PORTLAND STATE VANGUARD
VOLUME 69 | ISSUE 34 | MAY 19, 2015
Bound
in history Students analyze library's first full medieval manuscript in art history seminar NEWS
OPINION
ARTS & CULTURE
SPORTS
PSUcers. offi faculty pg. 6unions kick off bargaining with rally. pg. 5
Think the campus. pg. word 9 zeitgeist is cool? Think you're using the word dichotomy correctly? Think again! pg. 8
Local developer pients. pg. 16 copes with loss of loved one through virtual space. pg. 17
O u r o w n pg. Marathon. P r o23f e s s o r S p o r t b a l l educates you on Deflategate. pg. 20
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Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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NEWS
International Night highlights diversity at PSU Miles Sanguinetti
the
International Night brought people from around the world to the first three floors of Smith Memorial Student Union. Attendees were treated to a multitude of educational booths run by international students, song and dance performances from a wide variety of countries, and a fashion show in the Smith Ballroom, which incorporated a culturally diverse array of both modern and traditional outfits. The annual event was held on May 15 this year and was free to PSU students. Eugene Smith, a half-British, half-Korean exchange student, said a big part of International Night is giving attendees a taste of different cultures from across the globe. Though he was unsure of the exact number, there were over 50 countries represented at the event, according to Smith. “The different rooms are divided into different regions, and people have brought in
food, people have brought in artifacts, and a lot of people are wearing their native clothing,” Smith said. “On the third floor [there was] a big performance area, so it really is about a gathering of different ideas and perspective, which is what culture is all about in the end.” Smith has been a part of a scholarship program for international students called the International Cultural Service Program since January. Cultural presentations like the one he hosted at International Night are fairly common for members of the program, he said. “Portland isn’t necessarily well known for its diversity, but there is diversity,” Smith said. “It’s just a bit more spread out. It’s less noticeable than it is in cities like San Francisco or New York...This is an opportunity for people who are interested in that, so I think it is quite important, especially for a city like Portland.”
Haneen Ali, a foreign exchange student from Iraq, said that the event was a great opportunity to share her thoughts, background and culture with other students. “We have now struggled with many issues,” Ali said. “I want to tell people that we still have people who love to live and love to be educated, love to learn, love to travel and see the world.” The event helped Ali earn hours toward her scholarship, she added. “I’m looking, as I said, to talk with people and...highlight or focus on the important things of Iraq,” Ali said “We still have life, we still have history, we still have people who want to serve their country.” Hailing from Uganda, Gorrety Parmu set up a booth at International Night in hope of teaching attendees about her country’s culture and scenery. “People can get interested, they can go to places for tourism—tourists can eventually go there—so I’m really hoping
International Night included a fashion show that showcased both modern and traditional outfits from around the world. Miles sanguinetti/PSU VANGUARD
this is going to be a great day for Uganda,” Parmu said. Some of the big attractions from Uganda are its landscape and wide variety of rare animals, according to Parmu. “Another thing is it has the source of the river Nile, which is the longest river in the world,” Parmu said. “That is something that really anyone would want to know and see in person.” International Night plays a role in welcoming people from different countries to Portland and establishing the city’s role
as a multicultural environment, according to Parmu. Luisa Lamas Dalmaso, a Brazilian exchange student studying at PSU, was one of the attendees drawn to the event. “I actually liked it a lot,” Dalmaso said. “I didn’t think there was going to be a Brazilian stand, which is my country, and I was surprised there was. So I really liked it.” According to Dalmaso, “Events like International Night are helpful in exposing
Portlanders to different cultures from around the world.” “I hope everybody enjoyed it as much as I did,” Dalmaso said. “I really think this event is very important,” Parmu said. “First of all, it brings out the different cultures in the world...It brings out the uniqueness of each country, with the foods, with the traditions, with the clothing.” For multimedia content, please see the web version at psuvanguard.com.
AAUP and PSUFA 'Imagine' Bargaining kicks off with faculty union rally
Organizers prepared for ahead of a rally hosted jointly by the American Association of University Professors and the PSU Faculty Association. lisa dunn/PSU VANGUARD
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Demonstrators march from the Park Blocks toward the Market Center Building in a show of support for adjuncts. Jeoffry ray/PSU VANGUARD
Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
lisa dunn
Portland State’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors kicked off bargaining with a rally on May 6. The rally was a joint action with the PSU Faculty Association, the union for part-time faculty and staff. The theme of the event was “Imagine”: “Imagine higher education: Student-centered. Educatorled. Debt-free.” Jose Padín, AAUP’s Vice President of Grievances and Academic Freedom and a sociology professor, emceed the event. Members of AAUP, SEIU, PSUFA and students gathered on the Park Blocks. People held signs that read, “Our working conditions [are] student learning condi-
tions” and “Job security for educators.” There were also signs with the “Imagine” slogan. Participants then marched to the Market Center Building and delivered a cupcake to President Wim Wiewel. “The rally was great,” said Pam Miller, president of AAUP. “It was a beautiful morning and the turnout was amazing…There were students, faculty, allies and lots of signs and enthusiasm.” AAUP started bargaining with PSU on May 7. They will meet with the university 11 more times throughout spring and summer terms. PSUFA starts bargaining with PSU later this month.
NEWS
It was the best of steins
Grads cap off year with commemoretive Rogue ale
Evan Birkeland
Oregon brewing mainstay Rogue Ales will celebrate its newest specialty brew, dubbed Rogue Viktory Ale, with a release party entitled “The Dare, Risk, Dream Graduation Party,” held at Rogue Hall on the Portland State campus on May 21. The new beer, emblazoned with an image of a Viking adorned in cap and robe and spearing what looks like a term paper, is dedicated to PSU’s 2015 graduating class. The beer will be available at Rogue breweries and at the PSU bookstore two weeks before finals, according to a May 11 press release from the brewery. In accordance with PSU’s focus on environmental sustainability and local business practices, the beer was made using ingredients grown by Rogue in Oregon. “We are farmers, brewers, and distillers who grow our
own,” Anna Abatzoglou said in an email. Abatzoglou is the Marketing Manager at Rogue Ales and a PSU graduate. “Although growing our own hops, rye, barley, marionberries, pumpkins, jalapeños, hazelnuts, cucumbers and raising 19 colonies of bees on our two farms in Oregon all come with risks, we know that this gives us the highest quality proprietary ingredients to make world class Oregon grown beers, ciders, sodas and spirits,” she added. In the press release, Rogue Ales President Brett Joyce congratulated this year’s graduating class. “PSU students have been a vital part of our Portland Community, as friends, neighbors, and customers,” Joyce said in the press release. “They have spent a lot of time doing homework and studying for exams at
Rogue Hall, we’re virtually on the campus map.” “We wanted to say congratulations with a beer just for them,” Joyce added. “They certainly earned it.” Abatzoglou spoke to Rogue’s prior relationship with PSU. “We've always had a great relationship with PSU; from Portland State IPA to Rogue Hall—in fact we got that space from a PSU [Master’s of Business Administration] graduate student who used to own the restaurant/bar—there is always a community connection,” Abatzoglou said. “Several PSU grads worked on Viktory Ale, including the graphic designer and marketing manager. We are also good friends with PSU’s Director of Communications Scott Gallagher, who used to work at Rogue.” The ale will be lighter in flavor than Rogue’s previous
PSU-themed beer, Portland State India Pale Ale. In the press release it was labeled as being “deep honey in color with malty aromas, fruity notes and a long, spicy finish.” Wiewel discussed Rogue’s involvement with the PSU community. “Ultimately, PSU exists to serve Oregonians and contributes to the economic vitality of the state by providing jobs today and training the workforce of tomorrow,” Wiewel said in the press release. “Rogue recognizes the importance of higher education in making our community a better place to live and work. And they make darn good beer.” Rogue began its involvement with PSU at the start of 2010 with the release of its Portland State IPA. A year later, they opened Rogue Hall in what used to be Paccini’s.
Rogue’s new Viktory ale will debut on May 21 in a celebration commemorating the graduating class of 2015. Christian Profeta/PSU Vanguard
That beer was sold in the Public House in the Pearl District, in Rogue Hall and in the Rogue Ales Distillery. At the time of its release there had been no previous beer
named after, or made in tandem with, a public university. “We’re being associated with a local brand, but also a quality brand,” Wiewel said in the same Oregonian article.
PSU and Portland Police team up to map crime Elizabeth Hendrickson
Bicycles crowd the bike corral outside of Shattuck Hall. According to the new crime data website statistics, bicycle theft is the only listed crime on the rise. jeoffry ray/PSU VANGUARD
A crime analysis team at Portland State collaborated with the Portland Police Bureau to create an accessible database of common crimes in Portland over the past 20 years. The database features include summaries of annual trends of reported incidents, charts depicting what day and time crimes are most likey to occur, and hot spot animation maps for each specific offense. Compiling the database revealed unanticipated trends. “A majority of Portlanders and a majority of citizens across the country believe that crime is going up,” said Katelyn Bonn, a graduate student on the crime analysis team. “In fact, crime has been dropping very steadily in the past 20 years. What we wanted to do was create an interactive website where people can go and get real crime data and information about their own neighborhood, their own city, in an accessible format.”
Thirteen common index crimes were selected for the current database, including assault, burglary, vandalism and bicycle theft. “We chose to leave off the big ones—murder and rape— but it’s a good thing, actually,” Bonn said. “We just don’t have enough data in Portland because we don’t have enough of those crimes.” Bicycle theft is the only crime in the database with increasing rates. In 2013, 2,307 bike thefts were reported compared to the 1,260 bikes reported stolen in 1995. “In these 13 [categories of ] offenses, a majority of them have gone down significantly since 1995, with one very notable exception, and that is bike theft,” Bonn said. “Overall, we’ve had a 50 percent increase [in bike theft] since 1995. That is the only crime that happened with, but certainly pertinent to a lot of Portlanders who care for their bikes quite a bit.” Despite the increase in bike thefts, the crime analysis
team and Portland Police Bureau data revealed that Portland’s crime rates are lower than expected. “The biggest thing that we want people to take away from the website is as citizens, we’re safer than we think we are,” Bonn said. “On the whole, we can feel much
safer walking around our city than we’ve been led to believe in the past.” Bonn said she hopes PSU students and Portland residents will visit the website and see this for themselves. The database can be found at pdx.edu/crime-data.
Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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NEWS
Campus community members line up at the Harvest Share pavilion in the PSU Park Blocks. Courtesy of the Oregon Food Bank
The Portland State Harvest Share will now run every second Monday, offering students and visitors free seasonal produce. Courtesy of the Oregon Food Bank
Harvest Share returns to feed almost 1,300 people Kara Erny
Last week, roughly 1,300 people took home over 6,500 pounds of fresh produce from Portland State’s second official Harvest Share. In April, the Oregon Food Pantry partnered with Portland State to create Harvest Share, a program that gives fresh fruits and vegetables to students, staff and community members. Harvest Share takes place on the second Monday of every month on the Park Blocks in front of Shattuck Hall. “[Harvest Share is] a collaboration with the Oregon Food Bank,” said Jessica Cole, associate director for Student Health and Counseling and co-chair for the Committee for Improving Student Food Security. “They actually have many
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Harvest Share sites around the state, but they have not had one in the downtown Portland area.” According to the CISFS website, the first Harvest Share in April provided fresh fruits and vegetables to over 1,130 individuals and logged over 95 volunteer hours. Cole said that at the most recent share on May 11, a total of 1,299 individuals were served and 6,541 pounds of food were given out. “We have a large homeless population in the downtown population area,” Cole said. “We have a very large food insecure population, but we also have this beautiful university and we have a lot of struggling, hungry college students here, as our data shows us, so it was a great op-
portunity to partner with the food bank.” According to the Oregon Food Bank’s website, there are over 22 Harvest Share locations in the Portland area. Harvest Share runs rain or shine and involves many volunteers. “[The Oregon Food Bank was] hoping to find a downtown Portland location for Harvest Share since one of their partner agencies stopped doing it a few months back, and so it just became a perfect opportunity for us to do this as part of our committee work and for them to reach a population of people within the Portland campus community,” said Ann Mestrovich, Employer Relations Coordinator in Advising and Ca-
Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
reer Services and co-chair for the CISFS. The Oregon Food Bank also collaborates with the Student Food Pantry located in Smith Memorial Student Union, which purchases and is given much of its stock from the food bank, and some of the left over produce from Harvest Share is given to the food pantry. “Harvest Share comes, they do their thing, I stop by towards the end with a couple of volunteers and then we take any leftover produce up to the food pantry,” said Liddy Champion, the ASPSU Student Food Pantry coordinator. “Food insecurity, at its most essential and most basic, is not knowing where your next meal comes from,” Champion said.
PSU’s Harvest Share was started after studies conducted through Western Oregon University and PSU’s graduate school of Social Work showed that a large percentage of students were food insecure. From there, Cole and Mestrovich were asked to co-chair CISFS. “One of the things that the food insecurity assessment showed us is that the top concern of students when accessing emergency food resources was access to fresh fruits and vegetables,” Cole said. The next Harvest Share will take place on June 8. Harvest Share will continue throughout the summer term. “We’re a little bit nervous to see what summer
is going to be like, because students go away from campus,” Cole said. “But we’re really hoping that students will continue to come onto campus for this great opportunity and that, particularly during summertime when financial aid is not available, that they’ll really want to utilize this resource because it is a free food opportunity.” “We’re always looking for volunteers to help us,” Mestrovich said. “We’ve been around for less than a year, and while we’ve, I think, accomplished a lot, there’s certainly more to be done.” For more information on Harvest Share, CISFS and how to volunteer, visit the committee website at pdx. edu/studentaffairs/CISFS.
NEWS are you a leader? now hiring! STUDENT MEDIA ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER E A R N R E A L M O N E Y ( H O U R LY + C O M M I S S I O N ) A N D G E T VA L U A B L E , P R A C T I C A L E X P E R I E N C E ! Our student Advertising Sales Manager is responsible for leading the student sales team that generates print and online advertising sales to meet and beat annual VANGUARD revenue goals, as well as cross-selling into other Student Media publications and outlets, including the Spectrum magazine, the Rearguard, PSU-TV and KPSU Radio.
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JOB DUTIES INCLUDE:
+ Service existing accounts, prospect for and develop new business clients, on the phone and in person.
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+ Hire, help train, motivate and regularly evaluate the advertising sales staff. + Conduct weekly sales meetings to review progress toward sales quotas and to plan group sales campaigns.
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+ Develop multimedia marketing campaigns for advertisers.
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+ Work with the production department and communicate with student ad designers to accomplish client goals, meeting all deadlines. + Document sales activities and maintain an organized schedule to maximize results. + Manage the sales staff to strive to meet and exceed monthly sales revenue goals.
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With a flexible schedule, this 20-hour per week position provides the opportunity to enhance you resume with real world sales/management experience in a supportive learning environment.
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Candidates must be PSU students taking 8 credit hours or more with an institutional GPA or 2.5 or higher. No experience necessary, sophomore or junior standing preferred and all majors are welcome. This position starts in June 2015, through June 2016.
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P LE A S E S EN D YOUR R ES UME + COV E R L ET TER BY MAY 22 TO PS U S T UDEN T MEDIA ADV E R TISING ADVISER:
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CRIME BLOTTER
jaime dunkle
May 11
May 14
May 16
Campus Rec Center Officer James Dewey was dispatched to investigate a stolen backpack at 8:30 a.m. A white male was caught on camera taking the backpack from an unsecured locker. His picture was given to the Rec Center staff. They were instructed to call campus safety if he is seen again.
SW Broadway/SW Jackson While on patrol, a student flagged down Officer Dewey at 2:15 p.m. on the corner of SW Broadway and SW Jackson. A note from a bystander was attached to the victim’s scratched and dented Toyota Sienna. The note included the license plate number of the alleged perpetrator.
Parking Structure Three Officer Gary Smeltzer took three car prowl reports at 11:40 a.m. Each car had broken windows. The crimes occurred between 8:45 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.  A MacBook Pro was stolen from a car parked on the ramp between the first and second floors. A MacBook Air, iPod, North Face backpack and prescription glasses were stolen from a Toyota Forerunner parked on the northwest corner of the second floor. A bag filled with more than $100 of makeup was stolen from a Hyundai Elantra parked on the ramp between the first and second floor. Video footage did not reveal anyone of interest.
Theft
May 13
Medical Assist
Student Health and Counseling Services An intoxicated male collapsed face-first near SW 6th and SW College at 3 p.m. SHAC employees helped the male; he refused detox and medical assistance. He was walked to the MAX station nearby.
HIT AND RUN
May 15
Missing Person Located
Hoffman Hall, SW Side Officers Chris Fischer and Kenneth Eugene contacted a registered missing person from California at 7:51 p.m. The officers told the person to notify the church he thought reported him missing.
Week of May 11-18 Three Car Prowls
THEFT
May 17
Vue Apartments Garage At around 2:40 p.m., a student reported the Diamondback Edgewood she rented from PSU Bike Hub was stolen from the garage between May 5 and 13, according to Officer Brian Rominger. The bike was purple with yellow fenders. The serial number was obtained from the Bike Hub and entered into the Law Enforcement Data System and the National Crime Information Center.
EXCLUSIONS
Parking Structure Three Officer Dewey found two people sleeping on the outside of the southwest stairwell of the parking structure at 8:30 a.m. “Human waste, orange hypodermic needle caps, burnt tin foil and garbage� covered the stairwell. When Officer Dewey asked the two people what the paraphernalia was being used for, they said it was “just for weed.� They were issued exclusions and then left.
May 18
Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine and Exclusion
Blumel, East Side Officer Michael Anderson contacted an individual near the dumpsters on the east side of Blumel at 2:15 p.m. Reports suggested he was “tweaking and hiding in the area� for four hours. A bag of “crystal substance� was seized on scene. It tested negative for meth and cocaine on scene, but the bag’s contents tested positive for meth at the Campus Public Safety Office. The case will be submitted to the District Attorney’s Office.
Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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OPINION
Adjunct faculty: The new underappreciated factory worker Against the Current
by Sebastian Richardson When I first began my time here at Portland State, I was hopelessly optimistic that my education was worth the investment and would put me ahead in life. As my junior year comes to a close, even walking across the campus puts a bad taste in my mouth. Not a day goes by I don’t think about my loan debt and wish I had gone into the trades. Don’t get me wrong, I value my education more than I do anything else, but if I died tomorrow all I’d have to show for my short time on this earth is my good grades and the ridiculous amount of textbooks and supplementary materials I’ve collected. While I still have a shred of respect left for modern American universities, its slowly being eroded by the fact that most universities seem hell-bent on sucking dry every single person who has the misfortune of stepping onto their campus for more than 30 minutes. Everyone here at PSU has had at least one experience where the university charged them too much for something. Whether that was for returning a library book late, signing up for housing, dropping a class, rescheduling a final or buying the overpriced first edition of a textbook, every student has found out that tuition rates are just half the battle. It’s hard to see universities as the nonprofit institutions they claim to be, given their track records. I wouldn’t be surprised if they began outsourcing jobs to Asia. One of the largest and most concerning problems that faces the modern American university today is the startling amount of professors who are in adjunct positions. In 1969 less than 19 percent of professors worked part-time in adjunct positions, and today that number has skyrocketed to 75 percent. These professors often make wages below the poverty line. That means classes you will take at PSU might be taught by people with Ph.D.s who can’t even afford to pay their bills, let alone buy their food. While adjunct faculty probably learned how to spend only $10 per week on food during their time in school, that shouldn't be a reality for them for the rest of their lives. There are many reasons for this trend, and people are quick to point fingers at administrators, university presidents and a lack of fair labor practice. However, I think there is a deeper cause for this trend rooted in the current American conception of the university. People now see college as a place where education will lead to prosperity or economic stability and not a place where they will educate themselves or seriously invest time doing scholarly research. It appears this idea of the university as a risky financial investment has begun to creep into how the university runs and makes hiring decisions. At times it seems universities are run like a cold, calculating, multinational corporation, rather than a place of higher learning. For example, between 2009 and 2012, the salaries of university presidents went up 14 percent, averaging at about $544,000. Some universities saw this figure increase to $974,000.
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RICO MACIAS zEPEDA/PSU VANGUARD
Not surprisingly, at the 25 universities with the highest paid presidents, more than twice the national average of adjunct professors were hired and student debt increased at a faster rate. While this may be a correlation and not a cause, I feel it’s something to keep in mind when universities claim they can’t pay professors living wages without raising tuition. If they can give administrators raises and start large building projects, they can probably invest some money when it comes to the academic side of the university. It seems adjunct professors are treated like low-level WalMart employees. Luckily for them, there’s a nice surplus of individuals with M.A.s and Ph.D.s desperate for work, and if you don’t like how you’re treated they’ll find someone else. This is not only unfair to those who have spent seven years or more studying and conducting research to become an expert in their field, but it’s also unfair to students who truly come to a university to learn. In order for students to really get something out of their education, there need to be well-paid, well-trained scholars who aren’t overworked, under appreciated and treated like second-rate employees. As long as the university is treated like a vocational school that hands out pieces of paper that will simply be put on resumes, this will most likely remain a problem. If students are not truly invested in their education, then they will not give much thought to how academic faculty are treated. If a student isn’t dedicated to scholarship and research, you can guarantee
Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
the school won’t be particularly concerned with providing professional scholars a living wage. Universities know this and take advantage of it. They know a good portion of people who enroll at a university these days, especially at an urban campus like PSU, want to get in, get out and find a job. And even if you are dedicated to the idea of teaching, scholarly research universities don’t treat you like a scholar in the making, they treat you like a consumer who can be exploited and then potentially exploited again later for unlivable wages. In my mind, there are many ways to help the symptoms of the current adjunct crisis; unions, petitions and compromises with the administration are just some of them. However, this and student debt are a symptom of a larger problem: the shifting of universities away from academic scholarship to degree factories. Under this current system, students are the cheap toys sold at Wal-Mart and adjunct faculty are the overworked laborers working frantically to get us out of the factory and onto shelves. I hope that in future years we will realize that running a university in such a way only hurts educators and students. Deep down, I can’t help but feel the whole system needs to fall apart in order for that to happen. While I hope things improve in the near future, we need to not only make a conscious effort to improve the position of adjunct faculty, but also the reputation of America’s public universities.
OPINION
State politics have larger impact at home than national politics That's What's the Matter by Kevin Rackham People, myself included, have already started shifting their focus and rampant speculation to the presidential elections, even though it’s only May of 2015. As big and entertaining as presidential races are, some of the most important things happening in 2016 will be at a local level. It’s time to start paying attention to state politics, because they’re probably going to affect us more than whoever sits in the White House for four years. States take action on issues that take Congress years to address or are sometimes never addressed at all. The last year has been huge for marriage equality and marijuana legalization, the two pet issues of college-aged voters everywhere. Marriage equality in the U.S. went from being a fringe issue to a mainstream issue in a matter of years. That happened because of states.
It took Oregon a couple tries to legalize same-sex marriage, but we were still one of the first. National narratives and movement existed around the issue, but the sustained work of organizations like Basic Rights Oregon got the issue on the ballot and ensured that people actually came out to vote. This week, Gov. Kate Brown signed Senate Bill 941, requiring background checks on private gun sales. Let’s be honest, a big part of the reason we care about national politics and the presidential election is for the narratives and drama that they create. Not only are state issues just as important, if not more important, than state politics, they have just as much drama and excitement as national politics. As SB 941 was being debated, the Capitol was packed with open-carry gun rights supporters who loudly and frequently interrupted meetings, creating an atmosphere of palpable stress and tension for everyone in the building. Three of Oregon’s recently elected legislators are in the middle of recall fights initiated by Second Amendment groups. Oregon politics are filled with tons of scandals and stories way more interesting than Kitzhaber’s resignation. Creating change on the local level is also easier than at the national level. We see big demonstrations and marches at the White House or in the National Mall all the time, but when you march hundreds of people to a city council meeting and park them in the state capitol all day, you get a lot more bang for your buck.
Personal stories mean more at this level. Three hundred people, most of them Latino students, packed the state capitol in February of 2013 for tuition equity, a bill that legislators had been trying to pass since 2003. Their testimony and presence persuaded tearful legislators to finally pass the bill, which allows undocumented Oregon residents to pay the same tuition rate as in-state students. In 2012, my capstone class developed a proposal called Pay It Forward and pitched it to legislators. It was introduced as a study bill in the 2013 legislature, and now, two years later, the legislator is scheduled to vote next month on a Pay It Forward pilot program that would provide debt-free higher education to 1,000 Oregon students and evaluate the long-term feasibility of instituting that program across the state. Twenty-five other states are in the process of starting similar legislation. In 2016 we’ll vote on the president, but we’ll also be voting for a host of issues and candidates who will shape the course of our state’s future. The minimum wage bill that Sen. Peter Courtney decided he didn’t want to see passed is already on its way to the ballot. It’ll also be a year where the Independent Party of Oregon, one of the only minor parties to achieve major party status, has to start fielding its own candidates instead of cross-nominating ones from Republicans and Democrats. As the year progresses, while you enjoy Ted Cruz and company fighting it out and Hillary Clinton running rapidly toward the left to negate Bernie Sanders, don’t forget that some of the most important stuff is happening here at home.
OREGON STUDENTS rally against tuition increases in front of the State Capitol in Salem in Feb. 2015. • SILVIA CARDULLO/PSU VANGUARD
Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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OPINION
Prices are up, attendance is down Going to the movie theater is a costly adventure The Bigger Picture by Brenden Leary It’s hard to be in the movie theater business nowadays. With the rise of streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, many people today are deciding to stay home when it comes to watching cinema, and they have reason to. With ticket prices constantly increasing, it’s becoming pretty costly.
COURTESY OF JORGE ROYAN THROUGH CREATIVE COMMONS
According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of tickets sold in 2013 slipped around 1.5 percent, from 1.36 billion to 1.34 billion. They also reported an 11 percent drop in overall ticket sales between 2004 and 2013. In January, Time Magazine reported that people are less likely to go to the movies because they think tickets are overpriced, which is becoming a
kayla toWnsley
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common belief for the average citizen. Going to the movies is starting to become more of a luxury than ever before. As a former employee of Regal Cinemas, I am more than aware of how outrageous prices can be. I’ve had my fair deal of furious customers accusing me of ripping them off (because obviously I’m the one who dictates the prices). I decided to test the waters on a Saturday afternoon and see how much damage would be done to my wallet. A regular adult ticket to see Birdman ended up costing me $11, and with a small popcorn and a small drink, the total came to $25. We entered the theater around 10 minutes before the starting time, assuming we’d have to in order to avoid straining our necks in the front row. To our surprise, we entered an empty theater. I wasn’t expecting anything huge, but the fact that only nine people (including us) ended up present for the showing was a tad shocking. These companies know about their turnout rate. The only way movie theaters make profit nowadays is through concessions sold at the theater, where only around a quarter of moviegoers buy food and drinks. This is why you see such high prices at concession stands. For example, according to The Inquisitr, a small bucket of movie theater popcorn will cost around $5, which is more per ounce than a filet mignon. When compared to the price popcorn should actually be, they concluded we’re paying over 1,200 percent more than what it’s actually worth. Some companies have even tried to create a more sophisticated (and costly) experience for a moviegoer. An example would be Regal Cinemas and their creation of the Regal Premium Experience, also known as RPX. For about an extra $4, you get to experience the “first-class of movie theaters,” full of rocking chairs, bigger screens and louder sounds. Unfortunately, that’s all that you really get out of it. There isn’t much to differentiate between the two. As I settled down to watch Birdman, I started to see why theaters have still managed to exist. The transition to digital cinema has improved the sharpness and quality on screen, and the roaring sound from the speakers engulfs you into the film. Hell, they’ve even managed to improve the fabric of their seats while throwing in some leather arm rests as the cherry on top. Birdman turned out to be one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while, and my hidden craving for Sour Patch Kids was finally met. I wasn’t sure if it was due to me being an economics major (opportunity costs are my weakness), but what stops me from concluding my experience as something worthwhile was the fact that I knew the $25 I spent could’ve been used to do a multitude of other things. What does the future of movie theaters look like? Well, it’s looking pretty bland. There will be the occasional must-see-intheaters film, but it’s likely that you won’t be seeing as many filled seats as you’re used to. The rise of binge-watching a Netflix series is transforming how people spend their leisure, yet your wallet will probably thank you.
OPINION
The language of the “educated”
Stop using long words you don't understand
Page by Page by Brie Barbee My least favorite word is zeitgeist, which came to English directly from German and roughly translates to “the spirit of the time.” Maybe it’s because the word never comes up in everyday conversation or that most people seem to use it incorrectly when it does, but I really can’t stand the word. After this term, I’ll be done with my minor in German; I really love the language, so you’d think that I’d like the word, or at least be neutral toward it. But no, I really hate it. There is something so overly pretentious about the word zeitgeist that, even when it’s used correctly, it really gets under my skin. Words like zeitgeist make me think about the uses for language and how going to a university shapes the way that we speak and understand the world. As students, we all go to school in order to learn new things, new concepts, new words and new ideas.
We all want to get smarter and understand subjects we didn’t understand before, but there is often a fine line between using a new word that you’ve learned intelligently and using so many long or unnecessary words that you no longer speak like a normal person. For me, this idea seems especially exemplified with the word zeitgeist. For others, words like dichotomy—a division or contrast between two things—rub them the wrong way. Everyone has different words or phrases that they simply don’t like or will avoid using, and the idea of disliking certain words or someone’s word choice seems fairly universal. From personal preferences to personal experiences, language is different for all of us, and the way that we choose to speak can go a long way in determining the way other people perceive us. No one likes to talk to someone who is constantly using words the listener doesn’t understand. With the knowledge that we will undoubtedly continue to gain knowledge throughout our schooling and subsequent careers, it’s important to understand the way our educations can shape the way other people view us. Just as it’s important to learn new words for your own understanding, it’s also important to learn the way that other people will react to these new ideas and where these ideas have a place in our lives. Some ideas or ways of speaking are only deemed acceptable in certain situations. I wouldn’t talk to my friends the same way I would talk to my mom. If I switched the way I talked around them, it would cause a lot of confusion.
Your gender doesn't define you ELISE FURLAN/PSU VANGUARD
Vices and Virtues by Carli Gibson
As I sit here scrolling through my Facebook feed, I encounter some of the most intriguing—and argumentstimulating—posts. What I’m noticing about a majority of these posts and shares is that they boil down to one thing: gender stereotypes. For example, as I type this, there are two pictures that sit side-by-side before me; one reads, “Real men still do this,” with a picture of a man holding a door open, and the other, “Real women still do this,” with a picture of a woman cooking in the kitchen. While there’s nothing wrong with men who hold doors open or women who cook, there is something troubling about labeling it so that only the real people of a certain gender do certain things.
PHOTO: CHAVELIN GONZALEZ/PSU VANGUARD • ILLUSTRATION: RACHAEL BENTZ/PSU VANGUARD
The way we speak and learn to speak at school is very similar to the different ways we speak to different people, but sometimes it’s easy to forget that. The way that you talk in your classes is likely tailored to that specific environment and doesn’t always translate to other situations. It might not seem strange to you, but I can guarantee that other people are going to notice when your speech doesn’t fit the situation in the way they believe it should. Your use of long words and area-specific jargon is not likely to impress your friends like you think it might. Keep that way of speaking to an academic setting, and please, please, please, avoid any mention of zeitgeist.
We’re putting out these past-time stereotypes and circulating them throughout the internet for our youth to see; our future generations will work even more than we already do to break down these stereotypes, yet here some of us are trying to hold them back. Let’s face it, we’re in a new age. We have stay-at-home dads, women who are sole providers for their families, and more. Men can live in what society has deemed the woman’s role and still be a person, a real person and vice versa. Your actions don’t make you any more or less of a man or woman. Another picture I scroll past is one that lists all the roles a woman should play in a relationship, and they basically boil down to a woman waiting on a man hand and foot. You can be a woman who waits on her significant other hand and foot, but— for the sake of future generations—let’s take away the stigma that playing that role is the only way to be a real woman. Rather than focusing on becoming society’s definition of a real man or woman, perhaps we should put more of a focus on being a good person. Whether or not a person waits hand and foot on their significant other shouldn’t determine whether or not they are better than the next person. How they treat others, regardless of gender, should be of more value when learning about another person. And by this I don’t mean we should bombard our Facebook feeds with pictures and posts of “You’re only a good person if...” because there are a million ways to be a good person, just as there are limitless ways to be your gender. Our genders don’t define what we’re capable of. We’re humans—we have brains, hands, feet, muscle—and we’re more than capable of doing other than what society deems is our role. Let’s stop spreading the message that we’re only capable of what real men and women are capable of. We’re all real, and our genders don’t define that realness. Next time you scroll by a gender-stereotyped post, do society a favor and stop the spread of this madness. Don’t feed in to societal expectations of what is expected of our genders. Instead, play the role you want to play, regardless of your gender.
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COVER
Bound
in history
Students analyze library's first full medieval manuscript in art history seminar
Brandon Staley
S
troll by the elevators in the Branford Price Mil-
lar Library and you might notice a curious array of ancient texts and the tools used to create them. Nestled discreetly among this display is a little book, perpetually cracked open so that a single ornate, colorful page is prominently displayed. That book is a book of hours, and it is the library’s first full medieval manuscript acquisition—or in more easily digestible terminology: a medieval book. The exhibit is the result of an art history seminar conducted over winter term and led by Professor Anne McClanan. The story starts further back than that, though. “It’s taken a year of planning,” McClanan said. The library’s special collections department acquired the book in May of 2013, and McClanan was instrumental in selecting the text. Books of hours are Christian religious texts and common in the world of rare book dealers. At one point it was more common to own a book of hours than it was a Bible. As a result, books of hours have significant teaching value. “If you’re teaching art history, a lot of the images are of things that kings owned,” McClanan said. “This testifies more to the material culture of a wider spectrum of the population.” Over the course of the 10-week seminar, 12 students were tasked with analyzing the book of hours from multiple perspectives. Once their analysis was done, they designed and organized a physical exhibit, and even produced a series of short podcasts for digital exhibition, based on their respective areas of study. Those areas of study include everything from marginalia—the illustrations, colors and symbols often found in the margins of medieval texts—to the chemical makeup of the materials used to create the book of hours.
Mysterious origins Shirleanne Ackerman Gahan, a senior majoring in art history, studied the origins of Portland State’s book of hours. “The popularity of books of hours is still kind of astounding,” Ackerman Gahan said. “They were really popular, and a lot of people had at least one. It’s cool it think that people had these books and that they were really treasured, special objects.” For many people, a book of hours wasn’t just precious—it was their only book. “It’s cool to think of a whole family sharing this one book,” Ackerman Gahan said. Because books of hours gained popularity in an era before the printing press, each one is handcrafted and unique in its own way. Wealthy patrons would sometimes opt to commission their own customized versions and would sometimes include their family’s coat of arms, inscriptions or portraits. Details like these help to narrow down the identity of the previous owner. Many books of hours, though, are more standardized and feature sparse customization. Such is the case with PSU’s copy.
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While the university’s book of hours is light on customization, there are a few clues that point to—if not the exact owner of the book—at least class-standing and region. The presence of two additional prayers and the absence of additional customization indicate that the original owner of the book was Parisian and likely not of noble birth. Despite the details, the identity of the initial owner of the book of hours remains a mystery. In the world of medieval manuscript analysis, though, that’s not surprising. “I was mostly expecting there to be a lot of loose ends,” Ackerman Gahan said. “Obviously, I would be thrilled if I was able to find more distinct information. Since I had researched books of hours before, I knew I wouldn’t be able to find some things. “Sometimes research leads just come to a dead end.”
Preserving words A common misconception about religious texts from the Middle Ages is that they were made by monks, diligently pecking away at page after page in remote monasteries. In actuality, by the 15th century, books of hours were sold by artisans on popular shopping routes in large cities and were often produced alongside teams of apprentices in workshops. These artisans would grind down materials such as cinnabar or azurite to create pigments. Preservation of medieval texts can be further ensured by knowing what went into their creation. If a conservator knows the materials used, he or she can work on a chemical level to maintain them. “One way of determining how best to care for materials is to discover what they’re made of,” said Carolee Harrison, special collections and conservation technician at Millar Library. “Once you know something about the chemical properties…then you’re able to learn about how best to protect it and make it last for the future.” Preservation of historical texts like books of hours can be problematic. In the 19th century it was common practice to sell individual manuscript pages taken from full texts, the reason being that several single pages, called leaves, could be sold at a higher price than a whole book. The process is still prevalent today. You can find medieval leaves on eBay right now, if you want. The book of hours acquired by the university is missing three pages. While it’s unknown where exactly those pages ended up, it’s reasonable to assume they were removed for individual sale. Their removal would also indicate that the pages were illuminated; a richly decorated page would fetch a higher price. “We want to have those [rare materials] available for people to come and study, view and learn more about the time that created them and the people that created them,” Harrison said. “Having a complete book really puts it in context.” The book of hours will be on display from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., from Monday to Friday. They exhibit will run until July 17, and a different page of the book will be on display each day.
COVER
Shirleanne Ackerman Gahan studied the origin of PSU's book of hours. seleny diaz/PSU VANGUARD
Student Matthias Bladou studied the dialect used in PSU's book of hours, which includes text in both Latin and vernacular French. seleny diaz/PSU VANGUARD
Christian Profeta/PSU VANGUARD
Christian Profeta/PSU VANGUARD
seleny diaz/PSU VANGUARD
The PSU library's archvists display a new page each day as a preservation technique to maintain the book's integrity. Christian Profeta/PSU VANGUARD
Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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ARTS & CULTURE
Polaris Dance ends season with eight performances
A.P. Herbert is the master satirist you never knew
Moriah neWMan
Polaris Dance Theatre presented their final performance of the season, 1+1=ONE, on May 9 at their warehouse location in SW Portland. Polaris celebrated their 13th season this year. The show featured eight different dances created by various choreographers and composers, and it showcased up-and-coming dancers from their junior company. The show also guest starred Polaris alumni dancers. “The idea behind ONE is a different approach. The idea was to use only one instrument, one musician and one choreographer,” said Robert Guitron, co-founder and artistic director of Polaris. “It’s an exciting thing. I want to expose my dancers to different choreographers and [have them] feel what it’s like to have a piece created specifically for them.” Polaris Dance Theatre was founded in 2002 with the creative and artistic talents of Guitron, who has danced and choreographed around the U.S. and abroad. Polaris has been a creative outlet in the Portland community, offering classes not
POLARIS LOGO
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only to children and youths, but also to low-income students, seniors and minorities. They strive to make dance accessible to all people. Emily Henderson has been dancing for 18 years, and has been with Polaris since July. “I love dancing [with Polaris],” Henderson said. “It’s such a family environment.” In addition to having several guest choreographers, selected company dancers presented pieces of choreography they created. The Polaris junior company also made an appearance midway through the performance, dancing in a piece choreographed by rehearsal director M’Liss Quinny. ONE opened with all company dancers on stage in front of a blackened and smoky backdrop, creating many jagged and symmetrical shapes while moving in and out of line with each other. The energy the dancers carried set the stage for the following pieces and fully captured the attention of the audience. “You Finally Arrive,” choreographed by company member Blake Seidel, featured a male duet set to a stringed score by Kristin Rule.
The dancers, Seidel and other company dancer Gerard Regot, fully embodied the movement of a stringed instrument and perfectly timed their movement with the music. The piece opened with the two dancers facing each other and gradually took on movement that suggested a journey or adventure between the duo. In contrast, the following piece, titled “Proverb,” choreographed by Jocelyn Edelstein, featured eight female company dancers dressed completely in white, dancing to a music score with the repeating phrase, “they tried to bury us but we were still alive.” Edelstein’s raw choreography embodied ghost or spirit-like movement, particularly when paired with the repeating spoken word of being buried. The piece ended with two dancers lying wrapped around each other on the ground as other dancers sprinkled rose petals on their still bodies. “Beneath the Skin,” choreographed and composed by company dancer Gerard Regot, showed a dark and seemingly twisted interaction between dancers as they partnered in duets. At various moments in the dance, male dancers removed their shirts and effortlessly transferred one sleeve onto their partner, the two of them bound together by one article of clothing. The struggle to remove the shirt created an overpowering resistance by their partner, yet they somehow moved together naturally and with an incredible amount of fluidity. The final three pieces, “Leaves,” “Together” and “Lullaby,” all choreographed by Guitron, featured company dancers both current and alumni. “Lullaby” brought back several former Polaris dancers, ending the final performance of the season on a very sweet note.
Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
METHUEN/1951
'NUMBER NINE' PAINTS A JOLLY OLD DEPICTION OF HELLISHLY INEFFICIENT ENGLISH BUREAUCRACY
lisa dunn
1950s England. The Russian War is over. The Soviets have been destroyed by their own incompetency. Satellite countries have risen up and destroyed the sickle and hammer with help from the Allies, and now peace has settled across the land. Or so you think. There’s deception, espionage, intrigue. There’s double-crossing and military…stuff. If you think I just described an alternate universe in which the Cold War ends in the mid’50s, you’re right. If you think it’s some action-y thriller or some such nonsense, you’re wrong. It’s the tongue-incheek novel Number Nine (or The Mind-Sweepers) by A.P. Herbert. A.P. Who-bert, you may ask? Though he was wildly popular in his lifetime, you’ve probably never heard of him. He’s one of those writers who undeservingly faded into the the ether after his death. But when he was active, he had a cult following comprised mostly of other writers like P.G. Wodehouse and J.M. Barrie—that guy who wrote that thing about never growing up. Herbert was a really cool guy who was freakishly good at everything he did. Born in 1890, he wrote poetry, drama and fiction pretty much from the time he was born to the time he croaked. He was a frequent contributor to the humor magazine Punch, whose contributors’ list included Sylvia Plath and Somerset Maugham, among others.
Herbert, though, was so much more than a writer. He attended Oxford and graduated with first class honors in Jurisprudence, which, like, whatever, probably isn’t really that big of a deal. I went to the University of Oregon, but you don’t see me bragging about it. He was also a reformist member of Parliament for a couple of decades, because why not? Homeboy helped reform the divorce laws in the 1930s—he’s the reason English people don’t need proof of adultery to say peace to their spouses. He also loved the river Thames more than a man probably should, and fought to help conserve it. What a guy. Number Nine, originally published in 1951, is the story of some guy with the longwinded name Admiral of the Fleet the Earl of Caraway and Stoke, his son, Lieutenant the Viscount Anchor—also known as Anthony—and his attempt to wrestle the family home, Hambone Hall, from the Civil Service’s cold, bureaucratic hands. You see, Civil Service has taken control of Hambone Hall—so named because the third Earl of Caraway and Stoke hit Oliver Cromwell over the head with a hambone, thus starting the Restoration. It’s being used as a psychological testing facility and, even though the Earl and his son don’t exactly use the home, they want it for themselves. Because aristocracy.
Recently returned from the front lines of the Russian War, Anthony heads to Hambone to help his father. They enlist a girl named Peach to help them, and madness ensues. The writing is the kind of stilted, “I say, old chap” stuff I imagine British people say all the time. The ol’ dust-up! H.P. sauce! What a willying wobbly-boo of a day, eh? That kind of stuff. It’s over-the-top silly and just the right level of critical. Herbert's criticism is so sharp that he even dedicated Number Nine “to our long-suffering Civil Service.” Ouch. Herbert is a master of several things, not least of which is satire. Number Nine is just one in a long line of humorous novels he wrote in the first half of the 20th century on the social, economic and legal landscape of England. These books were so wellwritten that people often mistook them for true stories. But, as a great satirist is wont to do, there are over-the-top signposts that tell the reader this isn’t real. I mean, let’s be honest here. Oliver Cromwell getting hit over the head with a hambone? Ham wasn’t even invented until the Industrial Revolution. Anachronisms aside, Herbert’s writing is sharp, over-thetop and timeless. Number Nine is laugh-out-loud funny. You’d be foolish not to read any Herbert you can get your hands on. And when you do: tongue meet cheek, and enjoy.
ARTS & CULTURE
'Monster on the Hill' comic is a beast to get through Andy anady
When I started reading Rob Harrell’s Monster on the Hill, I definitely expected a lighthearted, childlike story; a town terrorized by Rayburn, a monster with chicken legs, a pig butt and a vulture’s neck, and told from the monster’s point of view. I was expecting something like Patricia C. Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles—where a socially nonconforming dragon’s perspective is followed instead of a princess’s—but Monster on the Hill really didn’t compare. There were no women at all, only a bunch of white men and male-coded nonhumans. The jokes were a little cutesy; a young boy tells a misty monster that he can't handle that kind of disillusionment if the monster started crying, but otherwise the jokes fell pretty flat. The monster was suffering from depression, but not
Top Shelf Productions/2013
the clinical kind that’s a real struggle. He just had to exercise, spend time with friends, and stop the kettle corn and Hot Pockets-only diet. As for the depression and the giant monster’s internalized villain, the Murk, neither plot was really deep or complex. The pacing was much too rushed, so both plots and how they related to each other ended up feeling shallow. Rayburn’s depression definitely had a real chance at being an interesting, important portrayal of depression— something I was really hoping for as a firm supporter of mental health education for kids. After hearing Rayburn’s symptoms, an anachronistically bespectacled doctor suggests drilling a hole in Rayburn’s skull to “let the demons out,” which I think could really speak to some people, but that was the clos-
est Harrell got to touching on depression. The Murk character was like a monster’s monster, made of grave dirt and hair, who eats fear. He was by no means scary or interesting. Was he a metaphor for depression? He could have been, but it’s too hard to tell. I recognize that the book’s target audience is kids, but by that logic Steven Universe and Gravity Falls’ villains shouldn’t be horrifying and terrible either. And if the Murk even was a metaphor for depression, he’s defeated by a short series of cliches— something that could have been funny if it wasn’t so short and rushed. The art was what really sunk Monster on the Hill for me. The art itself was cute and what caught my attention in the first place—
a little bit fairy tale and a little bit surrealist—but the action within and between panels was too cramped and redundant. Dr. Wilkie, who suggested a good holedrilling, had excerpts from his journal to explain his thoughts and actions, but the narrator kept shoving their nose in and explaining what was plain on the page to begin with. I am frustrated that the story was so plot driven and disorganized, and with such low stakes. It could easily be summed up as a couple of white guys stumbling around some rural hills with monsters devoid of personality. It’s cute, and it’s a nice read that gave me a few laughs. The art was pretty worth it just to look at, but it didn’t really grab me or hold me for the duration.
Anime club to host Gunpla-building workshop lauren moore
The PSU anime club will host a Gunpla-building event on, May 21, from 4–8 p.m. Gunpla is a portmanteau of the words Gundam and plastic, a Japanese amalgamation of two English words. The first Gundam was aired in 1979, and less than a year later the first kit appeared. The term was coined at the same time as the first kit. Gundams first graced United States television in 2000 on Toonami, hosted by Cartoon Network, with Mobile Suit Gundam Wing. Giant robots, or mechas and mobile suits, were not new to the U.S., but ushered in a new era of Gundam. In Japan, the Gundam franchise is worth 80 billion yen; they sold toys and hobby items totaling 18.4 billion in 2014. Abdullah AlKhabbaz, a member of the Portland State
anime club, has always loved mecha animes like Voltron, Grendizer, Mazinger and others. When he was introduced to Gundam, he fell in love. “While I have been a Gundam fan for the last 15 years, and model building has existed for a long time, I only got into the hobby in the last year due to the Gundam Build Fighters, a Gundam series geared specifically toward the hobby,” AlKhabbaz said. Alexander Driskill, a photographer, was first introduced to Gundams through Toonami. A couple years later he found the original series, Mobile Suit Gundam, and has been hooked ever since. “It’s a creative, detailoriented hobby that tests one’s patience and dedication, but it’s very rewarding to see a completed work,” Driskill said.
Driskill recently started photographing his models and builds. “I feel that photographing them in various poses gives them a lively feel that I can share with others,” Driskill said. Bryan Ammonds, a technical consultant, grew up watching Gundam and made a few of the Gundam kits when he was 12. Recently, he attended a comic con with his fiancé. “I wanted a souvenir to take home, and it brought back a wave of nostalgia seeing them at the con,” Ammonds said. Ammonds’ most recent and time consuming build was the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam OVA, which he bought from Emerald City Comic-Con. “After building, panel lining, decaling, weathering and top coating, [he] took about 20-plus hours,” Ammond said. AlKhabbaz has never built a Gundam kit, but does col-
lect action figures. He is excited to build his first kit during the event. The Gundam-building event will have 25 kits available. It’s completely free, but there are a handful of rules that need to be followed to attend. Attendees must be a current PSU student, mark themselves as attending on the event’s Facebook page, and comment on a post that says they are going and show up before 4:15 p.m. For a full list of rules and restrictions, check out the PSU anime club Gundam model build workshop event on Facebook. “If there is one thing I have learned from building Gunpla, it is that you shouldn’t rush anything,” Driskill said. “Take your time and be careful, and everything will turn out great.”
Courtesy of A. Driskill Photography
Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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ARTS & CULTURE
Oye como va, burritos!
tim Sullivan-The college culinarian
look into any college student’s mini-fridge and I bet you’ll find some shitty frozen burritos. Why eat something that resembles Mexican food when you can make your own? All you need is a slow cooker and the ability to fold a burrito to make this great, home-cooked alternative. Remember, wear gloves while prepping the peppers! Trust me on this—you don’t want to touch your eyes, mouth or sensitive bits with pepper juice all over your hands. Step 1: Cut up the shoulder roast into manageable pieces. Brown in an oiled pan on medium-high, 30 seconds per side. Step 2: Place the pork shoulder into the slow cooker and deglaze your pan. To deglaze your pan, pour in a quarter to half a cup of beer or wine while the pan is still hot and scrape all the goodness that’s stuck on the pan. Pour the liquid into the slow cooker. Step 3: Dump all of the peppers, onion, tomatillos, garlic and seasoning on the pork. Cover and cook for 8–10 hours. Step 4: Allow the roast to cool, then pull out the chunks of pork and shred with a fork. Reincorporate the pork into the slow cooker concoction. Scoop desired amount of pork mix and any other burrito fixings onto your tortillas and wrap. Optional Step: Before placing your pork verde into your burritos, turn the broiler of your oven on and take a large sheet pan or baking dish and place the cooked meat into the cooking vessel. Place baking dish right below the broiling coils and roast the meat for 2–3 minutes. Flip the meat over and repeat. Step 5: Now freeze ’em. To do this, lay your burritos flat in a gallon-size, freezer-safe zip-lock bag in your freezer. Intertwine some parchment paper between the burritos to keep them from sticking together. Stack multiple bags on top of each other to get them all frozen at once. Reheat for 4–5 minutes in the microwave and eat till you burst.
Cook time: 8–10 hours Servings: 8–10 burritos Tools: 1 pan A slow cooker
Ingredients: 2 teaspoons of thyme 2 teaspoons of oregano 1 teaspoon of cumin 2 tablespoons of paprika 5 cloves of garlic, diced 6 pounds of pork shoulder roast (also known as pork butt)2 tomatillos, chopped 1 large onion, chopped 2 poblano peppers, deseeded and coarsely chopped 4 serrano peppers, deseeded and coarsely chopped 4 jalapeño peppers, deseeded and coarsely chopped Salt and pepper to taste 1–2 packages of large tortillas Beer or wine to deglaze pan Best time of the year to make these is when McDonald's announces that the McRib is back. Seriously, that’s when pork is at its cheapest. Pick up a Shamrock Shake while you’re at it.
Optional: Queso fresco 2–4 cups of cooked rice Black beans
Spice selection is key to any strong meal. Begin wth ingredient measurements and tweak to taste. SILVIA CARDULLO/psuvanguard
Manage your prepwork before beginning cooking. And don't forget to wear gloves when handling hot peppers! SILVIA CARDULLO/psuvanguard
Consider cheeses and any other fixings you may want to include with the burrito mix. SILVIA CARDULLO/psuvanguard
With a bit of practice and a solid wrapping technique, your burrito will rival many in Portland. Courtesy of Edsel Little through Creative Commons
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ARTS & CULTURE
The wristwatch—a timeless tradition margo “Marge and in Charge of fashion” Pecha
Shannon Kidd/ PSU Vanguard
How often do you see someone wearing a wristwatch? Not very often, I’ll wager, unless it’s a smartwatch that’s no doubt connected to a smartphone. But let’s be honest: that’s not a true watch. Traditional wristwatches are classic. They go with your outfit better than a clunky piece of technology strapped to your wrist. You don’t have to charge it every night to
make sure it’s good to go for the next day. And you’ll look cool as hell when that cute girl at the library asks you for the time and all you have to do is look at your wrist. I understand wristwatches aren’t for everyone, but hear me out, okay? Timex Baby G watches are coming back in style, and they look much more fashion-forward than a smartwatch. Think about that pop of
candy-colored plastic around your wrist. Think about all the sweet, soft ticking it will emit in a quiet room. Think about how un-robot-like you’ll look—people won’t give you shifty, suspicious side-eyes because you won’t look like you came from the future or a Walternate universe. And I guess you can check the time in class without looking at your phone like a douche, or something.
Digital vs. analog When it comes to choosing a watch, you’ve got a plethora of options. For starters, do you want a digital watch face or an analog watch face? Digital is nice for the at-a-glance, on-the-go type of person who doesn’t have time to stare at an analog face and decipher the confusing little dashes.
SILVIA CARDULLO/psuvanguard
On the other hand, maybe you have all the time in the world to look at your watch face and decode the little bugger (c’mon, it’s not that hard, people). Analog is for sure the classic choice. Plus, who wouldn’t want to revive the Mickey Mouse watch with spinning arms from their childhood? Cartoons can be classic, too!
Battle of the bands The wristband is the second feature that holds many more options. Leather, metal, plastic and rubber are all viable choices. Though if you’re sensitive to nickel and opt for a metal watch, you could end up with a rash. The easy fix to get around this is painting some clear nail polish on the inside, and you’re good to go. Wristbands come in different sizes, too—there are
chunky men’s watchbands and dainty, decorative watchbands like your grandmother’s old watch might have. There are even bands that look more like bracelets, if you’re looking for something a bit more fashionable.
Style for every wrist Style is everything, right? So make sure you take your watch game one step further and make sure it really says “you.” If a bright, happy Baby G isn’t quite up your alley, you could always try a blingedout watch encrusted with plenty of rhinestones. If you’re sporty, a hard plastic should do the trick. And for all the squares and plain Janes out there, a standard brown leather and gold-tone watch is never far away.
A virtual journey through grief
Aislinn Rennison
The Portland Virtual Reality Meetup will hold their monthly meeting at the eBay community lounge on May 20 at 6:30 p.m. Kent Bye, host of the Voices of VR podcast and co-founder of Portland Virtual Reality Meetup, said anyone who is interested in VR should come to the no-cost meeting. It’s a great way for people to network in the VR community and to begin developing their own VR projects. “The thing about virtual reality is that you really need to see it to believe it,” Bye said. “Just as books can capture information and knowledge, virtual reality captures experiences that can be communicated directly into our subconscious mind through our perceptions. It actually tricks us into believing we are in another world.” Part of the meeting will focus on presenting a new VR,
created by Bye, Crossover: A Multi-Threaded Immersive Theater Experience. After putting a set of gadgets over your head and eyes—like a helmet and goggles would feel—you are suddenly immersed in a whole new, virtual world. You can look up, down, around and behind you, seeing a different scene than what is actually in front of you. Although VRs can have unlimited purposes, Crossover is directed at those coping with loss. In about 10 minutes you can follow five characters, four of whom are ghosts, into three different rooms. Each room has its own grief theme: the loss of relationships, the loss of parents and the loss of children. You have the choice of staying in one room or you can follow the characters from scene to scene. Each character is their own person with their own story.
The final scene is a grief ritual in which each ghost deals with unresolved emotions before they are able to cross over to the other side. You sit in a circle with the other characters and listen as they talk to their loved ones, finding peace and solace before they cross over. The touching process is an amazing resource to those coping with loss. Bye originally made this virtual reality for himself as part of his own deep and sacred healing process. “My wife took her life about six months ago, and I have been going through the grieving process,” Bye explained. “I would say that there aren’t a lot of great resources for what I wanted in terms of a grief ritual, which was a cathartic emotional release. So I wrote this story based upon the conversations I wish I could have had.”
Russian gaming godfather and Nival CEO Sergey Orlovskiy tests a first-generation prototype of the Oculus Rift technology. Courtesy of Sergey Galyonkin through Creative Commons via Flickr One of the ghosts is meant to be Kent’s wife, Jennifer. Kent was able to look through Jennifer’s journals and take her own words to make the script for Crossover. “It was surreal to write those conversations.” Bye said. “It’s a very interesting process to make art out of something like that. Not in an exploitative way, but more to honor the wisdom that she had to share.”
Kent decided to submit Crossover to a VR competition: Oculus’ Mobile VR Jam. “It's a weird mix of personal and professional life,” Bye said. “But the process of creating art out of our lives helps to tell us who we are. It’s a process of making meaning.” Each person has their own choice of making meaning out of every situation in their lives; VR gives the opportunity to help make that possible. VR
also offers you the potential and freedom to represent who you feel you truly are. “My hope would be that it is a blank enough slate for people to project their own experiences of loss of relationships, loss of parents or loss of children,” Bye said. “VR is going to change the way we exist. It has the potential to make us more human and allow us to be connected more to who we are.”
Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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ETC
EVENT CALENDAR John pinney
May 19
Provost Challenge Celebration 3 p.m. SMSU 3rd floor ballroom
Three million bucks was spent in the past two years to upgrade technology and find new innovations here at PSU. This “informal, celebratory, and interactive event” is all about honoring accomplishments and exchanging ideas (I guess on whether the new systems worked or not?). I wonder if anyone’s going to harsh the buzz to discuss why every other classroom I’ve been in this term hasn’t felt appropriate to the subject being taught. FREE
Rome Wasn't Killed in a Day 6 p.m.
Part of the fun of attending this lecture is figuring out where it is exactly. The Stott Center seems both symbolic and way too easy. It’ll probably be in NH or SMSU, but who knows in wacky times such as these. If you can find it, this lecture talks about spectacle in the Roman arena and the artifices that elevated bloodbath to an artform. Garrett Fagan’s legit knowledge of the topic will impress everyone. FREE
Teeter Totter Park Blocks
Have you ever wondered what it looks like when a fraternity raises money for
charity? Well, wonder no more! The annual fundraiser Teeter Totter! is back. Phi Delta Theta will provide everyone with hours of amusement (including yours truly, who still has to pick a time slot) by rocking on a giant teeter totter for charity. A jug will be available for your donations. I’m quite excited to be involved in this cool annual shenanigan. Starts on the 18 and happens until the 23! FREE
Phantom of the Opera 7:30 p.m. Keller Auditorium Fee: $50+
You know what bugs me? This play. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the music and the gothic theming. I love the stagecraft and giant mirrors, and I often fantasize about singing “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again” while floating ethereally through a fog-filled graveyard. But I wish to high heavens that people would stop calling this a love story for the ages, because I know you’re talking about the Phantom and not Raoul. Just because the Phantom is smoking hot does not mean he had any rights to Christine’s life. At all. The message of this play to sympathize with this guy is awful. However, if you want to see it, you have until the 23.
May 21
Love Yo'self
12 p.m. Park Blocks near NH Are you an artist? Are you an artist who loves your body? Do you have a friend that fits these qualifications as well? SHAC is looking for your help in populating this event called Love@365 about body positivity. Performances and love letter writing stations (to write to yourself) will be open. Artwork goes to UCB 307, and any questions should be directed to gar9@pdx.edu.
PSU Library Special Collections Presents! 6 p.m.
This historical collection will focus on the activism and black community focus of Senator Avel Gordly, Verdell and Otto Rutherford. Light refreshments and lightning talks are both happening during this community reception and will be a showcase of a legacy of dedication to social justice and racial advocacy.
May 22 ‘The Kid’
MFA Open Receptions 4 p.m.
Okay, so there are three of these happening at the exact same time in three different places on campus. Now,I’m not saying that you have to visit all three at once, the exhibitions will run until the 28, but wouldn’t you feel the tiniest bit bad if you poured your heart and soul into a graduate exhibition and no one showed? Anyway, Chris Freeman (Dudes at Home) will be in the AB Lobby Gallery on 5th Ave, Manny Layers (New Romancer) will be in the Autzen Gallery in NH with live performances at 6 p.m., and Jea Alford (This Isn’t Working) will be at the MK Gallery. FREE
7:30 p.m. 5th Avenue Cinema Charlie Chaplin is one of those auteurs (fancy film term for person in charge) that you’ve at least heard of in passing. Though all of his works have elements of screwball and nostalgia to them, along with the iconography of the helpless Tramp, you can't really understand the power of Chaplin and why he was so internationally loved until you’ve seen the heartwarming and heartwrenching tale of The Kid. And it’s free for students, so that’s a plus. FREE
‘Rebel Without a Cause’ 7 p.m. Whitesell Auditorium Fee: $8
Have you ever seen this movie? This ultimate tale
of teenage alienation has been the breeding ground of scandal ever since it began filming many years ago. From hunky James Dean’s soulful performance to the death of Natalie Wood, this movie’s icon status and gossip seem to overshadow and yet complement each other (I really want those James Dean bisexuality rumors to be a reality; it adds a whole new dimension to the film, really). Moral of the story: If you’ve never seen this classic, you need to shell out the money and run, don’t walk, to this screening. Also available 8 p.m. on Saturday the 23.
Rose Festival City Fair 5–11 p.m. Waterfront Park Fee: $7
I am always amazed that somehow every year the Rose Festival sneaks up on me. And I very much love how many deep fried Twinkies I can eat at the City Fair before I start feeling a touch sick (I might need professional help). Anyway, if you’ve never been, Waterfront Park is converted into a charming small-town amusement fair, which is super romantic or a less-than-too-expensive way to appease a fussy child. A bonus on this first night is the fireworks. If you hear someone screaming from the top of the Ferris wheel, it’s probably because someone dragged me on.
May 23 Ai Wei Wei
10 a.m.–5 p.m. Portland Art Museum Fee: $12 If you haven’t heard of Ai Wei Wei, hop on the Google and ask about him. This revolutionary artist has gotten in trouble with the Chinese government for his forms of art and social protest. He is a glorious hero worldwide and I am very excited to see his bronze sculpture zodiac head exhibit here in Portland. Go and support one of the toughest guys in the world doin’ it right. If you can’t go right now, the exhibit will be available until mid-September.
The Wonderland Circus Alberta Rose Theater Fee: $20–$50
An Alice in Wonderlandthemed night of a million flips, this tea-party themed vision of acrobats, jugglers and the likes in a not-miss event from the renowed bastions of theatrical circus based performances Wanderlust.
May 25 MEMORIAL DAY. NO SCHOOL. EVERYTHING IS CLOSED.
FREE
21+
PSU FREE OPEN TO PUBLIC 21 & OVER
FEATURED EVENT We've All Gotta Eat , Right? When: May 20
Raphael House is good at their job. So good that I didn't even know they existed until I saw that they were having an annual fundraiser. What does Raphael House do? They provide support for people suffering under cases of domestic violence, and this event, now in its sixth year, is a great way to show support for a (sadly) much-needed place. As of today, the list of restaurants participating are broken into sectors, so you could try: Southeast: Oaks Bottom Public House, Chiang Mai, or Pacific Pie Co, Stickers Asian Cafe, or The Country Cat. I'd also love to give a special shout out to Por Que No on Hawthorne and Mississippi for both hosting! Northeast: Beulahland and Dove Vivi Pizza are hosting along with the Alameda Cafe. TILT on Anchor Street, the Bento Box on 10th, Mother's Bistro on Stark and a whole host of other restaurants are also helping to raise funds for Raphael House. So bust the piggy bank open (I know, it's hard being this close to the end of term) and give!
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Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
restaurants for raphael house logo
Midterm stress relief poster
ETC
Horoscopes john Pinney
Gemini May 21–June 20 Virgo Aug. 23–Sep. 22 Sagittarius Nov. 22–Dec. 21 Pisces Feb. 20–March 19
Okay, so do you remember, like, last Thursday when you did that screening of Clueless or whatever? Oh my god, that friend that your friend brought over was totally hitting on you.
Cancer June 21–July 22
I know you have good intentions, Cancer, but you really do need to clean out your closet and specifically donate that green outfit you've been hoarding forever. It doesn’t actually look that great on you.
The last thing you need is Do me a favor and get in some tips on how to be prim and practice before you enter that proper in the workplace, but paintball tournament, Sagi. really, you need to stop chew- You’ve got a little more rust ing gum during meetings and on your shootin’ arm than you think. coference calls.
Libra Sep. 23–Oct. 22 Capricorn Dec. 22–Jan. 19
Those toenails of yours aren’t going to pedicure themselves, Libra. Just because you had an awkward run-in with your pedicurist once doesn’t mean you can't suck it up.
Cosmo tip 71: To give your significant other pleasure while watching Grimm, rub ketchup on their chest and present that they are Captain Renault..
Aries March 21–April 19
The stars for this week want You do not qualify as having to remind you to change studied for your test by see- your undergarments daily as ing how many Oreos you can the days get hotter and you fit into your mouth while sweat more. reading. Also, are you a weeny? Only 12? Come on, Cappi.
Aquarius Jan. 20–Feb. 18
Scorpio Oct. 23–Nov. 21
That is the last time you go Did you know that the “Ve- to KFC for a while, Aquarius. nus� song from those razor Not only was your chicken Leo July 23–Aug. 22 commercials is actually a undercooked, you’re pretty I have gazed into my crys- Bananarama song? They also sure that mac and cheese was tal ball this week and I have have a hit in that Jesus movie older than you. news. Your aunt Ida says hel- about that girl that gets her lo and that there’s a coffee can arm eaten off by a shark. in her backyard with 4 grand in it if you’re interested.
Taurus April 20–May 20
Do you even lift, bro? Seriously, when was the last time you went to the gym? You don’t want to be one of those guys who used to be a gym rat, do you?
From Mystic J, permanent resident of Room 1313, Hollywood Tower Hotel
ELISE FURLAN/PSU VANGUARD ELISE FURLAN/PSU VANGUARD
SUDOKU
CROSSWORD
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2 4 8 3 7 4 5
Create and solve your Sudoku puzzles for FRE E.
Play Sudoku and win prize
s at:
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Š Puzzles provided by sudokusolver.com
4 3 6
across 8 Does piano playing without you sound false? (6) 9 Elisabeth’s first rank – it’s broadcast in former Cape province (8) 10 Also, in the past, essential to profit EMI made (4) 11 Rabbit from Asian country that entertains Caroline & Horace starts badly (10) 12 Maiden from Galesyke kept in check by society rules (6) 13 Unorthodox, almost X-rated Jumbo started in the morning – that’s really fruity stuff (5,3) 14 Moss due in road, having time for a detour that’s taken in error (13) 19 You need daughter, nÊe Flather, to drop hen back – and not right before sun goes down (8) 22 One having mole finally removed, back in the lead with self-assurance (6) 24 Uproarious with her involving leg lost in drill manoeuvre (5,5) 25 We see Mother with net, not quite finished with hair (4) 26 Ignoring the odds, blue grass in tye was flourishing soonest (8)
COURTESY OF ALBERICHCROSSWORDS.COM
27 List varied bridge opponents overwhelmed by Mum (6) doWn 1 Line of regular coolness shown when cracking Times or Telegraph, ultimately? (8) 2 Betty’s heart’s a jewel, ’un uplifting all around, providing spice (6) 3 Event: Ring’s “knockout� after first seen in Munich, to boot (8) 4 Star bridge player material (6) 5 Assurance of good luck if Sam climbs on the bed (6) 6 Duties (not obligations) to a son involved supplying musical accompaniment (8) 7 Leaders of royal establishment awarded licenciate – one in music, note. That’s the facts (6) 15 You see independence after she fell, breaking hip (hospital one doesn’t count) (4-4) 16 Maybe Hampstead area to meet Ernest regularly and put away the Claymore? (8) 17 In play, see slams flowing (8)
18 Superior in rubber (not half!) consisting of no trumps – ace is held (8) 20 Sung in choir, a profit to the audience (6) 21 Eh? “Weepat� in Scrabble? That’s not English! Nothing precludes Dad producing “Chewink� (6) 23 Disobedient child in Lakes? Why, we hear it’s firmly the opposite! (6)
Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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SPORTS PROFESSOR SPORT BALL PRESENTS
Crime and punishment in light of
rico Macias zepeda/psuvanguard
Deflategate Air Pressue and light balls are distractions from the real issue — the NFL Turner Lobey
Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady Courtesy of Andrew Campbell through Creative Commons via Flickr
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Everybody can’t stop talking about balls. Everybody has balls on the brain. This ball is too heavy. This ball is too light. This ball is just right. Balls. Balls. Balls. That’s the situation we’re in right now, on the surface. Balls. An investigation carried out by the NFL concluded that the New England Patriots most likely violated league rules about air pressure in footballs used in their championship victory over the Indiana Colts. The report concluded that it’s more probable than not that the Patriots deliberately used under-inflated footballs and that superstar quarterback Tom Brady knew about it. As punishment for the violations, Brady is stuck with a four-game suspension and the team loses $1 million, as well as its first round draft pick in 2016 and the fourthround pick for 2017. This marks the largest fine against a team in NFL history. In the midst of the maelstrom of finger pointing, accusation slinging and insistent denial, a narrative of moral right rises to the forefront of the debate. NFL Executive P resident Troy Vincent penned a letter to Brady, calling his actions a detriment to the integrity of the sport as well as compromising the public’s confidence in the game.
Sure, Brady most likely cheated. But this isn’t about moral right and the integrity of the game. The NFL gave that up a long time ago. Let’s be real here. Whether or not Brady was actually in the wrong with this soft and slightly airless ball, it makes sense that the league would want to make an example out of Brady for his actions on the field. They have that right. But that isn’t the real issue. If the league were actually concerned with the image of the NFL, it would have adequately responded to the countless off the field actions in the past as well. The real problem here is the NFL itself. In 2010, Pittsburg Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger was suspended four games (knocked down from six), after being charged of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old woman. The charges against Roethlisberger were eventually dropped. Ray Rice knocked his then-fiancée unconscious and dragged her out of an elevator but was initially only suspended two games. When surveillance videos of the attack came to light, the league reversed its previous decision and terminated his contract with the Baltimore Ravens. He was subsequently suspended indefinitely. Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was initially suspended
one game after beating his 4-year-old son with a switch. Peterson was later suspended for the rest of the season. This short list doesn’t even begin to tap into the number of players with similar crimes or those suspended or banned for life for drug violations, alcohol abuse or other off-the-field actions. Comparing Tom Brady to people like Ray Rice and the rest is a bit like comparing baseballs to golf balls, but it says something pretty damn clear about the NFL’s values. Including Rice and the others in this discussion brings a significant issue to light— the NFL has a history of leniency on people who commit disgusting and morally offensive acts. What decisions like this tell me is that the NFL only cares about punishing players after a scandal breaks. It tells me that the NFL doesn’t value women as much as it does getting players back on the field. It tells me that the league is incapable of gauging violations and adequately responding to crimes and violations. The real problem here isn’t air pressure. The real problem here is that the league has chosen to treat cheating as serious as sexual assault and domestic abuse. Maybe instead of focusing on the balls, the discussion should turn to the brains behind the game.
SPORTS
Vikings football stats Your team by the numbers
66 SEASONS 13 COACHES
ALL-TIME RECORD: 321-341-10
LES LEGGATT—6
JOE HOLLAND—20
JERRY LYONS—21
1947–1954
1957–1958
RALPH DAVIS—4
HUGH SMITHWICK—6 RON STRATTEN—9
1955–1956
1963–1967
DON READ—39
JERRY GLANVILLE—9
1968—1971, 1981–1985
2007–2009
POKEY ALLEN—63
NIGEL BURTON—12
1959–1961
1972–1974
1986–1992
TOM DESYLVIA—4
MOUSE DAVIS—42
TIM WALSH—90
1962
1975–1980
2010–2014
1993–2005
WIN PERCENTAGES OVER THE LAST EIGHT YEARS
2007:–.36
2008:–.18
2009:–.18
2010:–.33
2011:–.63
THOUSAND
HOME GAME ATTENDANCE:
2012:–.27
2013:_.50
2014:_.25
FAMOUS PSU VIKINGS:
60 50
50,408 (OVER 5 GAMES) 36,461 (OVER 6 GAMES)
40 30
39,875 (OVER 5 GAMES)
35,684 (OVER 6 GAMES) 19,579 (OVER 4 GAMES)
30,886 (OVER 6 GAMES) 29,787 (OVER 5 GAMES)
22,914 (OVER 5 GAMES)
20 10 2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
JULIUS THOMAS DENVER BRONCOS DESHAWN SHEAD SEATTLE SEAHAWKS COURTESY OF THE BRIT_2 THROUGH CREATIVE COMMONS VIA FLICKR. COURTESY OF ANDREW CAMPBELL THROUGH CREATIVE COMMONS VIA FLICKR
DESIGN BY RACHAEL BENTz/PSU VANGUARD
Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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SPORTS
The number is three for track and field Alex Moore
Last weekend, the number was three for the Portland State women’s track and field squad. Competing in the Big Sky Conference championships, the women took third place. It was their third best finish in PSU history, and senior Jazmin Ratcliff won her third straight Big Sky hurdles championship. As far as individual accolades go, Ratcliff was joined on the list of Big Sky champions by fellow sophomore Baileh Simms, who won the long jump by breaking the PSU record. For assistant
coach Johnathan Marcus, the individual titles are great and help push the team in the right direction, but it’s more about winning as a team. “It’s always nice to have someone on top, but everyone deserves credit,” Marcus said. “Whether they are a Big Sky champion or a walk-on freshman. Everyone in this program works really hard. We would rather have zero individual champions and coach the best team, but if it takes everyone winning individual titles for us to win, then that’s what we’ll do.”
The Vikings’ third place finish is indicative of a team that has been performing at a high level for the last few years. With seniors like Ratcliff who have been winning since they were freshman, PSU picked up its second top-three finish in the last three years. “It feels pretty good,” Marcus said. “We thought if we get third or higher, that would be a really big victory for the women’s program. It’s an exciting thing, but we’re definitely not resting.” The Vikings don’t have time to rest. With Big Sky competi-
tion over, the track and field athletes still have the NCAA west preliminary meet coming up May 28–30 in Austin, Texas, with a chance on the line to compete in the NCAA outdoor championships in Eugene in June. Before those meets even start, Viking athletes are pushing to make qualifying times for those meets, as a few members of the team competed at the Portland Twilight meet held at the University of Portland on Sunday. PSU won four events. On the men’s side, another step was taken in the growing
process of getting the program into a more competitive position as far as the Big Sky championships go. The men saw success from junior Sheldon Prince, who scored in three different events, two of which he was a member of a relay team. Overall, the men finished 11th with 13 total points. “It’s all about growing,” Marcus said. “We’re young, and we took a step in the right direction. The Big Sky Conference for track and field is one of, if not the best, mid-major conference in the United States, so they have a
Big Sky Champion Jazmin Ratcliff after her 2014 victory in the 100 meter hurtle. Ratcliff cemented her championship this year with her third straight win. christopher sohler/VANGUARD archives
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really high standard of excellence to compete against.” For both the men and the women, the track and field regular season has come to a close, and that means some of the last meets have been run for the seniors. “A big thank you to all the seniors,” Marcus said. “They have played a big role in pushing this program forward.” Up next for the Vikings, after the West preliminary meet and NCAA outdoor championships, comes preparation for the Big Sky Conference indoor season, starting in 2016.
SPORTS
qrc pride month logo
QRC and Campus Rec team up to celebrate Pride Sports Schedule 5/19 — 5/25 Portland sports
Portland State Hip-Hop Alliance
Portland Timbers at Toronto FC
Practice
Portland Thunder at Orlando Predators
Practice
Saturday, May 23, 2 p.m.
Saturday, May 23, 4 p.m.
Portland Thorns vs Houston Dash Saturday, May 23, 7 p.m. Portland Ivy Ultimate
First Practice
Willamette Park Sunday, May 24, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Rec Center Room 430 Tuesday, May 19, 7:30—9 :30 p.m.
Rec Center Room 430 Tuesday, May 21, 6:30—8:30 p.m.
Lauren Schlangen
Portland State is halfway through the month of May, designated as its own Pride month. “Pride is celebrated in conjunction with the anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising which occurred on June 28, 1969,” said Craig Leets, the coordinator of the Queer Resource Center. “However, because universities are less attended during summer months, Pride is observed before the end of the academic year.” The month of May is chockfull of events—workshops based on migration and coming out, the Shorty Short Queer Film Festival, and even a Secret Garden themed prom and drag show. While queer film festivals and drag shows are inclusive spaces, athletics and sports are often rigidly divided into men’s and women’s spaces, with many queer and transgender individuals feeling unwelcome in either space. The QRC is attempting to blur this rigid line and create inclusive spaces that make individuals of all gender identities feel welcome.
“The Queer Resource Center aims to create a more welcome, friendly, and inclusive environment for queer and trans students, faculty, staff, and administrators,” Leets said. “We cannot do this by ourselves and rely on the support of campus partners to ensure queer and trans people are included across campus. Campus Rec is one of our partners in this work on campus. This department collaborates with the QRC to ensure their space is welcoming to queer and trans people.” Of the 16 events the QRC has put together for the month of May, they’ve partnered with Campus Rec to make three of them possible. On May 7, Campus Rec carved out a designated time period in which trans, genderqueer and all body-positive people were invited to work out in a safe environment that appreciates and supports individual identity. Tours were offered for those who were new to Campus Rec. Additionally, transaffirming fitness hours are
scheduled multiple times throughout the week at Campus Rec. On May 15, the QRC took to the water for what it calls Splash Mob! Pride Edition. For this event the pool was split into two sections: one designated for lap swimming and the other left open for all the other fun stuff. Inner tubes, noodles and the infamous log roll were all present for this event. It was all smiles as the event kicked off. Craig Gosnell, the aquatics and safety coordinator at Campus Rec, said, “One of the things we try to do at Campus Rec is support our peers at PSU.” Gosnell has been part of Campus Rec for two years this coming September, having relocated from North Carolina specifically for Campus Rec at PSU. Campus Rec prides itself on being inclusive to all and does a lot of this through diverse programming. “Campus Rec is truly for everyone,” Gosnell said. Campus Rec lifeguard Vanessa Rodgers said connecting to the community is
an aspect that is important to Campus Rec and specifically to Rodgers. “I think it lets the community know we have fun events,” Rodgers said at the Splash Mob! Pride Edition event. “We like to have [events like this] so students can have fun and join the Campus Rec community.” There will be one more event hosted by the QRC and Campus Rec on May 26. A Pride kickball party will take place midday at the Urban Plaza, right outside the Academic and Student Rec Center. Free food will be provided. Apart from the events that the QRC partnered with Campus Rec for, there are several other events going on for Pride in May. For a complete list of events, head to pdx.edu/ queer/pride. For more information about the QRC, visit pdx.edu/ queer or their office in SMSU suite 458. For multimedia content, please see the web version at psuvanguard.com.
Vanguard | MAY 19, 2015 | psuvanguard.com
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