VOLUME 70 | ISSUE 15 | NOVEMBER 17, 2015
A NEW SPIRIT OF
ATHLETICS NEWS OPINION ARTS & CULTURE INTERNATIONAL
CUPA PROF. HONORED FOR ADVOCACY P. 4 SELFIE STICK SCHMELFIE STICK P. 6 “ALIEN SHE” EXPLORES RIOT GRRRL FEMINISM P. 11 INTERNATIONAL WOMEN SPEAK OUT P. 15
NEWS OPINION ARTS & CULTURE INTERNATIONAL
WE NEED REPORTERS! P.4 GIVE US YOUR OPINIONS P. 7 YOU COOL? WHATS GOING DOWN THIS WEEK? P. 10 DO YOU HAVE THE SCOOP ON CHINA? IRAN? WHATS GOING ON OUTSIDE THE GOOD OL’ USA?
P. 15
Discover the Benefits of Peace Corps Service Information Session: “Make a Difference Overseas in 2016” Portland State University Monday, November 23 2 to 3 p.m. Smith Memorial Student Union Room 296
Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Jesse Doner will discuss how you can make a difference overseas and return home with the experience and global perspective to stand out in a competitive job market.
Life is calling. How far will you go?
855.855.1961 | www.peacecorps.gov/events
THE POR TLAND SPEC TR UM
IS H IRIN G A N EWS ED ITO R! If inter est ed, pl eas e ema il a copy of you r resume a long w ith a w ri ting sample t o: ask ouse n@p dx.e du
CONTENT NEWS OPINION COVER ARTS & CULTURE ETCETERA INTERNATIONAL
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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
ADVERTISING MANAGER
EDITOR@PSUVANGUARD.COM Turner Lobey
NEUB@PDX.EDU Stuart Neuberger
MANAGING EDITOR
ADVERTISING DESIGNER
MANAGINGEDITOR@PSUVANGUARD.COM Tim Sullivan
Tessa Millhollin
NEWS EDITOR
Reaz Mahmood
NEWS@PSUVANGUARD.COM Colleen Leary
ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR ARTS@PSUVANGUARD.COM Aislinn Renninson
ADVISER
ADVERTISING ADVISER Ann Roman
DESIGNERS
OPINION@PSUVANGUARD.COM Chelsea Lobey
Terra DeHart Nimi Einstein Elise Furlan Rachel Goldstein Shannon Kidd
INTERNATIONAL EDITOR
WRITERS
OPINION EDITOR
INTERNATIONAL@PSUVANGUARD.COM Molly Ozier
ASSOCIATE NEWS EDITOR
Yuni Choi, Devin Courtright, Nimi Einstein, Robert Evans, Kevin Hadsell, Catherine Johnson, John Pinney, Sebastian Richardson, Gavin
ASSOCIATENEWS@PSUVANGUARD.COM Lisa Dunn
Schneider, Michael Stoltenow
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Devin Courtright
PRODUCTION@PSUVANGUARD.COM Hunter Sharp
PHOTO EDITOR PHOTO@PSUVANGUARD.COM Jeoffry Ray
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Catherine Johnson
ADVERTISING SALES Eva Spencer Becca Propper Dennis Caceres Kayla Clemens
COPY CHIEF COPY@PSUVANGUARD.COM Molly K.B. Hunt
ONLINE EDITOR ONLINE@PSUVANGUARD.COM Jaime Dunkle
COPY EDITORS
Kellie Doherty Cora Wigen Alexis Woodcock
MARKETING MANAGER Ryan Brewer
The Vanguard is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent 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 Nimi Einstein, Photo by Devin Courtright ©2015 PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY VANGUARD 1825 S.W. BROADWAY SMITH MEMORIAL STUDENT UNION, RM. S-26 PORTLAND, OR 97201
ILLUSTRATION BY RACHEL GOLDSTEIN
Vanguard | NOVEMBER 17, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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NEWS
CUPA PROFESSOR RECEIVES ED SULLIVAN HOUSING ADVOCATE AWARD MICHAEL STOLTENOW
Dr. Lisa Bates, Portland State associate professor of Urban Studies and Planning, has been named the first ever recipient of the Ed Sullivan Housing Advocate Award. Bates was presented with the award in honor of her long standing achievements and role in affordable housing advocacy. The Organization of Housing Land Advocates announced the winner at its annual conference back on Friday, Nov. 6. Ed Sullivan, co-founder of HLA and former legal counsel to the Governor of Oregon and retired partner in the Portland Office of Garvey Schubert Barer, discussed some of the reasons Bates was chosen for the award.
Recover
“[Bates’] academic work and personal activism sets the stage and provides much of the data for the rest of the housing advocacy community to base its arguments,” Sullivan said. “I am so pleased that Professor Bates will be HLA’s first recipient of this award.” The HLA will present one award every year to someone who exemplifies Sullivan’s deep commitment to thoughtful land use planning and access to adequate and affordable housing. Bates teaches at PSU’s Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning and is the director of the Center for Urban Studies. For the past 15 years she has helped
housing policy and planning in Portland, Chicago and post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. She focuses on issues including the displacement of minorities caused by gentrification and particularly issues of institutionalized racism in policy design and implementation. Social justice is a major part of advocacy, and that’s exactly what Bates and the HLA are promoting through this award. By demonstrating a need for activism in housing policy and awarding major players, they hope to highlight important issues. Jennifer Bragar, HLA president and a partner at Garvey Schubert Barer, also com-
Strength.
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mented on the work Bates has carried out to warrant her recent recognition. “We are thrilled to be able to recognize [Bates] for her longstanding advocacy of affordable housing, while also paying tribute to [Sullivan’s] founding of HLA and the legacy he has built throughout the Oregon land use community to promote equity,” Bragar said. Students looking to find out more about advocacy in their communities can look into some of the organizations Bates serves on, like 1000 Friends of Oregon, N/NE Housing Strategy Oversight Committee and the Portland African American Leadership Forum’s People’s Plan.
LISA BATES is the first recipient of the Edward Sullivan Housing Advocate Award.
COURTESY OF PSU
Visit pdx.edu/cupa for more information on housing advocacy programs.
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VIKINGS THUNDER TOWARD BIG SKY The Vikings have done it again. Portland State’s football team won last Saturday against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds, 24–23 at Providence Park. This launches them down the road toward the playoffs and ever closer to the Big Sky Championship. “I am actually very proud of this group and how they responded,” said Head Coach Bruce Barnum at a press conference after the game at Providence Park. “What a great accomplishment.” It was a brutal faceoff against these two teams: flags thrown, players injured, controversial calls by the refs, interceptions made. According to GoViks.com, the Thunderbirds are 7–3 this season and are also the heavyweights in the Big Sky ranks—coming in first place
at 6–1, while the Vikings, at 5–2 in the Big Sky, were somewhat of a wild card with their overall 8–2 season. The star players at Saturday’s game were quarterback Alex Kuresa, tight end Cameron Thompson, kicker Jonathan Gonzales, wide Receiver Thomas Carter III, safety Patrick Onwuasor, fullback Kieran McDonagh, defensive back Xavier Coleman, and safety Beau Duronslet, per GoViks.com. Kuresa made the first score of the game during the first quarter with a 73-yard drive and an eight-yard touchdown pass to Thompson. However the Thunderbirds struck back with a thundering 42–yard field goal and a 53–yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ammon Olsen to wide receiver Mike
Sharp, ending the first quarter at 7–10. The second quarter heated up when the Vikings gave the Thunderbirds a taste of their own medicine when Gonzales scored a 39-yard field goal, which tied the game at 10–10. Kuresa scored a 73-yard touchdown pass to Carter III, which gave the Vikings a 17–10 lead. Before the Thunderbirds could retaliate, the Vikings got another momentum swing late in the half when Onwuasor snagged an interception from the Thunderbird’s clutches near the goal line— making the Thunderbirds so close and yet so far. The Vikings predominantly led the third quarter, but toward its end the Thunderbirds tied the game at 17–17.
NEWS
DEVIN COURTRIGHT
The fourth quarter though was when the Vikings really shone, when quarterbackturned-fullback McDonagh took a handoff by Kuresa and passed the ball to Thompson and scored what became the winning touchdown for the Vikings. With the score being 24–17, the Thunderbirds desperately tried to change the momentum swing of the game but their efforts were fair but futile in the end. First they attempted a field goal but the kicker missed. After scoring a 14-yard touchdown pass caught by Sharp and with 1:18 left on the clock, Southern Utah’s Head Coach Ed Lamb made a call for a two-point conversion that ended up costing them the game when tight end Steven Wroblewski flubbed a pass attempt by Olsen. As a result,
VIKINGS RUSH AGAINST Thunderbirds quarterback Ammon Olsen during a last-minute two-point conversion. The Thunderbirds would fail to complete the pass, losing the game by one point.
the Vikings took the win with 24–23. At the post-game press conference, coach Barnum said he was not surprised by Lamb’s twopoint conversion attempt, and said he was sure they would make that play because there is more pressure on the visiting team to win. Barnum’s instinct was right, and because of it he helped the team prepare for the play and ultimately win the game. “I told [defensive coordinator Malik’s] assistant before the drive started, ‘Listen, if they score, you tell Malik immediately that [Lamb] is going to go for two,’ Barnum said. “It was a guess, it was a gamble; we lucked out on that one.” At the game’s conclusion, the Vikings fans cheered loud and proud for their team on the win and were excited that they are going to the playoffs for a possible shot for the
Big Sky Championship. PSU alumni Sione Tuipulotu, who graduated in 2006 studying social science and was number 99 on the football team back then, said after the game cheerfully, “We are in the playoffs! That’s all that matters! We made the playoffs! This means a lot—PSU Vikings!” “I think [the Big Sky] will look at us now and think we are a strong consideration but who knows?” Barnum said. “Can’t take anything for granted and it would help if we beat Eastern next week.” The next Vikings game is their season finale at 2:05pm on November 21 against the Eastern Washington Eagles in Cheney, Washington. Following the game will be the NCAA Playoff schedule, which will be announced November 22.
DEVIN COURTRIGHT/PSU VANGUARD
Vanguard | NOVEMBER 17, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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OPINION
SELFIE STICKS: HARMLESS APPENDAGE OR MODERN-DAY PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS? Musings from the Sub-basement by Kevin Hadsell
I would like to preface this piece with an anecdote. Several weeks ago I saw the band, And So I Watch You From Afar, play a show at the Analog Theater. During the band’s set, a member of the audience held up a small digital camera mounted on a selfie stick. It was a proud, shining thing that caught the lights from the stage and gleamed high above the crowd. The camera was lifted as a sort of totem to our digital culture; the selfie stick, its flag pole. It bobbed up and down periodically throughout the evening, resembling one of those giant foam fingers one sees at sporting events, or perhaps a tiny boat adrift on the open sea. All was well until a mosh pit opened up somewhere behind him in the crowd. It built steadily, gaining strength and speed, like a tropical storm or a hurricane. It appeared to be a Category 5 mosh pit, from what I could tell, and it was moving fast. I watched in abject horror as the whirling mass of bodies and flailing limbs came closer to where he stood. The tiny mounted digital camera, until this point serenely bobbing undisturbed above the crowd, was pulled into the vortex, swirling around in a counter-clockwise motion toward the center. Then it was gone. I saw no trace of neither the camera nor its owner for the rest of the evening. For all I know, they are gone for good. While it may be tempting to dismiss this scene as an example of divine justice, in which supernatural forces came together
in the form of a mosh pit to punish the concertgoer for bringing a selfie stick to a rock show, I feel there are more pressing issues at hand. For instance: What purpose do these selfie sticks serve in our society? Was this an isolated incident or a symptom of a larger social trend? And is this the next step in human evolution, i.e., becoming cyborgs through technological prosthesis? (I’m looking at you, Bluetooth earpiece users.) Or is it more like an invasive species that can be remedied with fly swatters and pesticides? While no one would dispute that selfie sticks have become a pestilence upon the land, the exact nature of them remains obscure. What we know for certain is that they have been appearing more and more in public places where they are not wanted. Disney has recently confirmed a park-wide ban on selfie sticks. Museums and concert venues have banned them outright. It would appear the selfie stick has been roundly condemned by society. And yet there are an estimated 90 million selfies on Instagram right now. Recent statistics show that over 50 percent of male college students and 77 percent of female college students share selfies on Snapchat. To take these statistics seriously would be to say that the selfie has become, for better or worse, a natural part of our culture. And if this is true, then the stick on which the camera is mounted is merely an extension of it. This would appear to
ILLUSTRATION BY SHANNON KIDD
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shift the selfie stick away from the invasive species category and more toward the technological prosthesis category, similar to RoboCop. However, I would like to consider a third option. Perhaps future historians will one day comb through our digital archives and attempt to reconstruct the pieces of our civilization to determine what life was like in the 21st century. They will see our duck faces and strange overhead angles. They will examine the selfies we have left behind, the clues to who we were and what we were doing here. In this way, the selfie may be the cave paintings of the future. Our collection of duck faces and dick pics will outlast us. And so the selfie stick may be a sort of paint brush that will tell our story, whatever that may be. Anthropologists of the distant future will no doubt wish to closely examine, for posterity, the exact moment civilization spiraled into terminal decline from which it would never recover. And the selfies will be there with (some admittedly compelling) answers. So think carefully about your next duck face, your next dick pic. Perhaps we should all take some time to think about how our cultural moment may be commemorated in the Smithsonian of the distant future. Then again, maybe not.
OPINION
PHILOSOPHY: A SUBJECT FOR ALL AGES Against the Current
by Sebastian Richardson In the world of higher education, no subject is on the receiving end of jokes more so than philosophy. What was once a proud subject that helped shaped the modern world, today philosophy is usually equated with pretentious liberal college students who wear fedoras all the time. We’ve all heard people use philosophy as the prime example of a “useless” degree and often smirk at the notion of graduates in philosophy applying for jobs. Despite this negative perception of the philosophy degree, there is definitely value in studying philosophy. From a practical standpoint, philosophy majors go on to dominate both the LSAT and the GRE following graduation. In 2011–12 philosophy majors scored the highest in both the verbal and analytical writing portion of the GRE, and were topped by only physics, economics, computer science and chemistry majors in the quantitative section. Along with that, some studies have suggested that philosophy majors tend to have a higher earning potential than other majors. With all that aside, the true benefits of studying philosophy are the effect it has on your ability to reason, and think logically and critically when approaching complex subjects and ideas. Philosophy is a field which prods someone out of their usual way of thinking and requires them to go deeper into a subject than they otherwise might have. It compels one to ask why things are; it asks a student to withdraw from the miasma of accepted thought and step out of their natural utilitarian way of thinking. To philosophize is to wonder, to marvel at the world and the apparent mundane motions of day-to-day life. In this way the philosopher is similar to the poet, and while we see an innate value in forcing kids to read Keats and Byron, we’ve outright neglected philosophy. While I do not hesitate to say that it would be in the best interest of college students to take at least some philosophy during their undergraduate career, I am willing to take it a step farther and say that philosophy is something which should be taught as early as high school. In an ever-crumbling education system, philosophy may be something that could add validity to a person’s education beyond the senseless cramming of facts which must be regurgitated onto a Scantron sheet or a standardized test. I was lucky enough to have an Advanced Placement European History teacher in high school that spent some time talking about Descartes, Kant and Rousseau during our unit on the Enlightenment. Besides this we had little to no exposure to philosophy, but plenty of poetry and Shakespeare. While schools are not looking to hire 11th-grade philosophy teachers as of yet, there have been efforts to give high school students the opportunity to explore philosophy outside the classroom. One such example is the Oregon High School Ethics Bowl, which will take place for the first time here at Portland State between Jan. 30th and 31st. Directed by PSU’s own Professor Alexander Sager, the Oregon High School Ethics Bowl is giving high school students
A STATUE OF ETHICAL PHILOSOPHER DAVID HUME in Edinburgh, Scotland, depicted by artist Alexander Stoddart.
the opportunity to think critically about important topics, ranging from international policy to ethical questions of lying and stealing. Student volunteers from the PSU philosophy department are working with high school teachers to participate in the event and offer workshops to prepare students to be successful in the competition. The event itself is similar to high school speech and debate competitions, but is focused primarily on the analysis of ethical case studies, rather than defeating the opposing team. Examples of the topics discussed this year include deaf parents using reproductive technology to select for deaf children; computers, smartphones and other devices from developed countries being disposed of in China, India and western Africa; and the proposal to “ban the box” requiring people to divulge a criminal history on job applications. Teams are evaluated on their knowledge of ethics, their civility and their ability to engage with opposing arguments and questions.
COURTESY OF BANDAN DAS THROUGH CREATIVE COMMONS VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
In short, the competition “is for the preparation and creation of a community where people are encouraged to discuss things that matter and to understand alternative views.” In a country where the ability to discuss issues with civility seems like a modern feat and people are forgetting how to think critically, opportunities like this should definitely be encouraged. Philosophy, beyond other liberal arts, complements one’s field of study more than any other, whether it be biology, history, business, engineering or, in my case, foreign language. With that said, if we can accept philosophy’s value when it comes to the moral reasoning of students and their perception of life, it is only natural to assume we’d want to extend that to younger students who may or may not pursue a college degree. For that reason I laud attempts by professors like Sager to try and make philosophy more accessible to younger students. We would fare well to have a king who was a philosopher, but all the more so if today’s youth learned how to critically think and were encouraged to wonder about what is around them.
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SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS,
A NEW SPIRIT OF
ATHLETICS
DEVIN COURTRIGHT & COLLEEN LEARY
When people think of Oregon football, they most likely think Ducks and Beavers. Overshadowed by more successful neighbors to the south, the Portland State Vikings have historical been relegated the sidelines when it comes to state icons. This season’s team is setting out to change that.
PSU PRESIDENT WIM WIEWEL HAS APPLAUDED DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS MARK ROUNTREE for the recent success of the department. PHOTOS BY DEVIN COURTRIGHT/PSU VANGUARD
Eight to two overall and 5–2 in the Big Sky Conference, the Vikings will head into their final game of the season this Saturday looking to round out one of the most successful PSU seasons in living memory. Wins aside, the Vikings have been pulling overwhelming numbers. This year the team sold more tickets in one game than they did in all of last season’s combined. PSU President Wim Wiewel, who has been open about his dissatisfaction with prior conditions within the athletics department, applauded PSU’s new Director of Athletics, Mark Rountree, at an Oct. 9 press conference for what he described as the new spirit of athletics. “[The change in the athletics] absolutely stems from [Rountree],” Wiewel said. “You could also say it stems from my dissatisfaction with the way things were and that’s why I hired an athletic director who would bring a new spirit.” “I felt that athletics was too much on its own…not really engaging with the rest of the campus,” he continued. “And then of course that becomes
mutual, and we saw very few students or faculty coming to games.” Rountree—who has been in his directorial position since January 2015—said his goal when he came to PSU was to learn the identity of the campus and integrate the athletics department into that identity. “[O]ne of the things we can do in athletics is really be a bright light to shine on what’s going on on campus— what our students are doing, what’s going on in the colleges and schools, what our student centers are doing,” Rountree said. Rountree identified four core values the athletics department is striving to input into its activities: fearlessness, determination, pride and togetherness. “We’ve incorporated those values in everything we do,” he said. “Our first football game, we partnered with the Women’s Resource Center to do sexual assault prevention. The athletics department has featured various elements of the university at Vikings football games, including the school of engineering and the college of arts and sciences. HEAD COACH BRUCE BARNUM (center) observes Portland State play against Southern Utah. Barnum led the Vikings into the playoffs this season after their 24-23 victory over the Thunderbirds.
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SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS, SPORTS.
A FAN HAILS HEAD COACH BRUCE BARNUM and cheers on the Vikings during a recent game.
Wiewel commented on the athletics department’s engagement with campus life. “They are really changing what they do and how they’re doing it,” Wiewel said. “They’ve got their athletes doing move-in for the freshmen. They are just getting the athletes engaged on campus, and off campus as well.” “The other thing we did is decided that our focus is really on student success,” Rountree said. He emphasized academic success and community engagement, which Vikings Head Coach Bruce Barnum echoed as well. “I’ve seen the campus unite,” Barnum said. “I see students at our games, my football players—and all
the other student athletes— help students.” Barnum emphasized plans to carry the recent success of Vikings football and overall athletics into the future with continued campus and community engagement. “The key is keeping it going,” Barnum said. “Let’s keep this rolling. They gave me a contract, a long-term contract through five years. So for the next five years, I’m just planting the seeds for what I want to see happen here at [PSU]. Not just with the football team, I think we’re just an extension of the business school, the engineering school—everything you see on campus. We’re just one little piece of that puzzle.” Flip to page 5 for coverage of the Viking’s most recent win.
ALEX KURESA (center) rushes downfield as fellow Vikings clash with Thunderbird defenders.
THIS IS PART ONE OF TWO IN COVERAGE OF THE ATHLETICS DEPARTMENT. WATCH FOR PART TWO NEXT WEEK. Vanguard | NOVEMBER 17, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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ARTS & CULTURE
OMSI COLLAB FOCUSES ON OVERCOMING
ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES CATHERINE JOHNSON
On Friday, Nov. 6, students gathered at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry for a free, guided tour of the exhibit “Roots of Wisdom,” one of many Social Sustainability Month events. Victoria Coats, the research, development and advancement manager at OMSI, explained how the exhibition was a new collaborative effort between OMSI, the Indigenous Education Institute and the National Museum of the American Indian, with four native community partners: Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation, Native Hawaiians, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and the Tulalip Tribes. Each tribe chose a story to tell about how they preserve their local ecosystems and respond to current environmental challenges, such as restoring fishponds and taro fields in Hawaii, river cane in North Carolina and waterways and traditional foods in the Pacific Northwest. Tim Hecox, the program developer on the project, advocated for the importance of collaborating with integrity and how that was fundamental to the project. In the past, it’s been common for museums to approach an indigenous group after work has already started, when they should forge this relationship at the very beginning. “[It’s how to] be culturally sensitive in the best way that we can and have mutual benefits,” Hecox said. “So it’s not just benefitting OMSI, but it’s benefitting these communities.” Working with IEI was a vital part of creating this mutually beneficial relationship and understanding cultural protocols, which can be different for each group.
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“The key is having a bridge organization,” Hecox said. “They understood both worlds—the museum, Western side of things, and the indigenous worldviews and what it takes to collaborate. That really had a big impact on the project’s success.” This isn’t OMSI’s first time doing work like this. They also participated in a previous project funded by the National Science Foundation, called “Cosmic Serpent,” a professional development project aimed to increase the capacity of museum practitioners to bridge native and Western science learning in informal settings through a series of workshops held around the western United States. OMSI also participated in another NSF-funded grant called “Native Universe,” designed to create a shift in institutional culture by building capacity in science museums to successfully collaborate with indigenous communities. “This project created a series of opportunities for indigenous advisers to visit OMSI and build our capacity in offering more of an indigenous voice in how we teach people about nature and science,” Hecox said. Another exciting part of the “Roots of Wisdom” project is how it invited indigenous youth into the project development process. “Native communities are always looking to support their next generation of community leaders,” Hecox said. OMSI sought out middle schoolers within the Portland Public Schools’ Indian Education Title VII program to participate in a Native Youth Advisory Board to prototype OMSI’s ideas and let the team know what they thought was fun and exciting to learn
about. This appeal to children was evident as young people actively engaged with the exhibit’s many colorful and educational activities. Kevin Thomas, the cultural sustainability coordinator at Portland State’s Student Sustainability Center, boasted that PSU is the only school in the country that has Social Sustainability Month and explained how this exhibit fits into their vision and purpose. “We really feel it’s important to engage indigenous knowledge,” Thomas said. “We should talk to the people [who] live on this land, [who] have lived for thousands of years. Because the settlers have been here for just a few hundred years and managed to screw it up.” Thomas echoed Coats and Hecox’s sentiments that museums have not always treated native people well. They have often been excluded from the process and their cultures depicted as relics from a distant past. “As sustainability people, we need to embrace that aspect of social justice, understand the history of the people and the connection with the land,” Thomas said. In contrast, Thomas gestured to the exhibit and noted, “It’s vibrant and alive.” Lucy Gonzalez, a junior at PSU, appreciated this element of the exhibit. “I think it was really cool how it touched on the resilience of these communities,” Gonzalez said. “To learn about how things from their culture are still present today in our lives and we don’t even know it, like food and music.” The museum staff is very excited about the exhibit and the opportunity for it to travel around the country. “It’s really fascinating work,” Hecox said. “Super, super cool.”
Vanguard | NOVEMBER 17, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
ILLUSTRATION BY SHANNON KIDD
ARTS & CULTURE
‘ALIEN SHE’ EXHIBIT ILLUSTRATES EFFECTS OF FEMINIST MOVEMENT RIOT GRRRL
Editor’s Pick Activity: Harvey’s Comedy Club Aislinn Rennison
CATHERINE JOHNSON
The Museum of Contemporary Craft is currently featuring their exhibit, “Alien She,” one of the first projects to explore the impact of Riot Grrrl on artists today. The display was organized by the Miller Gallery, at Carnegie Mellon University, and will be on display at the Museum of Contemporary Craft until Jan. 9, 2016. Riot Grrrl was a punk feminist movement in the 1990s that sought to combat racism, sexism and homophobia through avenues such as letters, zines, local meetings, regional conferences, homemade videos and eventually chat rooms, listservs and message boards. The exhibition features seven artists from around the country, also working in
a variety of mediums, such as sculpture, film, photography, drawing, printmaking, new media, music and performance, among others. The museum and exhibit imply that Riot Grrrl is becoming more and more relevant to contemporary global culture. On the ground floor of the museum, Allyson Mitchell’s Ladies Sasquatch greets visitors with three huge, monster-like fuzzy female bigfoots meant to depict what she calls a “‘feral sexuality’ outside prescriptive, heteronormative notions of beauty and lust toward a ‘queer utopian dream world.’” Alongside these creatures is Mitchell’s wallpaper of photocopied drawings of feminist and queer book spines. Her panel asks the
viewer to contemplate, “How do we both resist and reconcile our participation in oppressive systems?” Upstairs, Stephanie Syjuco’s installation is a wall covered with FREE TEXT tear-off tab flyers advertising free downloadable online PDFs of various critical texts. Diane Derib, an exhibition attendant, noticed that many people linger at this installation. “A lot of people have spent a lot of time there,” Derib said. “That wall gets a lot of attention, from what I’ve seen.” Lauren Benoit, a visitor to Portland from Malden, Massachusetts, was excited that her trip included viewing “Alien She.” Benoit was especially drawn to an installation presenting results from Miranda July’s
participatory website “Learning to Love You More” and the new mobile app “Somebody,” in which people around the world post responses to prompts like “Write down a recent argument” or “Take a flash photo under your bed.” “It’s really cool because the artist poses questions out to the public,” Benoit said. “So the public made the art, in a way.” Another prompt of the exhibit invited people to post advice they would give to themselves in the past. One powerful response simply read: “Advice to me at 9 years old: TELL SOMEONE.” “This is really interesting, and it got me thinking me about what advice I would give to myself,” Benoit said. “I read the whole, entire wall.”
A couple weeks ago, my cheeks and abs were killing me from laughing, at Harvey’s Comedy Club in northwest Portland. From the first of three openers to the main act, I was laughing my ass off for two hours straight. Granted, the comedians who perform there usually aren’t what you would refer to as famous, but they should be. Each one of the comedians had the audiences roaring after a couple minutes of walking into the small and intimate showroom. The brick building is classy and quaint, giving you a feeling that Ron Burgundy is drinking a scotch a few booths down. Speaking of which, if you have more than three people, I suggest you skip the booths and reserve a table; the space can get a little tight with a full house. Don’t, however, skip the menu. Come hungry and thirsty, be-
cause they have a full bar and tasty food! Their menu has a wide array of different prices and options. Plus, the service was incredible; our waitress was there to refill drinks and take our orders throughout the entire show. Take a night with a couple friends, or maybe a break-theice date with that special someone, and head out to Harvey’s Comedy Club for a show.
f.y.i. Who: 21+ only Where: 436 NW 6th Ave, Portland When: Wednesday through Sunday, various evening times Price: $15 general tickets; buy online, but there are often Groupons
PORTLAND’S MUSICAL THEATER COMPANY, STUMPTOWN STAGES, OPENS THEIR NEW SEASON GAVIN SCHNEIDER
FEATURED AT THE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CRAFT, ‘Alien She’ analyzed the effect of the 1990s Riot Grrl movement on contemporary culture. CATHERINE JOHNSON/PSU VANGUARD
Stumptown Stages is a resident of the Brunish Theatre, which is the facility of Portland’5 Center for the Arts. Every year, Stumptown Stages puts on several acclaimed musical theater performances. Their 2015–2016 season will include: Carrie the Musical, The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical, The Adventures of Dex Dixon: Paranormal Dick, Smokey Joe’s Cafe and In the Heights. Stumptown Stages uses the the Brunish Theatre for all of their performances. Kiley Yuthas, stage manager for Carrie the Musical, has also worked for the Portland’5 Center for the Arts and the Brunish Theatre. Yuthas explained that the theater is a small space, forcing the
performers to create different spaces for the audience’s view. “In my experience, it makes for a more dynamic performance because they’re acting out towards every angle,” Yuthas said. “And they’re more holistic in their actions and the way they’re performing.” The Brunish Theatre is 16 by 24 square feet and has three-sided audience seating. Performance pending, the theater seats about 146 people. It is accessible to those with mobile disabilities, and special seats are reserved for disabled guests. “It is a professional theater,” Yuthas said. “It has most of the things you could ask for. It has three audience sides set up, and the set. And behind all of those is just like
a very narrow hallway. So you’ve got actors and technicians running around you pretty much all the time.” Stumptown opened their new season a few weeks ago with their performance of Carrie the Musical on Oct. 22. Carrie the Musical featured music from Academy Award– winner Michael Gore and lyrics from another Academy Award winner, Dean Pitchford. Although Carrie the Musical ended on Nov. 8, The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical begins on Dec. 10. Tickets for Stumptown’s performances can be purchased through phone, online at Portland’5 Center for the Arts website or at their box office in downtown Portland.
Vanguard | NOVEMBER 17, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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ETC EVENT LISTINGS FOR THE WEEK OF NOV. 18–22 WEDNESDAY NOV. 18 Florence Saltzman
12 p.m. Oregon Jewish Museum Fee: $6 Florence Saltzman is known as a painter and printmaker whose work is mostly held in private collections. This fleeting public glimpse of her personal work is for those inspired by her story, ambition and belief in the language of art.
Rick Moody
7:30 p.m. Powell’s on Burnside Come hear excerpts from Rick Moody’s new book, Hotels of North America, a philosophical journey through life via hotel reviews.
THURSDAY NOV. 19 Quilt, Craft & Sew Fest Portland Expo Center Fee: $10 admission
Take the yellow line to avoid the parking charge and spend three days in make-and-take seminars, alongside looking at products and updated innovations and enjoying the company of other crafty folks such as yourself.
Women in Film Party
6 p.m. University Place Hotel Fee: $10 for non-members Join the Portland chapter of Women in Film for their sixth annual holiday gathering and networking event, where members and non-members alike meet up for chatting, talking about industry trends and just having some good old-fashioned holiday fun.
FRIDAY NOV. 20
SATURDAY NOV. 21
Paris is Burning
Holiday Vintage Fest
The movie that introduced the world to the underground scene of New York drag and influenced many modern queer people to remember their roots—and that voguing was ours long before it was Madonna’s—Paris is Burning is a retrospective with honesty and heart that should not be missed. Remastered from the original 16 mm print with the original aspect ratio!
Come shop for holiday- and birthday-gift treasures from among a myriad of vintage and eclectic trinkets meant to delight and to showcase years gone by. Think about trying to get there for 8:30 a.m. early-bird shopping. After all, the early bird does get the worm-shaped clock.
7:45 p.m. Whitsell Auditorium Fee: $9
Oregon Guitar Quartet 7:30 p.m. Lincoln Hall Mainstage Fee: $25
Jazz and classical guitar music, from the “fake” book where most music is kept, is blended by this four-person group to include the likes of Mozart and Brubeck in the same show.
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oregon Convention Center Fee: $12 (for early entry)
OryCon 37
Waterfront Portland Marriott Hotel Fee: $60 If Comic-Con can’t meet your needs, because you want something more focused or with fewer casual people crashing your party, OryCon might be the solution for you. Aimed at the sci-fi and fantasy crowds, OryCon provides a specific convention-meetup opportunity for the Eragons and Terry Pratchetts among us.
JOHN PINNEY
SUNDAY NOV. 22 German Holiday Market
10 a.m. German International School (Beaverton) Free Now in its 16th year, this free, traditional German market boasts many Christmas treasures focused in the Germanic and Bavarian regions of the world. Featuring many iconic treasures, such as the nutcracker and an over-21 spiced wine, this unique cultural opportunity provides you with a delicious and elevated way to prepare for your holidays.
Seeing Nature
Portland Art Museum Fee: $15 This special exhibit of 39 landscape paintings amassed by Paul G. Allen is presented in collaboration with the Allen Institute for Brain Science to bring a neurological perspective to the art of painting landscapes. Will be on display from now until early January, when it will wind its way down to New Orleans.
FEATURED EVENT Riverdance
Keller Auditorium Fee: $38 to $90 Friday: 7:30 p.m. Saturday Matinee: 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. We all laughed about Riverdance when it first came to America in the ’90s. It seemed so silly. When you think of Riverdance, you probably think about the million times it’s been lampooned. But it doesn’t stop, merely march-stomps onward. Riverdance cares nothing for your mockery because it is a brash and loud special-effects show of pure Irish dancing; despite our incessant need to knock it down, Riverdance always returns. You cannot escape the magic. You can only beg for mercy. There is only Riverdance. All hail Riverdance.
JOHN PINNEY
Scorpio (Oct. 23–Nov. 21)
We all have dreams, Scorpio. And we all have people who want those dreams to disappear because they themselves are afraid. Don’t listen to them.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22–Dec. 21)
You have fallen so many times that it is expected of you, but all those times have also led to you dusting yourself off and trying again.
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Capricorn (Dec. 22–Jan. 19)
People mistake your earnest and trusting nature for weakness and stupidity, but we both know it takes more strength to keep your heart on your sleeve than to push it back into your chest.
Aquarius (Jan. 20–Feb. 19)
Secretly, you’ve become worried that the persona you project might be who you really are. Maybe you don’t like that person in the mirror anymore?
Pisces (Feb. 20–March 19)
Taurus (April 20–May 20)
Aries (March 21–April 19)
Gemini (May 21–June 20)
Your self-assurance and hard-fought wisdom often shine through. Be a beacon of self-love, unabashed and unafraid. Ambition is your greatest friend and your worst enemy, Aries. It allows people to admire your drive but also pushes them away.
Vanguard | NOVEMBER 17, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
People didn’t always root for you. But your will to thrive has proven that you can overcome all obstacles in your way. The face you show the world is at odds with the love in your heart. Perhaps one day you can let it blossom.
Cancer (June 21–July 22)
People watch as you strut around, but they know this is just an image you’re trying to project. Let the real you shine through, Cancer.
Leo (July 23–Aug. 22)
You feel like you’re always being overshadowed by others, but you are a true leader, Leo, and you shouldn’t worry. Your magnificence will always shine through.
Virgo (Aug. 23–Sept. 22)
It took an unexpected circumstance to give you the strength to find your own voice, but now you are stronger than you were before, and everyone can see your potential.
Libra (Sept. 23–Oct. 22)
I wish I knew more about you, Libra. You’ve hidden yourself in the crowd for so long, even I’m losing sight of you. It’s time to make yourself known.
ETC
BY NIMI EINSTEIN
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ACROSS 1 Current affected hot cosmic rays regularly showing equal auroral display (10) 11 A Latin mass originally held inside for saint (7) 12 Open one local pub (5) 14 In the past, one taken in time and time again when money-changing (8) 15 Muslim ascetic somewhat put out by the French woman (6) 16 Odal, put another way (4) 17 Quickly dismisses charge, but in vain (4) 19 Cloth worn by Arab tramp, one hears (6) 21 Doctor may nurse abnormal swelling (8) 24 After a vote, elected leader of evangelists of God (8) 26 Make money illegally from career exchanging rubles for Bob (6) 27 Savoury meat and vegetable dish in a jar (4) 29 Leading character pulled out of Measure for Measure (4) 31 Middle East’s judicial legislature initially is to form council (6) 33 After long absence he returns, keeping calm in storm (8) 34 Lake in Irish county with no
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banks? (5) 35 Stamping ground incognito Tax Officer must abandon (7) 36 Fashion designer from Spanish city losing five grand invested in airline (10) DOWN 2 A large amount gets Lord tipsy (5) 3 Withered old roses lacking scent in New York? (8) 4 Cut off base of herb with knife (4) 5 More healthy after ‘e is brought in? (6) 6 In the North, Mark’s keeping Henry working as architect (8) 7 Japanese badge contains uranium particle (4) 8 Popular relation reportedly is subject to limitation of inheritance (2,4) 9 Monkey wrenches arousing no ardour, ultimately (7) 10 Die before priest’s turned up to yield comfort (10) 13 Do piranha perish without oxygen? It’s a matter of indifference (10) 18 Courier with kind expression? (4-4) 20 Tree sloth kept in pen ailed at first (8) 22 Unperceivable concepts
confused one university man (7) 23 Liqueur from Turkey, say, contained in it (6) 25 Concerning syphilis: cure it right away with a drop of lemon rum (6) 28 Fix up good old Chinese bread (5) 30 Article about lake, concerning hole in the bottom (4) 32 Marry after dropping single woman (4)
Vanguard | NOVEMBER 17, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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INTERNATIONAL
FRANCE DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY AFTER PARIS ATTACK PRESIDENT HOLLANDE PUTS BLAME ON ISIS FOR THE DEADLIEST ATTACK IN EUROPE SINCE 2004 PORTLAND STATE COMMUNITY y members observe a moment of silence in commemoration of the victims of an attack in central Paris.
JEOFFRY RAY/PSU VANGUARD
YUNI CHOI
Nohemi Gonzalez was a 23-year-old design student from Cal State Long Beach who was completing an exchange program in Paris, France. She was one of the victims of the tragic attacks in Paris last Friday, and the first confirmed American victim. The attacks shook the world and alarmed world leaders. As an institution that houses international students, the Portland State community shared their insight on the tragedy. “There seems to be a lot of unrest in the world recently,” said Amy Bell, a PSU senior studying biology. “All my condolences go to victims in the attack and their families.” “It’s very sad, but I also find it disturbing that our interest in these tragedies rises suddenly when a developed international city like Paris is affected,” said an art history student who chose to be anonymous. “This doesn’t minimize the loss, of course.” “It happened so suddenly,” said Sam Taylor, a member of student security at the PSU library. “Our problems don’t exist in one place, but are global.” The attack was carried out on Friday in multiple locations in France. The assault began at 9:20 p.m. with a suicide bomber outside the gates of the soccer stadium Stade de France, located in the outskirts of Paris, where the national exhibition match for French and German soccer was being held. The French president, Francois Hollande, was in attendance. Simultaneously, suicide bombings and
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shootings occurred at several popular French restaurants in Paris. Most casualties occurred, however, at the concert hall Bataclan. The current death toll is at 129 lives with more than 350 people injured. This is the deadliest attack in Europe since the 2004 train bombing in Madrid. President Hollande has declared a state of emergency in France. “It is an act of war that was committed by a terrorist army, a jihadist army, Daesh, against France,” announced Hollande, according to the New York Times. Although not verified yet, President Hollande blames the Daesh (the acknowledged replacement name for the Islamic State) for the attack: “France would act within the law but with all the necessary means, and on all terrains, inside and outside, in coordination with our allies…” There were three teams of attackers, armed with heavy weaponry and suicide vests, who carried out the deadly scheme. All assailants were killed in the attack. The attackers included a man with a Syrian passport, who possibly entered Europe in the recent surge of immigrants from Syria, and another native of a town outside Paris. The investigation is ongoing in Belgium and Germany as well; it is currently unclear how international and local intelligence agencies missed detecting such a lethal plan. The scene in Paris has changed dramatically since the attack. President Hollande has
declared three days of mourning in France. Public transportation has been halted, and public institutions—including schools, museums, libraries, pools and markets—are closed. According to Al Jazeera, the French authorities have banned public demonstrations until Nov. 19, fearing the risk of large gatherings. Affected individuals inside and outside of Paris are finding solidarity through social media. More than 48,000 people have signed up for the “A candle at every single window” campaign on Facebook to commemorate victims. Pope Francis and other world leaders have expressed their mourning. “There is no justification for such things, neither religious nor human,” Pope Francis said, according to the New York Times. “This is not human.” Assuming that the terrorist attacks were conducted by ISIS, as many claim, speculation can be made regarding the reason for the attack. Friday’s attack may be an extension of the organized shooting at Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical newspaper office, in January. France has participated in military action against ISIS in Syria and has attacked its oil operations. ISIS may have conducted this act of retaliation, as it has done in the bombing of a Shiite district of Beirut and the crash of a Russian passenger plane over Egypt. This may also have fulfilled the terrorist group’s ambition to be considered a global organization.
Vanguard | NOVEMBER 17, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
While the United States administration once held the opinion that such attacks were part of a “lone-wolf narrative”—that ISIS terror attacks were localized—this is no longer the case.
“The emphasis on lone wolves was all part of the wishful thinking that ISIS was purely a local phenomenon that could be contained to Syria and Iraq,” said Bruce Hoffman, director of the Center
for Security Studies at Georgetown, in the New York Times. This attack in Paris questions the terrorist capacity of ISIS and calls for a reassessment of their threat on a global scale.
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INTERNATIONAL
US SOLDIERS WITNESS AFGHAN SEX ABUSE
PRIVATE ESL LESSONS 8 YEARS ESL TEACHING EXPERIENCE
I will teach WHAT you want and I will teach HOW you want. Contact John at 503-643-7602 eslportland@gmail.com
SPECIAL FORCES OPERATIVES board a military helicopter in 2009 in preparation to build camps in Afghanistan. RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN BY THE UNITED STATES NAVY VIA LT. RICHARD L. LI
Multimedia at psuvanguard.com
ROBERT EVANS
An investigation by the New York Times revealed that it was U.S. policy for soldiers to ignore the sexual abuse of young boys by Afghan officials. After the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, the United States organized a coalition of Afghan militias to fight against the Taliban. The Taliban had instituted strict punishments for men found to be practicing “bacha bazi,” a Perisan word meaning boy-play. When the Taliban were ousted, many U.S.-backed militia, commanders and Afghan officials revived the practice. To find out more about this situation, I spoke with Dr. John Westerman, a professor at Portland State who spent months working in Afghanistan for Mercy Corps, an American aid agency that focuses on community development. He recalled boarding a plane in December 2002 and seeing the then-governor of Kandahar province traveling with a young boy. “I was really hoping the boy was a relative,” Westerman said, “but it seemed pretty clear what was going on. Everyone knew, but no one
could prove it—we were powerless to stop it.” The spokesman for the American command in Afghanistan, Colonel Brian Tribus, wrote a statement saying that “allegations of child sexual abuse…would be a matter of domestic Afghan criminal law.” Unless rape is used as a weapon of war. As the Pentagon would like to pretend that the abuse is strictly an Afghan problem, in 2012, three marines were killed on their base by an Afghan police commander’s sex slave. Two years earlier the very same Afghan police commander, Sarwar Jan, had been arrested on charges of corruption, supporting the Taliban and child abduction; however, as of September 2015, the Afghan police commander has been promoted to a higher position in the same province. Dan Quinn, a former Special Forces captain, said that the U.S. was “putting people into power who would do things that were worse than the Taliban did—that was something village elders voiced to me.” Quinn was relieved of his command and pulled from Afghanistan after battering an
Afghan police commander for “keeping a boy chained to his bed as a sex slave.” While the Afghan local police and Afghan national army are notorious for corruption, there is a clear line between embezzlement and sadism. There are many examples of abducted young boys being killed while trying to escape their captors. A prime example of this is in the documentary This Is What Winning Looks Like by Ben Anderson, where he talks about witnessing a boy being shot to death in the middle of a local Afghan police station. It’s important to remember that the people carrying out these atrocities are U.S. allies entrusted with the security of the Afghan people. U.S. military and financial support of kidnappers and child molesters only further alienates the Afghan population living under their rule. This issue is sure to persist, as President Barack Obama recently announced that larger numbers of U.S. forces will be staying in Afghanistan through the end of his term in 2017, longer than previously projected for the troop withdrawal timeline.
Speaking about the continued American military presence in Afghanistan, Westerman said, “It feels like we’ve broken things and we feel a responsibility to fix it, but I’m not sure that there is any way to do such a thing.” He added, “Had we not gone [into Afghanistan], it would have been brutally conservative, but potentially more peaceful.” As educated, globallyconscious students, we must demand accountability from the U.S. government when justice is substituted for expediency. This situation is not the fault of the brave U.S. soldiers fighting against the Taliban, but is due to policies instituted by a Pentagon desperate to find allies against the Taliban. Cultural relativism is no excuse for the sexual abuse of children, and if the U.S. wants to protect and win over the Afghan people, then maybe the U.S. should stop appointing pedophiles to positions of power.
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For an informative video on the Afghan war, government corruption and commentary from Ben Anderson, winner of the Foreign Press Award, please go to PSUVanguard.com for a link to the video.
Vanguard | NOVEMBER 17, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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