Portland State University

VOLUME6868| |ISSUE ISSUE349 VOLUME 68 | ISSUE 33 | MAY 6, 2014 VOLUME

OCTOBER MAY 13, 2014 8, 2013

College Heroin use on the rise

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OREGON COLLEGIATE NEWSPAPER ONPA

nEWS

OPInIOn

ArtS & CULtUrE

SPOrtS

Biotech business DesignMedix awarded $3 million toward the development of malaria drug. pg. 6

Journalistic integrity in a college setting: The Vanguard responds to The Rearguard’s many problems. pg. 3

Save your quarters for laundry!

Meet game creators at the Victory Condition Arcade. pg.16

The Blazers’ series against the Spurs hasn’t gone well, but this young team will learn from the experience. pg.20

GET THE DEETS IN TWEETS FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @PSUVANGUARD

CONTENT NEWS OPINION COVER ARTS & CULTURE CALENDAR SPORTS EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

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Editorial

The Rearguard disguises itself as the award-winning Vanguard

EDITOR@PSUVANGUARD.COM Whitney Beyer

Sabrina Parys Margo Pecha

It’s comical, yes—but don’t be fooled

MANAGING EDITOR

ADVERTISING MANAGER

MANAGINGEDITOR@PSUVANGUARD.COM Jordan Molnar

JGEKELER@PDX.EDU Jordan Gekeler

editorial staff

NEWS EDITOR

ADVERTISING DESIGNER

NEWS@PSUVANGUARD.COM Coby Hutzler

Michelle Leigh

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Reaz Mahmood

ARTS@PSUVANGUARD.COM Turner Lobey

OPINION EDITOR OPINION@PSUVANGUARD.COM Breana Harris

ADVISER

ADVERTISING ADVISER Ann Roman

DESIGNERS

SPORTS EDITOR

Alan Hernandez-Aguilar, Rachael Bentz, Brendan Mulligan, Christopher Peralta

SPORTS@PSUVANGUARD.COM Jesse Tomaino

WRITERS

PRODUCTION@PSUVANGUARD.COM Sean Bucknam

Karisa Cleary, Ryan Delaureal, Joel Gunderson, Colleen Leary, Alex Moore, Jay Pengelly, Matt Rauch, Jeoffry Ray, Sebastian Richardson, Tobin Shields, Brandon Staley, Stephanie Tshappat, David Wooldridge, Adam Wunische

PHOTO EDITORS

PHOTOGRAPHERS

ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR ASSOCIATENEWS@PSUVANGUARD.COM Ashley Rask

PRODUCTION MANAGER

PHOTO@PSUVANGUARD.COM Miles Sanguinetti Corinna Scott

Jacob Ashley, Alex Hernandez, Jeoffry Ray, Christopher Sohler

COPY CHIEF

ADVERTISING SALES

COPY@PSUVANGUARD.COM Chelsea Lobey

Robin Crowell, Muhsinah Jaddoo, Casey Jin, Vivian Vo

ONLINE EDITOR ONLINE@PSUVANGUARD.COM Jaime Dunkle

The Vanguard is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Publications Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent those of the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. One copy of the Vanguard is provided free of charge to all community members; additional copies or subscription issues may incur a 25 cent charge.

The Vanguard is printed on 40 percent post-consumer recycled paper.

Cover: Designed by Rachael Bentz ©2014 PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY VANGUARD 1825 S.W. BROADWAY SMITH MEMORIAL STUDENT UNION, RM. S-26 PORTLAND, OR 97201

In an unsurprisingly tasteless move, The Rearguard decided to appropriate the Vanguard’s cover style for its latest issue. The Rearguard’s editors justify the move on their Facebook page, stating, “Someone has been throwing out issues of @therearguard and not #thevanguard...[sic] when they’re placed side by side. This has happened twice now. So a disguise is what we needed...[sic] we are going to trick the culprit. If we look like #thevanguard, they won’t know which to throw away right?”

The Rearguard’s editors are quite fortunate that our student publications are housed under the Student Media umbrella. Had this happened in the real world, the Vanguard would have most likely sued The Rearguard for violating its signature style.

Aside from The Rearguard’s blatant trademark violation, we at the Vanguard have some deeper concerns. Oftentimes, distribution racks that house the two publications sit right next to one another around campus. This is troubling to our editorial staff, as we are mortified by the thought of someone mistaking The Rearguard for the Vanguard in passing.

If someone confuses our publications at first glance, they will see a poorly designed rendition of our cover boasting a distasteful photo. This is made worse by the fact that the latest issue of The Rearguard is slated to rot on the shelf for an entire month—or more, depending on whether its organizational members take the initiative to distribute the next one.

Inside The Rearguard’s offending issue, the editors complain about their publication being thrown away before they can distribute it. Somewhat misleadingly, they imply that this is because The Rearguard is the “red-headed stepchild” of Student Media. This assertion absolves the editors from having to take any personal responsibility for their organization’s lack of a formal distribution system.

There have been at least two occasions over this past year in which issues of The Rearguard have sat beneath the sky bridge between Smith Memorial Student Union and Neuberger Hall—where they are dropped off—for weeks completely untouched. Is this the Vanguard’s fault? No, but The Rearguard’s editors appear to make a somewhat defamatory connection between the two in an editorial on page 3 of their latest issue.

“Every month [our issues are] distributed to the same location, but for some reason that’s no longer acceptable and no one thought it pertinent to tell us,” the editorial states. “The Vanguard [sic] is not getting thrown out—even though it is delivered beside us.”

Perhaps now would be a good time for The Rearguard’s editor-in-chief, Amanda Martin-Tully, to take Student Media Coordinator Reaz Mahmood up on his long-standing offer of conducting a workshop about media law and ethics for The Rearguard staff. Having actually participated in such a session, we at the Vanguard know that the consequences of defamation and intellectual property protection are both covered topics.

If the editors of The Rearguard are concerned about issues of their publication being removed from the distribution drop-off location, they should address their concern without bringing the Vanguard into it. The Vanguard’s issues don’t get removed because we have a distributor there to pick them up no more than 10 minutes after they are dropped off.

Your paper can’t be mistaken for trash if you care enough to get it on the newsstands after it prints.

While we understand that multiple structural issues and a lack of funding contribute to The Rearguard’s distribution problems, taking potshots at a fellow Student Media organization to compensate for a lack of commitment on behalf of The Rearguard staff seems to us a gross misuse of student fee money.

What is perhaps most remarkable about this is that it comes at a time when the very existence of The Rearguard as a student publication is in jeopardy. According to the publication’s mission statement, The Rearguard exists “to provide a voice for the unrecognized, oppressed, and marginalized.” We at the Vanguard find this comical when paired with the slogan plastered across the cover of this month’s issue: “Your monthly source for ridiculous nonsense.” It gets even better when you look inside.

On page 3, The Rearguard receives an endorsement from Jon Mandaville, a professor emeritus of history at Portland State. In his endorsement, Mandaville credits The Rearguard with “[keeping] the record straight.” This month’s 16-page issue of The Rearguard features stories about Priuses, Voodoo Doughnuts, and a wine and beer festival—a far cry from the marginalized voices it claims to speak for.

We at the Vanguard wonder how Mandaville feels about his endorsement showing up in an issue that boasts writer biographies as its only “news” for the month. Unless, of course, the photo collage under the heading “RIP in peace [sic] our fallen comrade, Food For Thought” is intended to be news as well.

Over this past year, we have yet to see The Rearguard make any fruitful efforts to take itself seriously or live up to its mission statement. At some point we feel they must take responsibility for the poor quality of their publication and disappointing use of student fee dollars. Rather than complain about all the hoops they have to jump through to produce their publication, the editors should acknowledge that this is the same bureaucracy all Student Media organizations must navigate in order to serve their audiences.

The Vanguard prints a 24- to 32-page issue weekly, and inside we cover legitimate news events pertaining to the PSU community. On Friday, the Vanguard’s efforts were acknowledged at the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association’s 2014 Collegiate Newspaper Contest, where we were the proud recipients of 19 awards, including first place for general excellence.

We get that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but The Rearguard’s poor attempt to copy the Vanguard falls short of what we would recommend. If The Rearguard editors want to take a page out of the Vanguard’s book, we’d encourage them to imitate our journalistic integrity. After all, that’s what made us first in state this year.

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

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NEWS

ASPSU campaigns kick off with presidential debate

Sam Matz, Phoenix Singer, Marcus Sis, Erica Fuller, Rayleen McMillan AND Eric Knoll (left to right) participated in the debate as presidential and vice presidential candidates.

MILES SANGUINETTI/PSU VANGUARD

Colleen Leary

Thursday marked the first debate for candidates vying for student government positions at Portland State.

This was the first of three debates taking place before voting opens on Friday. The debate, for presidential and vice presidential candidates, followed a formal debate format, with candidates spending two hours fielding questions posed by a Student Media panel, as well as an-

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swering student submissions.

The panel consisted of representatives from the Portland Spectrum, the Vanguard and KPSU. The debate featured candidates from the three slates, or platforms, registered for the upcoming election: Take Back PSU! with Eric Noll and Rayleen McMillan; Community Rising, with Phoenix Singer and Sam Matz; and Students for a Better Tomorrow, Today, with Marcus Sis and Erica Fuller.

Questions in the debate dealt with the prioritization of academics, strategies to involve and engage nontraditional students, improving student government relationships with PSU administration, campus safety and Associated Students of PSU accountability.

The debate was mostly friendly and highlighted common positions between the three teams.

All three slates have presented platforms that address current PSU issues of

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

campus safety, sexual assault, tuition affordability and student involvement.

“We all agree on these issues, the question is how we get it done and what do we prioritize,” said Sis in his closing statement.

While many of these main points are similar, differences do exist in certain avenues.

For instance, Students for a Better Tomorrow, Today and Community Rising both take clear stances against the arming and deputization of PSU’s Campus Public Safety Officers.

“This has measurable negative outcomes for the student community,” Matz said. “As advocates for our communities, we are strongly against it.”

Take Back PSU! does not mirror this position, which Sis highlighted in his closing remarks.

“Most of us agree on these common issues—except deputization of CPSO. That was a surprise to me,” Sis said.

The Take Back PSU! strategy report states, “We do not have (and will not take) a stance on CPSO deputization until the student body, as a whole, has a clear opinion on the matter.”

“When we see a divided body, how are we supposed to pick?

Which half are we supposed to choose as representatives? We need to let the students decide first,” Noll said.

When responding to a student question about opening ASPSU senate meetings to the public, both Matz and Sis were

critical of ASPSU’s track record regarding student inclusion.

Matz relayed an experience he had at a meeting of ASPSU’s executive committee, where he had been invited to speak. “[When] I was actually able to speak, I was treated begrudgingly,” Matz said. “As a community member who tried presenting to ASPSU, I think ASPSU needs to step it up.”

“Even if you do get the opportunity to speak, you feel like they have some better things to do,” Sis added. “I spoke to a student after President Wiewel presented at the [April 21] senate meeting who was waiting around for over a half hour to ask a question to [Wiewel].

“They weren’t allowed to because student leaders thought that their questions were more important.”

This view was not universal.

“Nobody on this slate thinks student leader voices are more important than students,” said McMillan, ASPSU’s current director of university affairs. “That was really disheartening.

[Noll] did his best to make substantial changes to the way senate runs when he became chair. It was tough to hear that.”

“When we talk about student apathy and student engagement, it’s important to share our process with students,” Noll added. “Most students don’t know how to get on our agenda.

“Points of access for student involvement are absolutely key to getting students involved.”

Campus safety and addressing sexual assault were expressed as a priority for all three platforms. “Sexual assault on campus has been a problem at PSU for years,” Fuller said.

“Sexual assault is not just a women’s issue,” McMillan added. “Students can be trained to identify and recognize sexual assault. It will empower and engage students to recognize this as it’s happening and attack the rape culture that’s much bigger than this university.”

Singer pointed out that ending sexual assault is a major platform point in this election for Community Rising. “We think the actual policies that administration has in place are not effective. We should have mandatory orientations for all students. There’s all sorts of levels of sexual assault,” Singer said.

Candidates running for ASPSU senate and Student Fee Committee positions will participate in a debate today at 3:3o p.m. in Smith Memorial Student Union, Parkway North. A town hall debate will be held in the Multicultural Center on Thursday. Debaters will field questions from the same media panel and student submissions via Twitter using #aspsuelections.

NEWS

Rearguard/Spectrum merger discussed Jay Pengelly

A two-day forum was recently held by Portland State student media, and the topic on everyone’s mind was a proposed merger between two publications, The Rearguard and the Portland Spectrum (previously known as the Portland Spectator). The two monthly publications have dealt with staffing issues and poor availability of content this year.

Jake Stein, editor-in-chief of the Spectrum, admits that he and his staff felt apprehensive prior to the forum.

“Yeah, I would say we were definitely nervous,” Stein said. “It was mainly the fear we wouldn’t have people to fill positions. Now we’re giving ourselves more time, broadcasting that these positions are open. We’re a lot more optimistic now.”

“I saw, I guess, the practical side of having two small publications merge into having a bigger pool of resources, writer [and] editor-wise,” said Amanda Martin-Tully, editor-in-chief of The Rearguard. “But I think it would be a shame to lose the distinct personalities that each paper has.”

With near unanimous forum support, the two publications will remain separate for the time being. The merger discussion will be tabled and efforts will go toward improving the problems each paper has faced.

Reaz Mahmood, coordinator of student media, spearheaded the forums and explained the outcome. “[They’re] not going to merge in the near future,” he said. “It’s something we could revisit again next year if there are problems that continue

like they did this year. It just depends on, do we have enough students to run each of the organizations?”

The Rearguard, which operates with a three-person staff, was only able to produce one issue during winter term for distribution. Two other issues were printed and delivered, but disappeared.

The cause is unknown, but currently believed to be the result of a miscommunication between the Vanguard and university facilities.

“We don’t know why this has just started, but we’re going to fix it,” Martin-Tully said.

Also, one of the four outdoor, all-weather boxes where The Rearguard stores papers was stolen earlier this year.

For The Rearguard and the Spectrum, distribution falls on editors, and sometimes writers, to deliver their papers around campus. One solution student media is looking at is combining the distribution for the Vanguard, Spectrum and The Rearguard.

Another issue which both publications have faced this year is finding enough student writers to provide content.

“If you have publications funded, that’s one thing, but we just need human beings who are willing to run them,” Mahmood said. “It’s been a struggle for all the news publications this year to some degree.”

For the Spectrum, issues revolved around finding certain student perspectives, because while they were the Portland Spectator, their mission stated that they were a conservative publication. However, Stein said that the PSU student body seems to lack conservative writers who wish to have

CHRISTOPHER SOHLER/PSU VANGUARD

their work published.

“They only got one conservative submission this whole year,” Mahmood said. “That’s unsustainable. So they themselves just decided to evolve.”

This evolution called for a new mission statement and change in publication name, which was approved by PSU’s Student Media Board on April 21.

“We’re not labeled conservative, but we accept conservative opinions,” Stein said.

“We accept the whole spectrum of opinions.”

Looking to the future, Mahmood, in his first year as coordinator, hopes to bring more consistency and

exposure for PSU’s news publications.

“Based on my observations this year, I think we could have improved outreach, improved marketing, greater visibility of student media throughout campus,” Mahmood said.

“We need to certainly develop online presence in different ways. If students can’t consistently expect a publication, that’s a problem.”

Both The Rearguard and Spectrum pride themselves on being the university’s alternative news outlets. They provide a “voice for the voiceless” as well as stories which would likely not appear in a more traditional publication.

Martin-Tully finds that opportunities for offbeat writing are becoming more difficult to find.

“I think the emotion has been lost in modern journalism in the age of technology and 144 characters. It’s really hard to get that feeling and that personalization.

We want to bring that back,” she said.

After the forums, both publications were relieved that no merge was imminent.

However, they were held as a chance to gather student feedback and make everyone aware that while no change is happening now, it’s been considered a viable option.

“I think some people had a misperception about the forums, where the perception was, is there some decision coming right away or is there an attempt to basically finish off The Rearguard or something. And that’s not true at all,” Mahmood said.

“My two goals were student expression and sustainability, and how can we do that. I’ll do everything I can to support them, we just have to have some way to keep them going. Otherwise, if both of them exist and there just aren’t enough students, that’s where we have to try and figure out what solutions are there.”

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

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NEWS

Biotech business awarded $3 million for development of malaria drug Karisa Cleary

DesignMedix, a biotech business in Portland State’s Business Accelerator building, co-founded by chemistry professor David Peyton, has just won its fifth small business grant for $3 million from the National Institutes of Health toward the development of a malaria cure drug, DM1157.

Malaria, a parasitic infection, is considered an unsolved problem worldwide, and many other cure drugs have run into the issue of resistance. This specific drug is being tailored to stand strong against resistance. Although DM1157 could eventually fall victim to drug resistance like the others, so far in simulated tests, it shows signs that it stands up to development of drug resistance much longer.

“Our drug is very good at working even with malaria parasite strains that are resistant to other drugs—it’s able to kill the parasite,” said Sandra Shotwell, president and COO of DesignMedix.

“Some of our collaborators in Uganda and Indonesia have taken blood samples on dozens of patients, and it works on all of those patient’s infections, so we’re very excited.”

DesignMedix, which began with Peyton, Shotwell and current CEO Lynn Stevenson, is part of the Business Accelerator’s biotech start-up companies. The Business Accelerator is a hub for 30-plus start-up companies in bio-

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tech, cleantech and technology located in Portland.

As a part of the Business Accelerator, DesignMedix was able to acquire patent licensing in 2008 for DM1157 from PSU, along with other support, including grants.

DesignMedix also hired four PSU students—both undergraduates and graduates studying chemistry—to work on different aspects of the drug.

“Over the past several years [student help has] been the major effort in my lab,” Peyton said. “I make it my goal in life [to] be surrounded with people who are better and smarter people than I am.

I’ve got some fantastic people who have contributed in many, many ways, and their names are on publications, their names are on patents.”

With this most recent grant, the team will be able to complete the final steps before testing the drug on human subjects.

“We can’t use this money to go into human trials, but we’re hoping to get through all of the steps to get up to that point,” Peyton said, “which includes all of the preclinical testing, the characterization of safety of the drug, distribution of the drug through models that predict how it will go through a human and how long it will last in a human, and all of the paperwork one has to generate.”

All of the steps listed by Peyton must be completed within three years. Thus far, the drug has been tested in the PSU chemistry department in both human blood and animals.

“We do the discovery work and make different molecule structures, then we test them in human blood that is infected with malaria or in animals to see if it will cure the disease,” Shotwell said. “Many of those studies are actually done by our partners in the chemistry department at PSU.” Other testing, possibly including the future of human testing, is done at separate, collaborative labs both inside and outside of the United States.

The significance of malaria, according to Peyton and Shotwell, is that it is a greater epidemic than expected.

“Worldwide there are over 200 million cases of malaria every year, and over 600,000 deaths, and the sad part is most of those are in very young children in Africa, so it is a major global health issue,” Shotwell said.

Peyton said that the awareness surrounding malaria has risen substantially from when he first got involved.

“I realized what an unsolved, wide problem this is,” Peyton said. “Back in the mid1990s it was much darker days for malaria—it was an increasing problem with a lot less public awareness.”

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

David Peyton, Ph.D., and Sandra L. Shotwell, Ph.D., president and COO of DesignMedix.

Christopher Sohler/PSU VANGUARD

NEWS

The Tatoosh School nears 190k fundraising goal Adam Wunische

A significant milestone has been reached for a Portland State nonprofit partner, the Tatoosh School in Southeast Alaska.

An original fundraising challenge to raise $50,000 was exceeded by raising over $128,000 in direct and inkind support. The goal is to reach $190,000.

Founded in 2011, the Tatoosh School is a nonprofit, university-level field school with seasonal offices in Portland and classrooms in the towns, oceans and forests of Alaska’s Inside Passage. The school offers three- and sixweek courses over the summer where students can earn up to 12 credits—six with an emphasis on natural resource policy and six with a focus on ecology.

Students choose to go to the Tatoosh School for various reasons. When asked about her reason for attending, 2013 program alumna Lidia Johnson said, “I was frustrated with the selection of internships offered for my environmental studies major through the University of Oregon, and when I saw the Tatoosh School’s flier, I knew that the school was exactly what I was looking for.”

“You and everybody else want a job,” said Peter Chaillé, the executive director of the school, regarding college graduates entering the job market. “Young people need marketable skills and experience to launch their careers. This program gives you that in a unique way, unlike anything you can get here on campus.”

Erin Steinkruger, Tatoosh School programs manager, describes the experience as “abroad without being abroad.”

The Tatoosh School’s classroom is the third-largest island in the U.S., known as Prince of Wales Island.

Students receive owner-led tours of the largest—and some of the smallest—mills in Alaska, and monitor river restoration projects, among many other activities and lessons. Students are told they can expect to paddle anywhere between 150–200 miles in and around the island, and graduates will be experts in sea kayaking.

Chaillé said the program works with politicians, mill owners and conservationists, and that the school is also looking to leverage its partnerships with various organizations to enhance its students’ experiences.

One of these partnerships is with the U.S. Forest Service, which allows students to conduct field research in watershed restoration monitoring on priority watersheds of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.

“I believe that hands-on learning is the most effective, and seeing and experiencing what we were learning enhanced the academics,” said Louis Lin, an alumnus from the program. “Our learning was beyond the classroom, and our classroom was incredible.”

The school also just received $50,000 to begin their Grow Campaign which, according to a press release, “[is] dedicated to further develop new course offerings, increase scholarship support for students…and to help with the acquisition of a very special piece of property that is being purchased on Prince of Wales Island, in the heart of the School’s course area, to be used as a base-camp for field research expeditions.”

Chaillé said that the campaign “is less about buying property [for the school], and all about building capacity.” In 2013, the Tatoosh School handed out almost $20,000 in scholarships, known as Bridger Scholars, and much of the money goes to keeping costs lower for students.

Other goals of the Grow Campaign include two more short-course programs in 2015, a 2016 launch of spring term programs and support for up to 20 Bridger Scholars in 2014 and 2015.

“I believe it is necessary for the sake of learning to get out into the world and get one’s hands dirty,” Johnson said. “I know classroom work is important, but the Tatoosh School is really what I want my education to be like.”

Program alumni Lidia Johnson and Trent Doyle, Tatoosh executive director Peter Chaillé, program alumni Louis Lin and Kristen Walz (left to right) kayak around Prince Wales Island.

Courtesy of Tatoosh School

CRIME BLOTTER

Week of May 5-12

Stephanie Tshappat

MAY 6 Arrest

Shattuck Hall, west side Officer Denae Murphy contacted non-student Justin Gaylor, as he appeared to be unwell, and was rocking back and forth and laying his head in his lap. Gaylor had several outstanding warrants, one felony and two misdemeanors.

Upon recontacting Gaylor at Southwest Tenth Avenue and Hall Street, Officer Murphy placed Gaylor under arrest on said warrants and issued him a PSU exclusion. Gaylor

ing and yelling while entering the parking lot.

When contacted, Pond balled his fist at Sergeant Anderson. Additional officers responded and Pond was taken into custody.

Pond had a current exclusion and was charged with criminal trespass II and disorderly conduct and lodged at Multnomah County Detention Center.

Pond screamed gibberish throughout the arrest and Arrest had feces in his shoes, acArt Building parking lot At 10:38 p.m. Sergeant cording to the jail staff.

Michael Anderson contacted non-student David Pond, who was screamwas lodged at Multnomah County Detention Center.

Later, Officer Ward discovered a backpack in the area where Gaylor was initially contacted. The backpack contained burglar tools, a GPS and car stereo unit, and paperwork with Gaylor’s name on it. The backpack was logged in the property room. No further information available.

MAY 7 EXCLUSION

Smith Memorial Student Union, basement At 8:31 p.m., Officer Brenton Chose found non-student Nathan Quackenbush hiding underneath a table in the Meditation Lounge.

Quackenbush had trash and dirty clothes underneath the table with him, gave false information and lied about being a student. After careful investigation his true identity was revealed, and he was issued a PSU exclusion.

Read the full crime blotter online at psuvanguard.com

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

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OPINION

Pay it forward alternative falls short Against the Current

by Sebastian Richardson Many eyes have been on Oregon recently since our legislature passed a bill that could ultimately redefine how students pay for higher education and could eliminate the crippling debt students face post-graduation.

The Pay It Forward solution, initially proposed by the Student Debt Advocacy and Policy Capstone here at Portland State and spearheaded by the Oregon Working Families party, offers students access to higher education without the crippling debt that usually follows.

In a nutshell, Pay It Forward would allow students to attend a college and pay no tuition up front. Rather than taking out loans, they would agree to pay a small percentage of their income—either 1.5 percent for community college or 3 percent for a four-year institution—for a period of 20 years, thus paying it forward and helping to create a stable revenue stream for future generations.

This program is not a loan but rather a social insurance program. It would allow students to go to school debt-free, without interest, and their rates would never change. It’s similar to a payroll deduction, which is how we pay for Social Security.

Twenty-six states have already introduced their own versions of the Pay It Forward legislation. While the idea is gaining momentum and popularity, some politicians have proposed certain alternatives which are counter-intuitive and ineffective.

One particular alternative, the Investing in Student Success Act, was introduced by Congressman Marco Rubio at the federal level. While it resembles the basic idea of Pay It Forward, his proposal completely undermines the purpose of the bill in favor of some sort of modern capitalist indentured servitude.

BRENDAN MULLIGAN/PSU VANGUARD

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Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

Rather than creating a revenue stream for higher education that is paid for by graduating students and that subsidizes the education of future students, Congressman Rubio flips the idea around to promote a “free enterprise system” in which individuals and organizations pay for education and are then paid back through a certain percentage of the student’s income.

While some critics attack Pay It Forward by claiming that it does nothing to address the cost of education and would diminish the middle class’s ability to put pressure on politicians and colleges to keep costs down, Rubio’s alternative does not seek to address any of these problems. Instead, it blatantly takes the power from the middle class and puts it in the hands of businesses and the wealthy upper class.

Rubio’s alternative does more to corrupt the very fabric of the education system than to reform it. Investing in a person’s education would cease being about a collective effort to educate our citizens and would instead become a profiteering game played by the highest bidders. Rather than having the opportunity to pay for college yourself after completing school, you would feel indebted to some business or individual who graciously bestowed upon you the means to get an education.

This does not create investors who seek to help those who are less fortunate—it creates benevolent benefactors to whom you must pay for the opportunity to attend school.

The brainchild for this idea is Milton Friedman, who proposed something similar in 1954. He described a system which would fund education by allowing students to sell themselves as “stock.” Students would then give a share of their future earnings to those who had invested in their education.

While I would hesitate to completely dismiss the prospect of Friedman’s idea, Rubio’s initiative lacks detailed information regarding who exactly would fund your education, making you dependent on an ambiguous investor. If something like this took shape, where a business agreed to pay for school in exchange for future employment with the company, I would be more open to such an idea. That would resemble the Boren scholarship which pays for study abroad opportunities in exchange for a period of employment with the U.S. government.

Another dark aspect of Rubio’s alternative is how much higher his rates and caps are when it comes to paying for school. The proposed rate under Pay It Forward is between 1.5–3 percent of your income, while Rubio’s plan caps at 15 percent. Also, the length of the contract can be as high as 30 years in comparison to Pay It Forward’s 20 years.

All in all, Rubio’s alternative does nothing to further the access of education but rather indirectly makes students indebted to a company or a person. Furthermore, caps and contract lengths that are unrealistic and prolong the length of time needed to pay for school could greatly hurt a person’s livelihood.

While I am happy with the steps Oregon is taking to help promote and encourage people to attend college loan and debtfree, I am disappointed by the alternatives proposed. While we do have an issue of student debt that needs to be addressed federally, putting the future of our students into the hands of free market enterprises is definitely not the way to go.

OPINION

Don’t get exercise by jumping to conclusions Why it pays to talk to strangers

CORINNA SCOTT/PSU VANGUARD

Simply Complicated

by David Wooldridge

I had a 45-minute conversation with a stranger yesterday. I didn’t want to do it. He asked me about what I was listening to on my headphones. I gathered myself and told him that I was listening to death metal. Truth.

I didn’t know that what I was listening to on my headphones would launch into an amazing back-and-forth about an amazing depth of topics. We talked about how music affects us internally and thus externally. Then we talked about how the external feelings you put out via body language can affect whether or not people will indeed talk or interact with you. From there, we went into the preconceived notions that people carry with them as a contributing factor to whether or not an interaction will be

successful or if others will brush you off because of a feeling of superiority or inferiority.

We talked about talking. That moment was very meta. Then the conversation turned to the way that society functions, with some profound knowledge about the notion of time and work.

It was such a big moment, but I will attempt to explain. Assume that time is money. We earn money in exchange for time.

Assume that one has a method with which to exchange time for money, like a job. If one is not exchanging time for money at any given moment in that model, then one is effectively spending money (net profit loss) to gain time. In essence, time equals money is fully a math expression, therefore the sides must balance. When we use our time for what we want besides making money, we are actually buying it back.

This concept, elucidated by my new acquaintance, prompted me to think about how the only resource we innately have is time. We use our time to gain other resources, be it knowledge, skill, money, social capital, enlightenment or peace. I had never thought that talking to a stranger with honest eyes would be a way to spend my time and feel it was not wasted.

I don’t like the idea of talking to people. I enjoy it quite well when I am in the middle of a good conversation, but at any given moment in time, I don’t find myself thinking that I need to talk to someone. As stuck-up and arrogant as it sounds, I never really think of other people as having much that is actually relevant to say. Weather, entertainment, vicarious gossip,

complaints, emotional manipulation—there just isn’t anything that the average person talks about during the day that really matters in the grand scheme of things.

Then if you want to genuinely talk about something that you are enthusiastic about, it has to be done ironically or under the protection of the nerd kingdom. So one gets the feeling that one cannot talk about anything that really matters to anyone except those with whom one is super close—at least not without putting excessive expectations on other people, hoping that they will be able to say something of value.

But then you forget that other people might feel that they can’t realistically say anything important either. “It’s not like anyone could do anything about it.” “Other people can’t handle my thought.” “No one wants to talk about anything that might make them sad.” “They wouldn’t even share in the joy of a new realization.” “What’s the point?”

It’s easy to forget that when someone is interacting with you, it is not just the person in front of you that is talking to you.

You are also talking to the person they were in the past, along with every experience that person takes with them day to day and all the expectations that this other person has ever placed on themselves, others and society. It’s more than that even, because while we know that no two people will experience the same thing in exactly the same way, we have to assume, due to our own limitations, that others encounter things like we do.

So then when I talk to someone, I am interacting with their self-image, their support system, their mindset, their emotions, their reason, their passions, their bodily condition and their projections on the world.

It must be this way because I do the same thing. That being the case then, it is my job to be courteous to others and respect their carry-alongs. This necessarily means that I am going to step all over people’s equilibrium and make them feel all sorts of things they might not want to feel, even by accident, because communication doesn’t always happen smoothly, to say the least. The logical conclusion, if one doesn’t want to harm other people, would be to keep to one’s self the real existential, societal, spiritual realizations that one is working through or has even fully realized and instead stick to more mundane things.

But then someone will talk to you, completely off-guard and earnestly, and shatter your conclusions about the ethics of non-interaction, appearance and the idea that no one has anything of value to say.

I’ve spent so much of my time brushing people off and giving the two-word “for sure,” thinking that I had nothing to contribute, that other people had nothing I could learn from them and that there was little value in talk. I’ve grown good at it. It’s my default setting, and it’s super easy to justify with all the forced interaction we are bombarded with. But if I gained something real from a conversation with a stranger, then maybe a stranger could get something real from me too. That might be worth the extra effort and mutual discomfort. I hope that any future interlocutors will agree.

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

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OPINION

Living in the Whole Foods era The Front Row

by Breana Harris I have only ever shopped at Whole Foods on Thanksgiving, and that’s because it’s one of the only places that stays open.

The fact that I don’t shop there regularly is not a political statement. I’m just poor.

You don’t have to frequent the business often to be familiar with the well-lit, warm and inviting atmosphere and beautifully-presented food selection. Whole Foods began as a modest operation out of Austin, Texas in 1980 and now operates 365 locations in the U.S., with plans to expand that number to 500 by 2017.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the seven Oregon stores are all within the greater Portland area. There are plenty of rich, white NPR listeners in ugly sandals who feel comfortable in a Whole Foods despite living in a place with a plethora of options for organic food and viable alternatives to the local Safeway. That’s how it works, right? No matter how many local coffeehouses there are in the Northwest, most people will still drink Starbucks.

Last year, writer and filmmaker Flavio Rizzo wrote a brilliant piece for Warscapes literary magazine entitled “Shipwrecked at Whole Foods,” which equates shopping at the store with a new kind of “American whiteness” because we can equate buying these foods with a kind of pseudo-political awareness.

In fact, Whole Foods actually contributes to the disparities between the rich and poor both locally and internationally.

Rizzo cites the popularity of quinoa, which has led to farming practices that endanger the environment in Bolivia. It has also driven the price of that grain so high that poor people in Peru and Bolivia can’t afford it. While elite Americans have decided quinoa is trendy, poor kids in South America are headed for the McDonald’s.

“How can super expensive foods that look like an invention of Edward Weston’s camera—that the majority of the world cannot afford, or would laugh about—be synonymous with social responsibility? This is truly a modern enigma,” Rizzo says.

While I am sure there are plenty of experts on this kind of thing who would know more than I do, I can claim to know a little about Whole Foods as a business because I was commissioned to write a piece on the history of the company for a writing gig last year. CEO John Mackey has spouted some controversial beliefs, including the denial of climate change and the comparison of ObamaCare to fascism, and would probably contrast deeply with his average customer.

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CHRISTOPHER SOHLER/PSU VANGUARD

He’s not really concerned with social or political awareness, he is just a shrewd businessman. Whole Foods was founded as an alternative food resource, but it grows because of brilliant niche marketing. Customers are supposed to feel better, smarter, richer, healthier and more educated by shopping there. Their business appealed to a certain elite segment of the population that wasn’t being reached before.

They don’t want to appeal to everyone. Some of us have to be the peasants.

Many business analysts have pointed out that as the larger population becomes more aware of healthy food alternatives, Whole Foods may have a problem monopolizing. There are local grocery stores here in Portland to contend with, and there are more organic and vegan sections popping up at traditional grocery stores too. In Southern California, we even have Gelson’s, which looks exactly like Whole Foods. One super-shiny destination for celebrities to buy brie is just not enough.

In reality, the modern enigma that Rizzo speaks about is in no way limited to the food we buy. Last month, Bloomberg profiled online retailers like Zady and Everlane who specifically claim to cater to the “Whole Foods set” by providing locally made garments to encourage larger brands to stop using unethical overseas factories.

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

The message is great, but there’s no denying that the clickable factory pictures and statistics you find on some of these retailers’ sites are designed to get you to pay $40 for a T-shirt.

The Whole Foods set will do that because they get to feel better about themselves and they get a snazzy T-shirt. And they can afford it.

So many of these problems are too complicated for most of us to wrap our heads around. The urge to feel that you are doing something worthwhile is understandable. And I don’t think the goal of being a successful business precludes a company from doing positive things.

The success of Whole Foods has paved the way for more alternative food stores, and while their brand might not be as elite as it once was, the results are better for America. If online retailers make a difference in how clothes are made and distributed, that will be great, even if it means the pioneers can no longer charge those niche prices.

I think you should shop at Whole Foods if you want to. If I had disposable income, I probably would go there all the time to buy Numi Tea and pretend I’m best friends with Amanda Seyfried. You just have to recognize that elitism is different than slacktivism, and that the ultimate goal is for peasants to get a piece of the gluten-free pie, too.

Vanguard editorial staff endorses Take Back PSU! slate for ASPSU elections

OPINION

editorial staff

Campaigning for student government elections began early last week, and so far we at the Vanguard have reasons to believe that this year will lend itself to a much more eventful race than that of last year.

In an attempt to come back from the previous election’s embarrassing voter turnout, current members of the Associated Students of Portland State University have demonstrated a marked improvement in increasing awareness of student elections. Last year, a disappointing total of 569 students participated in the vote.

PSU students are presented with three slates to choose from, each of which boasts notable strengths and a commitment to serving the campus community. While we would not be disappointed to see any of the three slates take office—particularly Marcus Sis and Erica Fuller of the Students For A Better Tomorrow, Today slate—there is one slate in particular that stands out above the rest.

Eric Noll and Rayleen McMillan of the Take Back PSU! slate boast an impressive list of concrete accomplishments in their bid for president and vice president, respectively. Together they would bring a combined five years worth of student government experience in the state of Oregon.

As current members of ASPSU, Noll and McMillan are well equipped to navigate the inner workings of student government. One of the pair’s greatest assets lies in their complementary experience organizing at both the state level and here on campus.

This year, Noll served as ASPSU’s legislative affairs director and chair of the Oregon Student Association.

McMillan filled the post of

university affairs director and played a prominent role in advocating for shared governance and equitable pay for PSU professors during contentious contract negotiations between PSU’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors and the administration.

Beyond experience, Take Back PSU! is organized. They have built a comprehensive platform around the notion that students deserve to have more of a say in the future of their university. According to the slate’s website, takebackpsu.org, “Students pay more than 75 percent of this university’s budget through tuition, but we don’t have 75 percent of the say in what happens at PSU.” On Thursday, ASPSU held its annual presidential/vice presidential debate. While the candidates from all three slates performed notably well, Noll and McMillan left a far more memorable impression. All of the candidates seem to agree on the majority of issues discussed, but Noll and McMillan had a way of responding to the questions that makes us think they have what it takes to follow through on their campaign promises.

According to Noll’s candidate profile on ASPSU’s website, the three pillars of the Take Back PSU! campaign are: “1) provide students meaningful access to a quality education, 2) make visible progress toward a safer campus, and 3) develop authentic student involvement in campus governance.” For a detailed account of how Noll and McMillan plan to bring these goals to fruition, visit their website at takebackpsu.org.

Throughout our past year of ASPSU coverage, Vanguard staff members have not been disappointed by attempts

to reach out to Noll and McMillan during the reporting process. Both candidates have prioritized transparency in their interactions with Student Media, which is something that cannot be said for all current members of ASPSU. Beyond transparency, we at the Vanguard are impressed by what we’ve seen Noll and McMillan accomplish this year. The Vanguard is fully confident in its endorsement of the Take Back PSU! candidates, and as a staff we look forward to seeing more students casting ballots in this year’s election.

Voting for ASPSU elections opens Friday at 7 a.m. and will close on May 23 at 7 p.m.

To vote, visit http://elections. aspsu.pdx.edu

©TYLER SPENCER

More local food options needed on campus Letter to the editor Laura Grieser A Google search on “Portland State food sustainability” will generate over two million search responses, including projects, institutes, solution generators and more.

Yet our campus food system is far from sustainable. And in a city that prides itself on a foodie-centric culture and innovative solutions, PSU ought to not only keep up with the Jones’, but get ahead.

There’s a community garden on campus, yet the produce doesn’t go toward the food that’s served in our dining halls.

It serves as a wonderful way to teach and enable the 40 students granted plots to grow their own food, but what about the other 25,000 students? Where’s their opportunity to access fresh, local, healthy food while on campus?

The Viking Food Court serves pizza, pasta, soups, salads, bagels and coffee not from local businesses and farmers but instead from national chains and non-sustainable

sources. Placing an emphasis on recyclable plastic ware, composting, and serving beef, milk and eggs from Oregon farms is a step in the right direction, but it won’t get us the whole way.

The University of Montana’s Farm to College program ensures that at least 15 percent of campus food comes from vendors around the state. Stanford University purchases at least 40 percent of their campus food from local and organic sources. Who’s to say that PSU, given its proximity to an abundance of farmland, can’t meet or beat these same numbers?

The city of Portland prides itself on being a leader in innovation and sustainability, and as the city’s biggest university, it’s time that PSU harnesses its resources and takes a giant leap forward in promoting progressive change with a national model for a sustainable on-campus food system.

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

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COVER

College heroin use on the rise Stephanie Tshappat

During the first month of spring quarter, two severe instances of heroin use by students on campus occurred in the Joseph C. Blumel residence hall, and reflect what is said to be a national trend: Use of heroin is on the rise.

According to September 2013 survey results from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the number of past year heroin users in the U.S. grew from 373,000 in 2007 to 669,000 in 2012. Past year users are those who had used heroin in the 12 months before their participation in the survey.

Phil Zerzan, chief of Portland State’s Campus Public Safety Office, said this activity is a cause for concern on college campuses across the country.

“We’re experiencing here, as in other universities across the U.S., an increase in heroin use in students, and in some instances it is finding its way into the residence halls,” he said.

In 2012 there were five student-related heroin incidents on campus. There were seven in 2013. Two oncampus incidents from April of this year illustrate the effects of these increases.

On April 4, after receiving a report from a student mother who was concerned about a

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suspicious man yelling at her child, CPSO responded to a second report that the same man was seen in Blumel on the seventh floor.

The man, Eric Christian Nunez, was not a PSU student. He had a dangerous drugs warrant and was lodged at the Multnomah County Detention Center.

Officer Chris Fischer and Sergeant Robert McLeary, both from CPSO, later returned to the dorm room where Nunez had been found. Throughout the room they discovered syringe caps, metal cookers, blood-soaked paper towels and napkins, and small clear plastic baggies that appeared to contain narcotic contraband.

In a separate incident on April 18, CPSO officers again responded to Blumel, this time hearing on the radio that the Portland Police Bureau was dispatching three officers there for a heroin overdose.

When they arrived, the room’s student resident was performing chest compressions on Ryan Ellis Kelly, whose

face and fingers had turned blue from lack of oxygen.

Kelly is not a PSU student.

Sergeant McLeary then took over the chest compressions until fire and medic crews arrived.

According to CPSO’s public information board, the medics had to inject Kelly a total of six times with Naloxone—a narcotic drug used to reverse the effects of heroin and other drugs—and performed an endotracheal intubation to open his airway.

Kelly was listed in stable condition at a local hospital later that night.

The student resident, who was living in the dorm with her four-year-old son, told CPSO that Kelly was an acquaintance of hers, and that while she was a recovering heroin user who had relapsed six days prior to this incident, she didn’t know Kelly was using her bathroom to shoot up.

‘A growing trend’ In an Inside Higher Ed article called “Heroin on Campus,” writer Cory Weinburg addressed the increase of student heroin use following the death of a 19-year-old University of Rochester student, Juliette Richard, which was attributed to a heroin overdose. Richard was found dead in her dorm room in March.

In the article, Weinburg quoted Rochester’s direc-

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

tor of health service, Ralph A. Manchester, as pointing out that there isn’t a dialogue about heroin use by college students.

“Frankly, there was not a lot of discussion about hard drug use before [Richard’s death] last month because our surveying data suggested it’s at very low level[s],” he said.

Weinburg also stated that heroin use by college students in particular is a growing trend. “Now, colleges located in cities with new, well-documented heroin scourges are starting to realize they have a lot of catching up to do. In the Rochester region, heroin overdoses increased fivefold in three years.”

PSU’s own numbers, compiled by CPSO, show that in the last two years, on average, 18 percent of drug reports involving heroin, methamphetamine or cocaine were PSU affiliated, meaning they involved people directly involved with the university— like students.

“It does present problems, and there is crime associated with addiction issues,” Zerzan said.

“Heroin addiction is particularly insidious,” he added.

“Sometimes arresting a person that’s in a cycle of addiction…can serve as a catalyst for change and make social services and addiction treatment available.”

Why is college heroin use on the rise?

Robert Reff, the substance abuse prevention coordinator at Oregon State University, said in Weinburg’s article that part of the problem in addressing heroin use by college students is that few administrators do just that—address it.

“We don’t think of college students as IV drug users. A lot of people have images of what IV drug users look like, and it’s not college students,” he said.

“When I talk with administrators that heroin is in my community they look shocked at me and think college students don’t use it. But with ad-

COVER

2012

2013

Yearly increase of student drug reports involving heroin, meth or cocaine that were Psu affiliated.

25%

RACHAEL BENTZ/PSU VANGUARD

15%

Non-PSU affiliated drug reports involving people using heroin, meth or cocaine on the PSU campus.

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Heroin

4 3

Meth

campus restrooms to shoot up heroin,” Zerzan said. “There was an overdose death in one of the restrooms just prior to my arrival at PSU. So we focused on a strategy of access control: reporting, exclusions and arrests to significantly reduce those occurrences.”

These incidents are not just harmful to the addicted.

“Two months ago, one of our officers sustained a needle stick during an arrest, so this issue impacts the health and safety of CPSO’s officers as well,” Zerzan said.

As far as addiction treatment services and rehabilitation geared specifically toward college students, there isn’t enough informa-

tion out there to really know what works well and what doesn’t, Manchester stated in Weinburg’s article.

“The problem is, there’s not been a great deal of research done on what kinds of programs work for college students who use drugs like heroin,” he said.

The Center for Student Health and Counseling encourages students who are in crisis to come to the facility any time during hours of operation, Monday–Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or, if after hours of operation, to contact the Multnomah County Crisis line at 503-988‑4888 or CPSO’s emergency line at 503-725‑4404.

Heroin

27

Meth

Both Heroin and Meth 1

JACOB ASHLEY/PSU VANGUARD

diction, it covers race, gender, socioeconomic status.”

Reff went on to say that college students who become addicted to prescription drugs like oxycodone will sometimes turn to heroin, because it’s a similar, cheaper option.

“Colleges struggle to respond to that pattern because most are stretched to their limits responding to alcohol and marijuana issues,” Reff said.

Zerzan has been doing what he can to address the issue of heroin use on campus since becoming CPSO’s chief in 2011.

“When I first got to this campus, I was surprised to see that a significant public safety concern was people not associated with [the] university using the

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Cocaine

PSU affiliated drug reports involving people using heroin, meth or cocaine on the PSU campus.

5

7

Heroin

1

Meth Meth

Heroin

Cocaine

*Reports involving marijuana not included.

RACHAEL BENTZ/PSU VANGUARD

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

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ARTS & CULTURE

Train runners School of Theatre and Film to produce Depression-era play about love and rebellion

Director Karin Magaldi gives input to actors during the rehearsal of Trestle at Pope Lick Creek in the Lincoln Hall Boiler Room Theatre.

Jeoffry Ray

The Portland State School of Theatre and Film has a new stage to show off, and an upcoming smallscale play is going to give them that chance.

The new Boiler Room Theatre is in Lincoln Hall, and is designed as an intimate space for smaller productions. The School of Theatre and Film will use the space for a production of Naomi Wallace’s Trestle at Pope Lick Creek. The performances will begin with a preview on Thursday, May 15, with regular weekend performances May 15–31, including Sunday matinees.

With a tiny cast of just five characters, Trestle is a play of intimate scale. A Depression-era story, it follows the lives of 15-year-old Dalton Chance and 17-year-old Pace Creagan, as they navigate growing up in the hard times presented to them.

“He’s a good boy, he honors his parents, and he wants to go to college after graduation,” said play and school director, Karin Magaldi. “But a 17-yearold Pace Creagan, who has a passion for trains and transgressing limits, crashes into his life and changes everything. This is about these two kids who want to go somewhere. They want to escape or go to college, but they live in the Depression.”

Magaldi explained that Wallace’s play was selected because it speaks to today’s environment of joblessness and recession. She explained that the politics of the time are present in the story, but

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are not an overwhelming characteristic. She also described Wallace’s writing of the story as being both serious and funny, with a dry wit to its humor.

“It’s very personal, but it’s also political in a good way,” she said. “Wallace is not on a soapbox, but we see in these lives the consequences of our culture, [and] how we survive in spite of it. They talk about government here or there, but it’s really not there in your face.”

And though the play is limited in size, Magaldi noted that the intimacy of the space adds a new challenge to the actors.

The Boiler Room Theatre has only three rows of space between the audience and the actors, making for a very closequarters engagement.

“It’s really a communal event, and that’s what’s exciting about it,” she said. “But it’s challenging because actors have to be real, they have to be authentic. They can’t be acting. It’s terrifying for them, but they’re really excited. I usually do large shows at PSU, so this has been quite a treat for me.”

Actor and theater major Emily Martin echoed Magaldi’s sentiments. As an actor who has played leading roles in three of the past five performances, she has a wealth of experience in large-scale productions.

But she acknowledged that this will be the smallest performance, and considered the small scale to be an exciting challenge.

JEOFFRY RAY/PSU VANGUARD

“I’ve never been in a show with only five characters,” Martin said. “The rehearsal process is really different, and the amount of audience interaction is going to be different.

It’s nerve-racking. There’s going to be people within three feet of me that my character won’t see. It’s a very different experience that I’ve never had and I’m excited.”

The scale of the play also gives each character ample opportunity for development. Martin pointed to each character individually, noting that each has an evolution along the way.

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

Other characters include Dalton’s parents, Gin and Dray, played by Lexie Quant and Thomas Bucciero, and the town jail guard, Chas, played by Michael Jordan.

The second leading role, Dalton Chance, is played by Jack Stringer.

“While Dalton and Pace have this evolution of going to adulthood, Gin and Dray have this evolution of finding their adolescence,” Martin said. “And then there’s the jail guard, Chas. His relationship to Dalton and even to Pace is very unexpected. He has a huge evolution, but it’s

just with himself, really. He’s coming from this place of guilt and uncertainty about his son’s death. It’s kind of a redemption of his son’s death through Dalton’s evolution.”

Magaldi, who has plenty of experience with largescale playwrights such as Shakespeare, explained that this is her first time working with Wallace’s material.

She pointed to similarities in their style, primarily with the attention they give to their language. Wallace, she pointed out, started out as a poet, and her works contain a rich textual read. But she

also noted that Wallace works with more difficult material.

“Wallace writes about very difficult things, and things that some people will find strange and off-putting,” she said. “This play is a little edgy. It’s difficult in the way it talks about sexuality and the like. But she writes it in a very caring way. She really cares about these characters she’s writing.”

Magaldi also pointed to the rehearsal process with this cast, which involves an evolution of its own. She See TRAIN RUNNERS on page 17

ARTS & CULTURE

The Mad Romance of Leos Carax The Northwest Film Center screens the works of acclaimed French director Ryan DeLaureal

The films of French filmmaker Leos Carax will be screening May 23 to June 1 at the Northwest Film Center. The series, entitled Mad Romance: The Films of Leos Carax, will present all five feature-length films that Carax has directed, with multiple screenings of each movie taking place over two consecutive weekends.

The first weekend will feature Carax’s critically acclaimed debut Boy Meets Girl and its follow-up Mauvais Sang. The exhibit will wrap up the next week with Carax’s subsequent films Les Amants Du Pont-Neuf, Pola X and Holy Motors. Mad Romance is a chance to appreciate the skills of one of France’s contemporary film masters in an exhibit spanning the course of Carax’s 30-year filmmaking career.

Carax’s films deal with themes of romance and the complexities of modern life.

Often compared to the work of 1960s French New Wave cinema, his films are described by David Thompson in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film as “something like a mixture of [Quentin] Tarantino and [Jean-Luc] Godard of the ’60s, thoroughly caught up in the melodrama of being a Great Moviemaker.”

In addition to Tarantino, Carax’s work has been compared to the surreal neo-noir of filmmaker David Lynch.

Northwest Film Center Public Relations and Marketing Assistant Nick Bruno described Carax’s films as playful and experimental.

“The films goad watchers into wanting to unlock what’s going on in the picture,” Bruno said.

“As one dives further into Carax’s career, it becomes apparent that he’s intentionally obscuring the audience’s understanding of what’s going on, rather than spoon-feeding plot points and the mundane info of the everyday.”

The NWFC’s website further describes Carax as the “‘bad boy’ and ‘boy genius’ of French cinema,” who has gone on to achieve much success and critical acclaim in the world of French movies. The website also notes the playful and expressionistic nature of Carax’s work, his “distinctive romantic fatalism,” and “his characters [who] encounter worlds full of alienation, chaos and tragic love.”

Boy Meets Girl (1984) Friday, May 23 at 6:45 p.m.

Saturday, May 24 at 8:45 p.m.

Sunday, May 25 at 7 p.m.

Carax started out as a critic at the groundbreaking French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma before turning to filmmaking at the age of 23, first with a series of short films, and eventually releasing his first feature Boy Meets Girl in 1984. Hailed by critics for its romantic and surreal style, it tells the story of Alex and Mireille, two lonely misanthropes in Paris who meet and fatefully fall in love.

The movie marks the beginning of a collaboration between Carax and actor Denis Lavant, who would go

on to star in four of Carax’s five films.

The Northwest Film Center’s website describes Boy Meets Girl as “the most impressive French debut since Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless,” a distinct nod to the master of the French Nouvelle Vague.

Mauvais Sang (1986) Friday, May 23 at 9 p.m.

Saturday, May 24 at 6 p.m.

Sunday, May 25 at 4:30 p.m.

Mauvais Sang, the 1986 follow-up to Carax’s debut Boy Meets Girl, details a future Paris where a mysterious AIDS-like disease is killing young people who make love without feeling love. The film, taking its title from a poem

by French symbolist master Arthur Rimbaud, is a dark and thrilling turn for Carax after his first film. Mauvais Sang is a kind of New Wave crime movie featuring prominent French actress Juliette Binoche—who has appeared in the works of cinematic masters such as Godard and Krzysztof Kieslowski—in the lead as Anna.

©Miramax Films

cated in the historical heart of the city near the Île de la Cité, the island on the Seine which is home to the famous Notre-Dame cathedral.

Despite the difficulties and expenses encountered while filming on one of Paris’ popular tourist locations, the film, like Carax’s other movies, was met with critical acclaim for its portrayal of the harsh, romantic lives of its main characters.

Les Amants Du Pont-Neuf (1991)

Holy Motors (2012)

Thursday, May 29 at 7 p.m.

Sunday, June 1 at 4:30 p.m.

Carax’s most recent film, Holy Motors, was released in 2012 and was in competition for the Palme d’Or at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The film, a dark and bizarre French-German production, received many positive reviews upon its initial release, being named best film of the year by Cahiers du Cinéma,

Carax’s most successful film to date, Les Amants Du Pont-Neuf, released in 1991, is the tale of vagrants and lovers Alex (Lavant) and Michèle (Binoche). The two inhabit the Pont-Neuf, Paris’ oldest remaining bridge, lo-

Saturday, May 31 at 7 p.m.

The Northwest Film Center presents Mad Romance: The Films of Leos Carax Whitesell Auditorium 1219 S.W. Park Avenue Portland, OR 97205 the very magazine where Carax began his career as a film critic.

The story follows one Mr. Oscar through a series of strange, transformative scenarios, where he appears as “a twisted dwarf, an elderly crone, a knife fighter, a hitman, a dying uncle, a forlorn lover, and more,” according to the NWFC.

Pola X (1999) Friday, May 30 at 7 p.m.

Sunday, June 1 at 7:15 p.m.

Mad Romance will wrap up on the evening of June

1 with Carax’s 1999 drama Pola X. Based on Herman Melville’s critically panned novel Pierre: or, the Ambiguities, Pola X stars Guillaume Depardieu, son of prominent French character actor Gerard Depardieu.

The story details the incestuous relationship between young novelist Pierre and a woman who claims to be his half-sister. Pierre throws away his marriage plans and his life of wealth and success in an explicit and provocative tale of romantic passion, a fitting thematic finale for the exhibit.

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

15

ARTS & CULTURE

NO QUARTERS REQUIRED

PLAY GAMES AND MEET THE DEVELOPERS AT VICTORY CONDITION ARCADE Brandon Staley

Arcades are revered in gaming culture. Once they were ubiquitous. It was hard not to run into one of these dimly lit storefronts, crackling with static from rows of glaring CRTs and the frustration over gobbled quarters. Nowadays, the arcade is almost extinct. Almost.

The Victory Condition Arcade, an event that invites local tabletop game and video game developers to display their creations for the public, is taking a different approach to the arcade. Games will be present and playable, but you can also talk to the people who made them.

The arcade will run from May 14–15 and will be held in the Open Space at The Art Institute of Portland. The arcade is open to everyone and admission is free. No quarters required.

Robert LaCosse, Victory Condition Arcade director, said he wanted to keep the event free and public because that accessibility helps to establish community. The interactive nature of games also allows for the formation of fast friendships.

“With games, folks show up, usually at the same time as a handful of other folks, and they end up playing a game with strangers. That helps to break the ice,” LaCosse said. “The game is a fantastic community-binding agent.”

The arcade will be followed by a game design workshop on May 16. The workshop will consist of a lecture on design concepts, player engagement, mathematical considerations and user experience. The price of admission for the workshop is $30, with a reduced price of $20 for students.

LaCosse said while all of the games at the arcade will be playable, some are still in development. Attendees are invited to help playtest unfinished games. By providing honest feedback, playtesters can help refine games before they’re finished while also getting to see inside the development process.

Robert lACROSSE, Victory Condition Arcade director

For the swarm Tim Eisner, founder of Weird City Games, and Ryan Swisher, artist and co-designer, will be showing March of the Ants at the arcade. March of the Ants is a multiplayer strategy board game set in the microcosmic world of the ants.

The game revolves around exploration and territory control.

By foraging for resources, players can upgrade their ants and nests. Alliances can be formed with other players, but the game is ultimately competitive. The player with the most territory or the best nest wins.

Eisner and Swisher recently launched a Kickstarter to fund the game.

The arcade presents an opportunity for the two to test their game and get feedback from the public.

“Every time we take our game out to get feedback and responses from players is really helpful,” Eisner said. “I think the arcade will hopefully draw a lot of people who are into games and into testing prototypes of games.”

Eisner said he and his brother have been designing game prototypes casually for the past 10 years. When they weren’t designing games, they were playing them.

16

ALEX HERNANDEZ/PSU VANGUARD

“We’d always play games and sort of manipulate them or change them,” Eisner said. “We’d add this rule here or take that one out.”

Eisner said he originally moved to Portland to sell jewelry at the Saturday Market. After five years he was approved for a small business grant. Initially, he was going to apply the grant to his jewelry business, but he wanted to try something new.

Looking back, Eisner said his time as a jeweler influenced how he makes games.

“The jewelry I made is a style of macrame from South America, it’s very intricate knot work,” Eisner said. “Games have a similar feel. You just need to zone in and play with all these little interlocking pieces and variables to figure out how it works.”

Stomping ground The arcade also presents an opportunity for developers to test out new features in games they’ve revisited.

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

Wick, a local game designer, developed and released the space dogfighting video game Rubicon after a successful Kickstarter of his own. Wick said he is incredibly critical about his own games and couldn’t help but go back to Rubicon.

“I released Rubicon at the end of the summer and said ‘I’m done, I’m not going to work on it anymore,’” Wick said. “And then I opened it back up and started working on it again.”

Wick said the changes to Rubicon have been nothing short of drastic. He said he has added a multiplayer option, changed the metagame so that ship upgrades are less of a hassle, and overhauled the graphics and the gameplay.

“I’ve basically recoded the entire thing.”

Wick said he plans to use the arcade as a chance to test those changes. He said he plans to take notes as attendees play the new version of Rubicon.

“I try to get my friends to constantly be playing it and giving me feedback,” Wick said. “But having complete strangers pick it up, who have no familiarity with it, is incredibly useful.”

Neo-Springfield is about to E-X-P-L-O-D-E Turner Lobey

When Matt Groening first envisioned The Simpsons, it’s probably safe to say he wasn’t thinking about Katsuhiro Otomo’s legendary manga Akira. Fast forward 25 years and the world has seen the two collide for the greatest mashup of all time: Bartkira.

Portland’s own Floating World Comics has just released Bartkira, an exhibition book containing 80 black and white pages and 16 color pages of explosive comic crossover artwork.

What is Bartkira all about?

Last year, James Harvey stumbled across a five-page comic done by fellow artist Ryan Humphrey mashing together The Simpsons and Akira. Harvey felt the comic needed to evolve into a book, and the Bartkira project was born.

The idea was simple, artists sign up to redraw five pages of Akira with characters from The Simpsons. It took 768 artists a year to complete the recreation of the six volume

©Floating World Comics

Floating World Comics presents Bartkira Curated by Frans Boukas Design assistance from Matt Deans 96 pages $15

manga series, but the project is finally complete.

Akira, which originally told the story of biker gangs and psychics in a dystopian cyberpunk Japan, has been turned on its head. Instead of Neo-Tokyo there is NeoSpringfield. Bart is Tetsuo, Milhouse is Kaneda, Lisa is Kei, and other classic Simpsons characters round out the rest of the cast. The dialogue has been retooled a bit to fit into a Simpsons world, but it’s essentially the same story.

While it might sound silly, the end result is astounding.

Each artist who took part in the project, which was open to professionals and amateurs alike, has a distinct and unique style, giving the comic a fresh spin every five pages.

At first glance, Bartkira may seem like a silly novelty, but bringing the two worlds together to tell one story works surprisingly well. It shouldn’t, but it does.

More tha n a nything , Bartkira is a testament to the power of what dedicated fans can accomplish when they set their minds to it.

Where some of the work lacks in style or talent, it makes up in love and sincerity. If you’re a fan of either The Simpsons, Akira or ridiculous comics, look no farther than Bartkira.

For now, the exhibition book from Floating World Comics is the only way readers can get their hands on physical copies. With the original Akira series clocking in at over 2,000 pages, it may be some time before fans see a complete release. Never fear, the entire Bartkira project can be found online, on sites like Tumblr.

Floating World is currently hosting a special gallery with 16 pages of the Bartkira project’s original artwork. Catch it before it E-X-P-L-O-D-E-S.

ARTS & CULTURE Train Runners Continued from page 14 praised the small cast as very strong, noting that “they each bring their eyes” into their roles.

“This is a very complex script, and they’re just starting to mine it,” she said. “In the next few weeks they’re going to learn a lot about the characters in this story. It’s a wonderful collaboration between myself and students.

In some ways, rehearsal is the best part of it. You get to talk a lot and you get to learn about the performance. It’s an awesome process, I will say that.”

Martin also praised the theater students overall,

and noted that they have been very supportive of the upcoming production. She explained that the theater students are supportive and positive through all steps of the auditioning and rehearsal processes.

“I think there’s a lot of excitement,” she said. “Even if you aren’t cast in a show, the auditioning process is a learning opportunity for you. That’s the mindset that we have. Even watching the performance of someone who got the role over you is a learning opportunity. I’ve gotten a lot of feedback that

students are excited to see it happen.”

Martin, as a graduating senior, remains undecided just where acting will fit into her professional future.

But she pointed to the value of her art education in her overall studies.

“Excluding the specifics of the theater field, my art education has helped me in all of my other studies,” she said.

“Especially in critical thinking, creativity and analytics, I think I’ve seen other students unable to do what I now can do. I definitely attribute that to an art education.”

PSU School of Theatre and Film presents ‘Trestle at Pope Lick Creek,’ by Naomi Wallace Lincoln Hall Boiler Room Theatre, LH 55 Direction: Karin Magaldi Scenic and Lighting Design: Daniel Meeker Costume Design: Allison Heryer

Performance Schedule Friday–Saturday, May 16–17, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, May 18, 2:00 p.m.

Preview Thursday, May 15, 7:30 p.m.

Wednesday–Saturday, May 21–24, 7:30 p.m.

Sunday, May 25, 2:00 p.m.

Wednesday–Saturday, May 28–31, 7:30 p.m.

weekly missive Hey Friends, Just wanted to alert you to the latest in our series of shows that we’re partnering up with Holocene for.

On May 14 there’s a killer lineup of Morning Ritual (Ben Darwish and the Shook Twins) alongside Portland up-and-comers Rio Grands (winner of And And And’s Riggstekball citywide band basketball tourney).

Morning Ritual is a collaboration between Portlandbased composer Ben Darwish and twin singers, Katelyn and Laurie Shook, known as the Shook Twins. The band also features multi-instrumentalist William Seiji Marsh and drummer Russ Kleiner. Their first album, The Clear Blue Pearl, was self-released in May of

By Blake Hickman Assistant Promotions Director

2013 and has gained considerable attention for its unique sound and overall concept.

Portland’s Willamette Week describes the album as “a record generous with sacred moments” and their sound is “unlike anything that has come before them.”

Their live performance of “So Cold” was featured as a Favorite Session on NPR Music and BlackBook Magazine debuted their expansive music video for “The Drought.”

Darwish, the primary composer for the group, creates complex, piano-driven arrangements with soaring vocal melodies and harmonies.

In addition, they employ live “glitch vocals” which can mimic a skipping record or the “pulses” used in Steve Reich’s music. Although you

can hear a wide range of influences in their sound, it has been described as “fantasy folk” and “hypnotic R&B.” The Clear Blue Pearl, tells the story of a man and wife who, after a drought plagues their land, set out in search for the Clear Blue Pearl, an aquifer which is rumored to be close underground. After a harrowing search, they finally discover the underground oasis they’ve been looking for, but once they decide to make it their new home, they realize they may have settled on unstable land.

Rio Grands bring a plethora of tunes all named after women woven with the sounds of Americana and distinct soothing vocals.

Definitely worth showing up early for!

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

17

ETC

EVENT CALENDAR Tuesday, May 13 Women’s Climbing Night 4–8 p.m.

Academic and Student Rec Center 1800 S.W. 6th Ave., Portland, OR 97201 Women who are interested in rock climbing are invited to the Rec Center for this special event to climb in a supportive environment with the help of knowledgeable staff and meet other climbers at PSU. No prior experience is necessary, but you must complete the climbing center orientation video and quiz prior to climbing. FREE

Spring Connect to the Community 6 p.m.

Bridgeport Brewpub 1313 N.W. Marshall St., Portland, OR 97209 Join alumni, current students, and faculty from all six graduate business programs for an evening at the Bridgeport Brewpub.

This is an opportunity for attendees to hear about the accomplishments of current students. This event is also a chance to network with new connections and catch up with old friends. Food will be provided, and a cash bar

will be available. Business casual attire is appropriate.

To purchase tickets, visit http://psu.ticketleap.com/ spring-2014-connect-tocommunity FREE

Wednesday, May 14

questions like, “What rules do employers have to follow if they require a background check?”, “What type of background searches may be conducted by employers?”, “Can an employer check your credit?” and many more. FREE

Intercultural Coffee Hour

Thursday, May 15

3:30–5:30 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, Multicultural Center (228) 1825 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201

Moving Beyond the Image: Feminist Media Activism and Global Power

Come to the Multicultural Center for the Intercultural Coffee Hour. This is a great opportunity for students from any and all cultural backgrounds to get together over free coffee! Everyone is welcome in the MulticulFREE tural Center.

Back to the Future 4 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 238 1825 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201 Many jobs now require background checks as a condition of employment. This workshop will explore how you deal with indiscretions in your past when you apply for jobs that require background checks. This event will cover

Noon Academic and Student Rec Center, room 220 1800 S.W. 6th Ave., Portland, OR 97201 Dr. Carolyn M. Byerly, professor in the Department of Communication, Culture & Media Studies at Howard University, will be on campus offering a presentation that will argue that we benefit from looking beyond the analysis of image and to examine the structures that produce those images, as well as the ways that feminist activists have resisted and reshaped media images and messages. FREE

Film Screening: ‘A Fierce Green Fire’ 5 p.m.

Academic and Student Rec Center, room 001 1800 S.W. 6th Ave., Portland, OR 97201 A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement of grassroots and global activism spanning 50 years from conservation to climate change.

Come and enjoy the film and then stick around for a Q&A following the feature. FREE

Friday, May 16 Research to Action: Food Systems 9:30 p.m.

Native American Student and Community Center 710 S.W. Jackson St., Portland, OR 97201 This Research Action Symposium is set up as an opportunity for researchers, practitioners and community members to share their work in five minute, lightning-round presentations. The event allows attendees the chance to hear about and inform our collective efforts to address food

Of Railroads & Finance: The Making of Market Society in the Pacific Northwest

Monday, May 19

3 p.m.

Cramer Hall, room 250 1721 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201

Health Care Economics 6–7:30 p.m.

Urban Center, 2nd floor gallery 506 S.W. Mill St., Portland, OR 97201

Mitch Green, a former honors economics student at PSU who is currently finishing a Ph.D. at University of Missouri at Kansas City, invites you to a lecture which examines how the development of railroads in the region established enduring ties with financiers on the East Coast and in Europe, and how these ties facilitated the exercise of power for certain individuals central in their respective social networks. FREE

Dr. Gerald Friedman, Ph.D. in economics at University of Massachusetts Amherst, will present an economic analysis of a national single payer health insurance program in the United States.

Attendees are invited to come prepared with questions to follow the lecture.

FREE

Saturday, May 17 Green Note Choir Auditions 10 a.m.–2 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room M108 1825 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201 If you are interested in joining Portland State’s a cappella

FREE

21+

FEATURED EVENT

BRENDAN MULLIGAN/PSU VANGUARD

1

6 p.m.

Neuberger Hall, room 407, Monday, May 19 724 S.W. Harrison St., Portland, OR 97201 Rob Latham, professor of English at the University of California Riverside, and co-director of the Science Fiction and Technoculture Studies Program and the bienniel Eaton Science Fiction Conference, will be at PSU to discuss the ideological correlation between science fiction and historical countercultures, in particular the Beat movement of the 1950s and the hippie movement of the 1960s. FREE ©PSU Indian Student Association

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

PSU FREE OPEN TO PUBLIC 21 & OVER

THE VANGARDE

Beatniks in Outer Space: Science Fiction and Postwar Countercultures

18

choir, now is your chance.

Come to the audition on time and prepared with a verse and the chorus of a song of your choice (contemporary titles are preferred). FREE

systems issues and to explore connections, develop networks and build collaborative potential. FREE

2

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3

3

“PSU might not be able to out smash the Ducks or Beavers on the gridiron, but the pen is mightier than the sword.”

ETC

Taurus Apr. 20–May 20

Cancer Jun. 21–Jul. 22

You’re looking at some smooth sailing this week. You’ve been through some stormy seas, but your hard work has paid off—you’ve weathered those storms. Time to put your feet up and let the wind do all the work! Way to be!

Virgo Aug. 23–Sept. 22

Success can be a very motivating thing. So too can the threat of an impending deadline. You could put your nose to the grindstone and be responsible, or you could dig into the couch.

Choose wisely, Cancer.

Hey now, what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s going down. Virgo snapped and is now streaking down the highway with a toy lightsaber.

Take a chill pill, drink a beer, do what you gotta do to keep it together this week. For our sake.

Leo Jul. 23–Aug. 22

Gemini May 21–Jun. 20

Libra Sept. 23–Oct. 22

Looking for sage advice in this horoscope, Leo? Here you go: Liquor before beer. No white after Labor Day. I before E. A penny saved is a penny earned. Only ever use sage in a cream sauce.

Are you afraid that you can’t get what you want? Are you suffering from crippling anxiety and terror over being rejected? Remember what Yoda says at times like these: Just do it and stop whining like a little baby.

Are you a machine, Libra?

Because you can’t stop getting shit done. Just be careful to not get too robotic this week. Take some you time and enjoy some cold ones! You earned it!

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You are a graceful entity, Scorpio. This week you shall know peace and serenity. You are a leaf on the wind. You are a leaf on the wind. Watch how you soar. It’s quite beautiful.

Sagittarius Nov. 22–Dec. 21

You’ve been loading a lot on your plate lately, Sagittarius. What are you doing to yourself? Do you want stress? This is how you get stress. Lighten the load and take some quality you time. The plate can wait.

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Pisces Feb. 19–Mar. 20

Aquarius Jan. 20–Feb. 18

Aries Mar. 21–Apr. 19

Sure, Capricorn. You’re no baseball player, but that doesn’t mean you should let the fear of striking out keep you from swinging. Who cares if you fail? Try! It worked for Michael Jordan, right?

Wait. Not the best reference‌nevermind.

This week you are empowered with the essence of Bill Murray.

You are quiet, contemplative and virile. Do your dance. It’s your chance. Hella dunk on some aliens. But remember, no one will ever believe you.

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Party Mode. Set course The New York Times Syndication Sales Corporation for Party Planet at The New York Times Syndication Sales 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, N.Y.Corporation 10018 620For Eighth Avenue,Call: New1-800-972-3550 York, N.Y. 10018 maximum warp.

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Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

19

SPORTS SCORES

UPCOMING

PSU GOLF

PSU GOLF

NCAA WEST REGIONAL t21st NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP Top Performers: Kelly Miller, t39th with a three-round score of 230

TUES.–FRI. 5/20–5/23 TULSA COUNTRY CLUB | TULSA,OK

PSU TRACK AND FIELD

PSU TRACK AND FIELD

OREGON TWILIGHT

BIG SKY OUTDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

5 events won by PSU athletes

Top Performers: Jasmine Woods, Jazmin Ratcliff and Genna Settle finished 1-2-3 in the 100 meters

WED.–SAT. 5/14–5/17 | FLAGSTAFF, AZ

Joel Gunderson

NBA PLAYOFFS

PORTLAND @ SAN ANTONIO

NBA PLAYOFFS

SAN ANTONIO PORTLAND

Top Performers: Wes Matthews, 22 points

118 103

MLS SAT. 5/17 7:30 a.m. | PROVIDENCE PARK

Top Performers: Diego Valeri, 1 goal in the final minute of stoppage time

1 AFL 1 PORTLAND @ SAN JOSE SAT. 5/17 7:30 p.m. | CBS SPORTS

WHL FINALS

PORTLAND EDMONTON

Top Performers: Matthew Dumba, 2 goals

6 5

AFL

ARIZONA PORTLAND

WED. 5/14 TBD | TNT

COLUMBUS vs. PORTLAND

MLS

LOS ANGELES PORTLAND

Top Performers: Eric Rogers, 13 catches, 152 yards, 4 TDs

Backyard loss could spawn future Blazers success

61 32

From the outset, it was a backyard whippin’. It was a clinic—a teacher versus student moment on the biggest stage. It was experience versus youthful exuberance and it was, above all, a disaster.

But for Portland in the long term, losing to the Spurs could hammer home some lessons this team needs to learn.

For large chunks of the season, the Blazers were playing with fire, coasting through games which were often decided by their ability to hit, or not hit, timely shots. Even in round one against the Rockets, they trailed for 65 percent of the series—a staggering number to overcome.

They were carried by a belief that they could overcome, that no obstacle was too high to climb.

Against the Spurs, those beliefs were shattered. Reality has set in.

Portland was never supposed to be here, making this round a learning experience from the opening tip. This roster is not second round worthy, going only six, maybe seven deep consistently. They’re missing pieces—a lock-down defender and a second scoring threat off the bench. On a night when the first string was shut down, you saw the result.

Neil Olshey, the team’s general manager, has done a wonderful job in less than two years on the job. He snagged Damian Lillard, the pillar of the franchise. He added depth in Mo Williams, Dorell Wright and Thomas Robinson. He even found an answer at center in unheralded Robin Lopez.

But what Olshey needs more than anything is time.

He built the Clippers into the machine you see today, because he had the time and resources to do it. You have to believe the Blazers unlikely success this season only adds to his belief that the organization can win big. They’re close, but not close enough.

Which is why, short of a victory, getting blown out might be the best thing that could have happened.

They can learn from this, take the video and study the way the Spurs dismantled them. It won’t take long to figure out—these were not just X’s and O’s victories; San Antonio knew the stakes and played like it. Portland did not. They were out-hustled and outclassed in every phase.

Head coach Terry Stotts was brought in because of his basketball IQ and his ability to relate to players, two traits that will be tested now more

Terry Stotts is seeing the limitations of his current team, as well as its potential.

©Portland Trail Blazers

than ever. Stotts is a smart coach, having learned under Rick Carlisle—regarded as one of the brightest minds in the game. He sees the big picture and has a way of getting the most out of his guys.

So today, when the team sits down to talk, he can’t harp.

He needs to let this be a lesson learned.

They played against a welloiled machine, and were hopefully taking notes the whole time.

San Antonio is a model franchise from top to bottom. From GM to the last man off the bench, they do it right. Their offense is silk, beautifully strung together

in an intricate weave of movement. Their defense is predicated on effort, something they never seem to lack. But, most of all, they play with a sense of urgency that Portland does not have, from the opening tip to the final buzzer. It’s a beautiful thing to watch, and if you’re smart, imitate.

As we go to press the series isn’t over, but if Portland has any chance of making a comeback, and improving for the future, they need to look at this series as a learning experience, not just a beat down.

If they can, it could be a launching point for even better things.

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Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

SPORTS

Honoring and Remembering Dr. Jack

the man who helped build Blazermania passed away at age 89 Jay Pengelly

A franchise, a city and a sport have lost one of their greatest coaches and competitors. Dr. Jack Ramsay, who led the Portland Trail Blazers to their only championship in 1977, died last week at the age of 89 following a long battle with cancer.

Ramsay was known for his coaching style—fast paced and unselfish—as well as his flamboyant style of dress. In classic ’70s garb, Ramsay prowled the sidelines in plaid bell bottoms and colorful sports jackets.

Early this season, current Blazers head coach Terry Stotts honored Ramsay by wearing a similarly outrageous suit. Since his death, the team has begun wearing plaid patches that read, “Dr. Jack, 77.”

Their first home game with those patches on their jerseys, the Blazers won one for the Portland legend, defeating the Houston Rockets in dramatic style and advancing to the second round of the playoffs for the first time in 14 years.

Ramsay grew up in Milford, Connecticut, where he played basketball, baseball and soccer in high school.

He attended Saint Joseph’s College, playing basketball and baseball.

His college tenure was interrupted by World War II, in which Ramsay participated as a member of the U.S. Navy.

His title of Doctor is not honorary; he received a doctorate degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania in 1963.

For the next few years, Ramsay would play guard in the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League while coaching at local high schools. He also coached for his alma mater before moving on to the professional ranks.

In the late ’60s and early ’70s, Ramsay was the general manger and head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, and coach for the Buffalo Braves (known today as the Los Angeles Clippers). Everywhere he coached, Ramsay improved the level of play. His teams always featured efficient passing and offensive execution.

One hallmark of Ramsaycoached teams was their physical conditioning. Training camp would begin each year with an epic cross country run led by Ramsay himself. When hired to coach for the young expansion team in Portland, the city rejoiced to have a winner at the helm.

Prior to Ramsay coming to the Blazers at the start of the ’76–77 season, the team had never been to the playoffs and had never had a winning season.

They had a promising young center, former number one overall pick and UCLA great Bill Walton. Another cornerstone player came from the ABA dispersal draft,

where Portland received the enforcer, Maurice Lucas.

Ramsay surrounded his all-star big men with speedy perimeter players such as Lionel Hollins, Dave Twardzik, Larry Steele and rookie Johnny Davis. The chemistry of that team was magical—they embraced their coach’s style and today are remembered as one of the most team-oriented championship squads in NBA history.

Ramsay would coach the Blazers for nine more seasons, though outside that first year he only won two more playoff series. In his 10 seasons with Portland, Ramsay had a win/loss record of 453–367 (.552).

His career did not end with coaching. Ramsay went on to announce television games for several NBA teams before being hired by ESPN in 1996 as a radio analyst. He educated the masses about the old-school and modern game until last year during the playoffs. Continued health problems forced Ramsay to step down before the 2013 season officially ended.

Ramsay was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.

At the NBA’s 50th anniversary he was selected as one of the 10 greatest coaches of all time.

Ramsay’s legacy in Portland is not about wins, losses or accolades, though his

Dr. Jack Ramsay, a Portland legend, will be missed by Rip City.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

championship remains the singular moment in not only this city’s, but the state of Oregon’s sports memories.

His hard-nosed, blue collar method is still favored by local athletic enthusiasts. Fans in Portland love to cheer for a group that favors the whole rather than the individual.

They give standing ovations when players put their body on the line by diving for a loose ball. They chant the names of players who

out-hustle their opponents.

These are all characteristics of a Jack Ramsay team.

Rip City may have been coined during the Blazers’ inaugural season, but it was Dr. Jack that put them on the map. This is the 28th season since Ramsay coached the Blazers, and in that time they have come tantalizingly close to reliving the glory of an NBA championship.

Portland has never had a coach equal to Ramsay.

They are impossible shoes to fill, though perhaps Terry Stotts can be the man who comes close. Stotts employs a similar offensive-focused, opportunistic concept and has led his team to the second round, hoping for more.

This season may not have the perfect storm that the ’77 team did, but one can hope Stotts stays around for a decade, just like the guy he dressed up as, Dr. Jack Ramsay.

Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

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SPORTS

Timbers get first win (FINAlly) Alex Moore

Finally. Timbers fans can relax a little bit. After their ninth try, Portland finally won a game. Fans of the team were starting to ask questions, especially after a season as successful as last year.

Eight games without a single win is a lot, even this early in the season.

It wasn’t only the losses that were hurting the Timbers, it was also the way they were losing. Portland had a lot of games in their hands, before giving up a late goal or two and settling for one point rather than three. One game specifically comes to mind, when Seattle came into Portland and climbed out of a two goal deficit in the final eight minutes.

Despite all these problems, the Timbers finally put a win together, and this

time they were on the opposite side of the late goals.

Forward Max Urruti scored in the 94th minute to give the Timbers the win, sending the crowd at Providence Park home excited.

The Urruti game-winning goal came a day after Damian Lillard’s Game 6 winning shot at the Moda Center, giving Portland one of its best sports weekends of the year.

For the Timbers, who are early in their long season, one win is not going to be enough to get them back into the playoff race in Major League Soccer. Portland is currently six points out of fifth place.

Wins, not ties, will lead the Timbers back into the playoff race where they were so successful last year. To do that, Portland needs to be much

more successful at home.

Providence Park is arguably one of the best home field advantages in MLS, but it has seemed far from that this season. Portland has posted a record of four ties at home, previous to their win against D.C. United. Last season the Timbers won 11 games at home, only tying five times in Portland all year.

Lucky for the Timbers, three of their next five games will be at Providence Park.

These upcoming games could be crucial in determining if Portland will have enough to make the playoffs after a horrendous start.

This five-game stretch includes a home game against the Vancouver Whitecaps, who are currently in fifth place. That game will take

place on June 1, and while it’s still early in the season, Portland will need to pick up as many points as possible— even more so against their Cascadian Cup Rivals.

But if anything can show Portland and their fan base that it’s not too difficult to rise in the standings, it’s the fact that Portland jumped up two spots by simply beating D.C. United. But if it does take 50-plus points to make

the MLS Cup playoffs like it did last season, Portland will have to go on a long streak of unbeaten games instead of winless games.

With 25 games left, Portland has more than enough time to get to 50 points. In fact, they have more than enough time to get themselves in a strong position come playoff time. But they lost a lot of points they should have gotten early in the sea-

son. It will be easy to look back with regret at those first eight games when it comes down to crunch time where a single point could make a huge difference.

The Portland Timbers play the Columbus Crew on May 17 at Providence Park, finishing out this three-game homestand. They will then not return home until their June 1 game against the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Maximiliano Urruti scored the Timbers’ first game winner of the season.

Kayla Nguyen/VANGUARD ARCHIVES

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Vanguard | MAY 13, 2014 | psuvanguard.com

SPORTS

Kicking off the Triple Crown

To Whom it May Concern Dear NFL,

America's interest in horse racing lasts for at least a few more weeks

California chrome, ridden by Victor Espinoza, won the 140th running of the Kentucky Derby. ©Bill Brine

Tobin Shields

While there have always been sports fanatics who follow every game of the season, and who have “man caves” lined with player jerseys and signed photographs, most of America only checks into the key games of the season for any given sport.

Casual football viewers have the Super Bowl to look forward to, office coworkers have the NCAA basketball tournament and baseball fans have the World Series.

Following this pattern, the only time that America ever pays any kind of attention to the sport of horse racing occurs during the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.

Sunday, May 3, marked the beginning of the biggest annual horse racing event. The Triple Crown is comprised of three individual races at three different race tracks across America. This event invites three-year-old thoroughbred horses and their jockeys to compete for a shot at becoming the Triple Crown Champion.

While each race often has a different winner, there

have been a few times when a single horse wins all three races. In this case, the horse and jockey are crowned as the Triple Crown Winner and receive massive prize money.

The first leg of the competition took place, as it always does, at the world famous Kentucky Derby in Louisville, Kentucky, where California Chrome took first place.

Trained by a fatherson team of Alan and Art Sherman, the colt was the first horse that the two of them have ever entered into the event. He was the first California-bred horse to win the event since 1962, and walked in as the crowd favorite.

Prior to the event, famous horse trainer Bob Baffert spoke highly of California Chrome and said, “As long as he breaks and he’s in the clear…he just keeps going.”

He told one reporter that he intended to bet on the horse, and finished by saying: “He’s looked like the real deal…I like everything about him.”

Some commentators are even suggesting that Chrome

will be the first horse in 36 years to win all three legs of the series. Only 11 horses in the sport’s history have ever won all three events, and since 1978 there hasn’t been a single horse to claim the title.

Several have won the first two races since then, but ultimately fell short in the third leg, the Belmont Stakes. The horse Real Quiet came the closest to winning the Triple Crown in 1998, but lost by just a nose in the final leg.

There are a few critics who believe that the reason for the drought in winners comes from contemporary horse training strategies that focus on winning a single race, and not building the endurance to win all three.

Still, with all that said, Chrome won the Kentucky Derby with a comfortable margin and has essentially shown improvement in every race he’s been in. There’s a lot of expectation that he’ll win the next leg, and even take the entire Triple Crown. However, because of the close nature of horse racing, it’s too close to bet on.

I completely understand that this year’s NFL draft was a success in your eyes. With first round ratings the highest they have ever been, even higher than the two NBA playoff games that took place on the same night combined, it is evident that you are doing something right.

I am still trying to figure out if it was the fall of Johnny “Football” Manziel, the horrible beat-down handed to the Blazers in Game 1, or fantasy football heads trying to get an early jump on their upcoming picks that contributed to your record ratings. What I have decided is that it had to be a combination of all the above.

Even with these record ratings, I still found myself yelling at the broadcast throughout every round for one reason or another. Most of the time it was because of how it dragged on with no pick being announced until well after the allotted time. Rather than try to jumble this into one big messy rant, I have decided to break my irritation down by draft days one, two and three.

Day one was by far the worst and most drawn out of all the days. Each team receiving 10 minutes to get their pick in and then waiting another five to 10 minutes to announce it, was absolute overkill. The only thing that kept my friends and I entertained was watching Johnny Football squirm more and more each time another team passed him over.

Once day two came around I was relieved to find out that teams would only get five minutes to make their pick. That relief, however, was short lived when the first special guest was brought out to announce the pick. Is it really necessary to bring out a retired player, announce the team he played for, the years he played, his accomplishments, and then let him tell a “funny” joke before announcing the pick?

It seemed like it was just more overkill to what could have been a perfectly orchestrated second round.

After the charades of day two were over, we were finally on to day three, consisting of rounds four through seven. By now it seemed that almost everyone was tired of how long everything had dragged on. Teams were picking faster, there was less lag time between the picks coming in and being announced, and there were no special guests announcing those picks.

But wait! Now it is time for the talking heads to rule the broadcast. So caught up in their “expert” team evaluations, the pundits seemed to forget that players were getting drafted and stopped discussing the current picks, and either focused on what teams they thought picked best or who they thought picked worst. And since these “experts” are always spot-on with their predictions about who will succeed and who will fail on Sundays, we all must pay close attention and take notes right? What’s even worse on day three is that I found myself researching my team’s picks on my own because they provided no information or film on them at all. Isn’t their job to report on the players being drafted in that round, not the ones who were drafted two days before?

All in all, the draft was what it has been and will most likely continue to be in the future. Maybe my opinions on it are a little harsh. Maybe my friends and I were the only ones who felt the way we did about it, but I honestly doubt it. My feelings are probably such because I play fantasy football and basketball, and when drafting with my friends we don’t say the pick is in and then wait another five minutes to announce it.

My suggestion to you, NFL, is not to shorten the time limits or to remove the ceremonies and talking heads; it is to spend a little more time focused on all the players, not just the ones you deem worthy.

If I turn to the draft next year and it goes the same way as this year’s draft did, I am highly likely to just setup draft alerts on my phone and go do something productive for three days. Although that way I would miss out on all the speculation from the “experts.”

Sincerely, Matt Rauch, Vanguard Sports Desk

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