of Texas. She and her bandmates received roars of support from the British audience, but upon returning to America they found they’d been shunned by virtually the entire country music industry, from radio disc jockeys to once-loyal fans. Yes, there were even CD burnings. It was brutal. Maines received death threats, which she referenced in the song “Not Ready to Make Nice”: “How in the world can the words that I said send somebody so over the edge that they’d write me a letter saying that I better shut up and sing or my life will be over?”

Well, one thing was definitely over—Dixie Chicks concerts. They were forced to cancel engagements across the country because of lack of interest. Maines didn’t just criticize “Dubya,” however. She had to go and take on a country god, Toby Keith, after he released the song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue.”

They’d been shunned by virtually the entire country music industry.

Though he arguably put to music what millions of his fans really felt after 9/11, Maines took issue with his dangerously narrow characterization of terrorism. He wrote: “Man, it’s gonna be hell/when you hear Mother Freedom start ringin’ her bell/ it feels like the whole wide world is raining down on you/ brought to you courtesy of the red, white and blue…You’ll be sorry that you messed with the US of A/’cause we’ll put a boot in your ass/It’s the American way.” She called him out in an interview with the Los Angeles Daily News for ignorantly targeting “an entire culture—and not just the bad people who did bad things.” She was right,

but that didn’t matter. People didn’t like it and, as she found out, politics and music don’t play well together. It’s ironic that she vocalized what pretty much everyone 10 years on accepts as common sense. She was a prophet who had the misfortune of being too ahead of her time. Not surprisingly, she took a breather to get away from it all. But now she’s back. Thank goodness. At a time when music a la Bieber, Perry and Beyonce has become more about the spectacle than the art, Maines is a breath of badly needed fresh air. Her covers of Eddie Vedder’s “Without You” and Pink Floyd’s “Mother” are strong interpretations of epic songs, remade with the angst of her masterful vocals. But it’s also just awesome to hear her sing, “Mother, do you think they’ll try to break my balls?” I love the anger in her voice. It’s not overdone, just achingly honest and with a flint-hard edge that says, “I really am so over all that.” She should be. She was bullied into silence for a while, and it’s always inspiring to see victims of ignorance rise above it all and prove that they’re better than anyone’s worst insult. Well, she may not have completely risen above it. The song “Silver Bell” sounds awfully personal, a fact that did not escape a recent Rolling Stone reviewer, who observed, “It sounds a whole heck of a lot like a kiss-off from Maines to her old Bushera foes: ‘How you been? I’m doing well. I hear you’re digging a hole to hell.’” She’s definitely not digging. She’s on her way up, and I have a feeling no one’s going to stop her.

Netflix revives cult-favorite TV show Ms. Fudge’s Sweet Nothings Stephanie Fudge-Bernard

inally, after nearly a decade of longing and a frustrating hiatus, Arrested Development is back— and will be aired in one fell swoop on Netflix. The entire fourth season will hit the Internet on May 26, so get ready for some mayonegg action and meaty leading-man parts to blow your mind. ScreenRant.com indicated that the season will feature a new format that follows a specific character’s disasters throughout each episode and is tailored specifically to be viewed on Netflix. Whether such a structure will make the season a major disappointment or a triumph of awesomeness, the rising fame and decreased availability of the cast necessitated the decision. Actor Michael Cera, who plays the good-hearted burgeoning adolescent George Michael Bluth, has spent the last decade ensconced in theaters as the awkward character you just want to cuddle and pat on the head. Movies like Superbad, in which Cera plays a high school student who gets sucked in disastrous plans, or Juno, in which he plays the good guy who does the right thing despite his horribly tiny yellow shorts, highlighted his rapidly increasing popularity following his short television career on Arrested. Jason Bateman has also graced the silver screen in a variety of easygoing comedies.

Though none live up to the epicness of Arrested, movies like Horrible Bosses and Hit and Run feature characterization that’s similar to his Arrested character, Michael Bluth, and have only increased many fans’ hunger for the show’s return. For everyone who enjoys the wacky humor and the outrageous characters he plays, David Cross’ impressive career strides in the last few years have been a boon. His TV show The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret showcases the unbelievably uncomfortable story of a man who perpetually lies about pretty much everything and somehow manages to destroy everything important in his life. The silly workplace comedy Demoted, in which Cross plays a revenge-seeking boss, is also worth a watch. Then there’s Will Arnett, who plays Gob, (pronounced “jobe”), the oldest son and incompetent magician of the Bluth family. He’s bounced around the movies and all over TV. If you were pleasantly surprised by his presence in Men In Black 3 or his random appearances on shows like The Office and Parks and Recreation, you know Arnett hasn’t slowed down since his time on Arrested. Many fans have especially enjoyed his role in 30 Rock, the conniving and sexually bothered Devon Banks, who struggles with his enemy, Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donaghy, and his obsession with Jack McBrayer’s Kenneth.

Then there are all the actors who have flourished on Archer, an outrageously inappropriate adult cartoon (and a personal favorite) that features murder, intrigue and highly offensive characters. Jessica Walters gives her voice to the matriarch of the inept Archer spy agency, a role similar to Arrested ’s Lucille featuring character traits like raging alcoholism, hatred for offspring and manipulative jerkiness. Jeffrey Tambor, who plays the horrible family patriarch on Arrested, has also enjoyed quite a bit of success following the show. Unsurprisingly, he voices the character of Len Trexler, Walters’ lover on Archer, a military man who is constantly being cuckolded. Tambor has also made a variety of appearances in movies like The Hangover, and provided his voice to shows like Bob’s Burgers. Even Kitty, the obnoxious secretary and breast-flashing deviant on Arrested, has found fame with Archer (once again as a horrible secretary). Her character Cheryl (or sometimes Crystal) makes frequent sexual advances toward co-workers and ruins everyone’s day. Even Mae Whitman, the notorious “her?” character in Arrested, has found fame with movies like The Perks of Being A Wallflower and Scott Pilgrim Versus the World. Whether Arrested Development ’s fourth season turns out to be a blunder is not yet known, the incredible cast has spent the last few years honing their skills as terrible, terrible people. So pop open some juice boxes, ’cause this party is going to be off the hook.

VANGUARD • TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2013 • Opinion

Letters that spell out our future Are schools actually encouraging students to learn? Page by Page Brie Barbee

he grades we receive in school have a profound impact on our future, starting before we enter high school and following us through university. Our grade point average affects the programs we’re eligible for at our current school (extracurricular clubs, sports, et cetera), the schools and graduate programs we can get into later in life and even our continued presence in these programs. We’re constantly reminded of the importance of our GPA and what we can do if we maintain good grades. Yet many students still struggle and end up getting poor grades in their classes, or failing them all together. Does this reflect badly on the student or on the grading system that’s responsible for producing our GPAs? Whether you like it or not, you’re directly responsible for your own future success. Going to class and turning in homework on time is a crucial part of this equation. Your ability to learn the material and do well on assignments and exams will generally determine your grade. However, getting a high GPA isn’t necessarily reflective of how hard you worked or the knowledge that you already possessed about a particular subject. You can know a lot about a topic and still be unable to write an essay on the impact of the French Revolution or remember in which year the Battle of Hastings occurred. Nevertheless, these abilities—writing, critical thinking and memorization—are generally what we’re tested on (since they are some of the only things that are really testable) and are what largely determine the grades we receive. It’s true: Your grades are more reflective of your ability to test well than your general knowledge of a subject. So are schools actually encouraging students to learn, or simply teaching them how to answer exam questions? For many people this question causes some discomfort, because after years of hard work and stress no one wants to admit that the time spent in school wasn’t worthwhile. You want a degree that proves useful and helps you

to secure a successful job and future. Does knowing the year in which the Battle of Hastings was fought really increase your chances of getting a good job? Frankly, it doesn’t. Unless you plan on continuing in education and becoming a teacher or professor or scholar, the exact details of a subject become less important. Rather, it’s the skills that you learned while discussing it that are important. Thinking critically, solving problems, interpreting sources and writing down your thoughts in a clear and concise way are the skills that stay with you even after you’ve finished school and begun looking for a job. While you may be in control of your success, your achievements in school also have a way of shaping your future. Being motivated to do well in school is key, but the ability to follow directions, get high marks and learn the skills required of you by your instructors is more important. This might not seem fair. Some people acquire these skills naturally, barely

working to get good grades, while others struggle, unable to achieve the outcomes that they believe they deserve. It may not seem sensible, but that’s the system that schools have adopted to prepare students for the real world. You may not feel that you deserved a low score on a test or paper, but when you need to use these skills in your job you’ll be happy to be able to properly apply what you’ve learned outside of school. Schools do encourage students to learn, though perhaps not in the traditional sense. Students are encouraged to learn lifelong skills— skills that go beyond the classroom and can be applied to real life. Your GPA may not be a clear representation of your knowledge or reveal whether you can list all of the elements of the periodic table, but it does tell people that you know how to learn. You now know the skills needed to do well in your adult life, and have the awareness to look at your surroundings differently and the ability to continue learning even after you have left school. So what, you never learned that the Battle of Hastings happened in 1066; you now have many practical skills that are useful beyond that one small fact.

Online comments 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. “Faith is not a virtue”: a Q-And-A with Peter Boghossian

Vol. 67, No. 58 Bernie Dehler May 9 I think it is great that this discussion of faith and reason, and how they interact (if at all), is discussed in the community. It is good to have a philosophy professor helping to spark the discussion. The more we talk, the more we learn. If we can discuss these things respectfully, then it is a good sign of a mature society. Daniel Reed Miller May 10 In general I think it is a good idea to get people to deeply question, as Prof. Boghossian does, their unquestioned epistemic assumptions. But he is defining “faith” far too narrowly. Clearly he is a man of faith himself, in the power of pure instrumental Reason and intellect. I have a circumscribed faith in that realm, and a rather larger faith in poetry, of which literal-minded reason can say almost as little as literal-minded religion. Kenner Single (in response to Daniel Reed Miller) May 10 What he has is not faith. It is not faith because there is evidence for it. What he holds to is the observation based epistemology known as the scientific method. There is tons of solid evidence it is the best way we have found yet to arrive at truth. The FACT that smallpox no longer exists in nature is proof. Therefore we do not have FAITH in

science, (fundamentally a way of arriving at truth) we acknowledge the FACT that it works. “Foster-Hernandez ticket wins, new constitution fails”

Vol. 67, No. 58 John May 9 It’s a little late to be looking for solutions after the votes are in…Having 1/4 the turn out from a year ago is bad and they should feel bad. Anthony May 10 By looking for solutions they mean that they are looking to implementing solutions for next year. Boo-hooing the results and turnout will accomplish nothing. Feeling bad will fix nothing. “Kakenya Ntaiya: modern day hero”

Vol. 67, No. 57 Carina May 9 Such an inspiring story! Thank you so much for sharing this story. Female circumcision it’s a topic I have been very interested in reading more about, and this story encouraged me to look more into it. Also, thanks for the input of what Ntaiya teaches us. As any other student I struggle with how my choices will define me, but as you said, every decision I make will be a stepping stone that will create something bigger later in life.

Check out the Vanguard ’s inaugural Geek Guide on newsstands Wednesday, May 15.

miles sanguinetti/VANGUARD STAFf

ETC. ETC. •• Thursday, TUESDAY, MAY Nov.14, 8, 2013 2012 • VANGUARD EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Erick Bengel EDITOR@PSUVANGUARD.COM 503-725-5691

will be competing in the 52nd annual Seghizzi International Competition for Choral Singing, one of the oldest and most prestigious competitions of its kind. The PSU Chamber Choir is the first American choir to be invited to compete in years. Tickets are available at the PSU Box Office or by visiting pdx.edu/boxoffice.

This festival celebrates Indian culture with a number of performances that range from traditional dance, music and skits to food, a DJ and stand-up comedy. Admission is $10 for the general public, $6 for children 12 and under and free for Portland State students with a valid student ID. FREE

’80s Video Dance Attack 8 p.m. Crystal Ballroom 1332 W Burnside St.

Come to the Crystal on a Friday night and dance to favorite hits from the ’80s while music videos are displayed on multiple screens. Eighties attire is encouraged but not required. Admission is $6. 21+

Saturday, May 18

bicycle touring: Before taking off for an adventure into nature or across the country on your bike, attend this workshop to learn what you will need to bring along and how you can appropriately plan. The event will take place Wedenesday, May 15, from noon to 1 p.m. at PSU’s Bike Hub.

Tuesday, May 14

Lesbian Fiction as Historical Fiction: Gender, Nationalism and Sexual Politics in the South Asian Novel 4 p.m. Women’s Resource Center 1802 SW 10th Ave.

Drawing on her recent research, Dr. Sri Nair, an assistant professor in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Portland State, will discuss two Indian novels about lesbian relationships and examine how these particular novels take a turn from sexual desire toward political history as the protagonists become involved in caste systems and religion. FREE

Dick Davis Reading 7 p.m. Smith Memorial Student Union, room 296 1825 SW Broadway

Dick Davis, professor of Persian at Ohio State University, is currently visiting PSU in the Department of World Languages and Literatures and will be at SMSU reading from his own works as well as some of his noted translations of Persian poetry.

7 p.m. Smith Memorial Student Union, room 296 1825 SW Broadway

Presented by the Middle East Studies Center, Caramel is a film about the lives of six women in Lebanon who are seeking love and companionship. Each of their stories is unique, ranging from inspiring to heartbreaking, and all of them highlight the social and culture difficulties the characters must face. FREE

Thursday, May 16

QDoc Queer Documentary Film Festival 8 p.m. McMenamins Bagdad Theater & Pub 3702 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

Opening night of QDoc: the Queer Documentary Film Festival begins at the Bagdad with the film I Am Divine, a documentary about a drag superstar. The festival continues through the weekend, and location and prices vary. For more information, visit queerdocfest.org.

Friday, May 17

FREE

Wednesday, May 15

Grad Student Library Workshop Series: Literature Review Research

Introduction to Bicycle Touring

10 a.m.–noon Millar Library, room 160 1875 SW Park Ave.

Noon–1 p.m. PSU Bike Hub 1818 SW Sixth Ave.

This session is meant for grad students who want to learn some tips and tricks for conducting effective and comprehensive literature review research. Knowledge like this can assist students in preparing a thesis, dissertation or grant proposal.

Bicycle touring can be a great way to get close to nature and improve your stamina at the same time. From overnight camping trips to crosscountry adventures, this workshop will help you learn how to prepare for a bicycle tour by teaching you about the gear you will need and showing you examples of the well-equipped tour bike. RSVP by emailing clint@ FREE pdx.edu.

Middle East Studies Center Film Series: Caramel

FREE

Arrivederci, Portland! 7:30 p.m. St. Stephen’s Catholic Church 1112 SE 41st Ave.

The Portland State Chamber Choir will be holding a benefit concert to help them raise money for their upcoming trip to Italy, where they

1–5 p.m. Academic and Student Rec Center lobby 1800 SW Sixth Ave.

Not sure what you are going to do after graduation? This event can help. You will be able to hear from Portland State alumni who have made it in the real world and gain information about how to find a job, deal with insurance and employee benefits and more. There will be information tables, workshops and a FREE closing reception.

Sanskriti: India Culture Night 2013 5 p.m. Smith Memorial Student Union, third floor ballroom 1825 SW Broadway

Sunday, May 19

Fourth Annual Kenton Street Fair 10 a.m. N Denver Avenue between Schofield Street and Willis Boulevard

The Kenton neighborhood is a historic area of Portland that holds an annual street fair aimed at promoting local growth and a sustainable future. The event will feature retail and food vendors as well as skating lessons and other forms of entertainment that are fun for the whole family. All ages are welcome and admission is free. FREE

Monday, May 20

Bicycle Maintenance 101 Noon–1 p.m. PSU Bike Hub 1818 SW Sixth Ave.

If you are a bike owner or enthusiast, the PSU Bike Hub offers you the chance to learn about the art of maintaining a bicycle. With subjects like proper methods of lubricating your drivetrain, adjusting your brakes and properly maintaining your tires, the Bike Hub will make sure you know how to take care of your bike.

ETC.

Participants are free to bring their own bicycles to learn exactly how FREE they should be cared for.

Tuesday, May 21

Tuesday Night Tango 7 p.m. class, 8 p.m. open dance Bossanova Ballroom 722 E Burnside St.

On Tuesday nights, the Bossanova Ballroom offers you the chance to learn to tango. Bring a partner or come alone for free dance from 8 p.m. to midnight. All skill levels are welcome, including beginners, and a lesson will be offered from 7–8 p.m. for those who would like to learn the steps. Admission is $8 per person. 21+

CHECK US OUT ON THE INTERWEBS psuvanguard.com = on PSU campus FREE = free of charge FREE = open to the public 21+ = 21 and over

VANGUARD •• TUESDAY, TUESDAY, MAY JANUARY 14, 2013 10, 2012 • SPORTS • ETC.

SPORTS

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

Derrick Rose keeps his seat Chicago Bulls star opting out of postseason play Drew Lazzara Vanguard Staff

I have dearly missed Derrick Rose in this year’s NBA playoffs, and I think he should be playing. Rose sat out the entire regular season recovering from an anterior cruciate ligament tear he sustained more than one calendar year ago. He has been medically cleared to return to play for about two months now, and he has been participating in full-contact scrimmages for much of that time. This means that, as far as his doctors are concerned, he is healthy. He is no longer an injured player. From my outside perspective, the reasons for the delay of his return are somewhat murky. Rose has alluded to issues of unresponsive muscle memory and the possibility of other, slighter injuries, but there doesn’t seem to be a direct, easily understood explanation for why he’s not out there at this time. Essentially, he doesn’t feel right, so he’s not playing. And there’s nothing really wrong with that. As a fan of Rose—heck, as a human being—I am concerned for his long-term well-being. I’d love to watch him play for the next 10 years at a high level, and if it takes an entire season (including playoffs) of recovery time to ensure that decade of excellence, it’s more than a fair trade. I’m certain the Chicago Bulls share the same view, as

Returning from injury is not always a simple issue of rest or rehab. Many are questioning Derrick Rose’s continued absence from the Bulls lineup in the 2013 playoffs. do his teammates, which is why they are handling the situation perfectly and showing absolute loyalty to Rose. I suppose no one is more qualified to speak to Derrick Rose’s readiness than Derrick Rose, and it would be morally reprehensible for anybody to place pressure on him to return when he doesn’t feel physically or mentally capable. Really, I admire him for his honesty and his judiciousness, and I respect the outpouring of support from teammates like Joakim Noah. It makes you feel as if Rose might really be the kind of hardworking, passionate, team-first person you suspect he is. The problem is, we don’t actually love him for the kind of person he is. We love him for the kind of player he is. Sure,

being a great guy helps, but it’s secondary in importance to his capabilities on the floor. And lost in the shuffle of whether he can or should return this season is the question of what obligation a player or a franchise has to their fans. Since it’s our money that floats the ship, I think they owe us quite a bit. At the very least, a my-12-month-long-injuryhas-stretched-to-13-monthsa n d- my- do c t o r - s ays-I ’mhealthy-so-I’m-playing level of commitment. We usually reserve this conversation for free agency season, when it usually rears its head in the form of loyalty to a city. Lebron James’ Decision to leave Cleveland is the most famous example, but some form of it plays out almost every year. As fans, we get upset when

this happens; when we listen to our heroes say “this is business.” Not to us—for us it’s hard to understand why the sport doesn’t mean more than money to them. We hardly ever empathize with the athlete in this scenario. Until, of course, a beloved athlete gets injured. Every time we see a player’s career ruined, or at least altered, by a significant injury, we are reminded why they hold out for more money or turn their backs on franchises for greener, more lucrative pastures. When tragedy strikes, particularly if that player is a superstar, we see clearly how rare their talent is, how narrow their window for financial gain. They operate within an absolutely cutthroat occupation, and they have only so much time to take

advantage of their opportunities and secure their futures. Which is what makes Rose’s situation so tricky. To say he “owes” me or any fan anything sounds like the worst kind of sports-talk-radio sentiment, but, really, what exactly is a fan’s position supposed to be? We invest tons of money and emotion into these teams and players; the league and its franchises welcome our investment, encourage it, need it. Yet we have no input whatsoever into the way our favorite teams are run or the decisions they make or how they perform. We spend our money to fund their stadiums and we endure the whims of cheapskate owners, and we root for teams that in some cases never, ever win. Is it really so much to ask that a player

whom doctors say is healed actually plays? Does our allegiance mean that we even have to concede the expectation of player participation? I can understand that Derrick Rose has to think about himself, his family and his future, both professionally and financially. But his talent is not intrinsically valuable; it only has monetary value worth protecting if it’s on display and customers pay for it. If he’s not out there when he’s been cleared to compete, then that talent is totally worthless by this measure. It might be consoling to think that Rose’s caution helps to secure his fans more of him down the road if sports didn’t routinely disavow us of that notion. As Bill Simmons has often pointed out, you never know how long the window for success will stay open in the NBA, even under perfect circumstances. Rose could sit out for three seasons and sleep for 20 hours a day in a barometric chamber. He could replace all his organs and have some kind of DNA renewal procedure that doesn’t even exist yet. He could have his blood doped every day for the rest of his career, and it still wouldn’t guarantee that he will never get injured again. There just are no guarantees, period. Not in sports and not in life. Rose’s team has a chance to win right now. All his fans around the world know for certain is that they have today to watch him play. Forget the promise of 10 more years—there is no promise of tomorrow. What is Rose waiting for? He’s medically capable. His team needs him. The fans need him. And, yes, he owes us.

Dragon Boat Club Race down the river with PSU team Katie Hoyt Vanguard Staff

Dragon boat racing got its start around 2,500 years ago, but it is probably still something of a mystery to many on campus. The concept, however, is simple: Long Taiwanese-style boats, typically carrying teams of 22 people (20 rowers lined up in pairs plus one drummer calling out instructions at the front of the boat and one person at the rear to steer it) race to the finish line ahead of the rest of the field. The sport is highly competitive and requires complete synchronization on the part of the team in order to reach a common goal. The Portland State Dragon Boat Club competes throughout the Northwest in places like Tacoma, Seattle, Olympia

and Salem. The Portland Rose Festival hosts the team’s biggest competition of the year, though. Held in June, the race attracts nearly 100 teams from all over the world for a 500-meter sprint down the Willamette River. Lincoln Mosier, a third-year paddler and team captain, is excited about how the club has been developing and honing their technique. “Dragon boat racing is 60 percent mental and 40 percent physical,” Mosier said. “The most important thing is working as a team to control timing.” Though drums are customarily employed to maintain the team’s tempo on the river, the PSU dragon boat club looks to their coach, Marc Hehlen, for motivation. Hehlen has been involved in dragon boat racing since high school. “[Hehlen is] very good at

communicating and has made our team stronger,” Mosier said. I got a chance to see that communication at work when I went out on the water with the team—it was clear that club members fed off of each other’s encouragement and support, urging one another to go just a little faster each time. New members are also welcomed with open arms, as Yuliyana Kobel found out when she joined the team. “I saw a flier and was looking to get involved somehow,” Kobel said. “I saw it was a good opportunity and I took it. I was nervous about capsizing, but I had support and became more comfortable. It’s also a really good workout.” The cost to join is $100 for a season-long membership. If you would like more information about dragon boat racing at PSU, email dragonbt@pdx.edu.

Riza Liu/VANGUARD STAFf

The need for speed out on the water is satisfied by one of the more unique club sports at PSU.

SPORTS ETC.••TUESDAY, TUESDAY,MAY Nov.14, 6, 2012 2013 • VANGUARD

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Timbers earn draw with FC Dallas Portland’s unbeaten streak continues against top team in major league soccer Matt Deems Vanguard Staff

The Portland Timbers went into FC Dallas Stadium for a meeting with the MLS’ No. 1 team on Wednesday. The teams had matching unbeaten streaks on the line, with both FC Dallas and Portland making it through their last seven games without a loss. Portland’s Frederic Piquionne nearly got his first goal in a Timbers uniform in the 19th minute, gathering a pass from Diego Chara and firing a shot to the right side of the goal that forced the FC Dallas goalkeeper to come through with a diving save. The Timbers defense was critical against such a dangerous team, pushing back against the FC Dallas attack while the offense held possession for 54 percent of the first

half. Neither team was able to gain any headway in the first 45 minutes and the score was tied at 0-0 going into the locker room. With both squads coming out more aggressively in the second half, the Timbers nearly went down 1-0 in the 67th minute. A cross from FC Dallas’ Michel was headed by Blas PerezasTimbersgoalieDonovan Ricketts stood by helplessly, but the header struck the post and bounced away. Portland’s patience was finally rewarded in the 70th minute, when Darlington Nagbe caught a lob pass from Rodney Wallace in FC Dallas’ box and scored on a perfectly timed goal to put the Timbers up 1-0. FC Dallas quickly responded, cashing in on a penalty kick by Kenny Cooper in the

77th minute. Timbers head coach Caleb Porter was fined by the league after publicly condemning the referee’s call in a postgame press conference. In the 81st minute, Portland used its last substitution to bring in a fresh Ryan Johnson to try and score the go-ahead goal. Their efforts were in vain, however, as neither team was able to break the deadlock in the remaining minutes, and the Timbers left town with a draw.

MLS Western Conference standings 1 FC Dallas 2 Portland Timbers 3 Real Salt Lake 4 Colorado Rapids 5 LA Galaxy 6 San Jose Earthquakes 7 Vancouver Whitecaps 8 Seattle Sounders FC 9 Chivas USA

Darlington nagbe came through with a goal late in the second half against FC Dallas on Wednesday.

VANGUARD •TTUESDAY, uesday, Jan. MAY31, 14,2013 2013• •SPORTS SPORTS

Vikings softball squad takes Big Sky Championship