Ethos Magazine Spring 2015 by Ethos Magazine

SPRING 2015 /

VOL.7, ISSUE 3

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contents ETHOS MAGAZINE /

The Future Music Oregon program pushes the boundaries of electronic instruments.

SPRING 2015

61 journeys

21 forum Student athletes have exclusive access to some academic resources. Is that fair?

Crickets and mealworms may be the next new fad food.

13 forge At Camamu, making soap is a passion and an artform.

17 motion Beneath the I-105 bridge, skateboarders find their sanctuary.

take the lead Eric Richardson leads Eugene’s black community as its NAACP president

editor’s note

9 tastes

soundwaves

helping horses A shelter in Eugene takes in horses in need of love.

37 including everyone For transgender students, campus resources may not be available

Courtney Theim conquers her travel anxiety.

sleep over

Writer Kevin Mataraci explores alternative sleep schedules.

49 religion taken, taken back Julia Nemirovskaya finds religion in her heritage.

53 fixing mowers & meowers

the last Travis Loose recounts the months he spent writing about sex trafficking.

poetry Frog in Boiling Water by Hannah Golden

book review

In Springfield, stray cats find refuge with Norma King.

55 innovations A local entrepreneur supports the Eugene tech industry

s PHOTO – By using water, food coloring and a base speaker, photographer Kevein Trevellyn captures the movement of sound.

Ethos is a multicultural student publication based at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. Ethos receives support from the ASUO. All content is legal property of Ethos, except when noted. Permission is required to copy, reprint, or use any content in Ethos. All views and opinions expressed are strictly those of the respective author or interviewee.

EDITOR’S

NOTE

EDITOR IN CHIEF Gordon Friedman

editorial COPY CHIEF Amber Cole ASSOCIATE EDITORS Amber Cole, Rachel Davidson, Travis Loose, Kevin Mataraci, Grant Pearson, COPY EDITORS Brett Kane, Misty Dunmore, Grant Pearson

In many ways, “immersion journalism” should be called “empathy journalism.” Too often, we, the media, ask writers to use sources as a means to an end, justifying a storyline. Journalists should seek to humanize their sources, giving them dignity through faithful and thoughtful reporting. Journalists immerse themselves in their subjects not to have fun or say, “I did that.” It’s to get a better understanding of what it’s like to be in someone’s shoes, even if we have to do it literally. We don’t drink from bedpans or sleep deprive ourselves or eat bugs because it’s a cool story. It’s about the “ah-ha” moments derived from those situations that help inspire putting pen to paper, telling the stories of life around us.

GORDON FRIEDMAN EDITOR IN CHIEF

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spring 2015

WRITERS Jordyn Brown, Gabrielle Deckelman, Melissa Epifano, Aliya Hall, Cassadie Jerdin, Rachel LaChapelle, Kevin Mataraci, Forrest Welk

photography PHOTO EDITOR Debra Josephson PHOTOGRAPHERS Emily Albertson, Kyra Bailey, Debra Josephson, Jaejin Lee, Sam Richards, Courtney Theim, Kevin Trevellyan

art

what do you think?

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Delaney Pratt

Find the link to our sumbission form on our website, www.ethosmagonline.com.

DESIGNERS Katie Barrer, Sarah Holt, Jeffrey Lonergan, Brittney Reinholtz, Pauline Rhode ILLUSTRATORS Whitney Davis, Allie Witham EDITORIAL CARTOONIST Matt Schumacher

Congratulations to the Ethos staff, both past and present, for its award-winning work. For its previous issues, Ethos received multiple awards from the Associated Collegiate Press and Columbia Scholastic Press Association, including a 2013 and 2014 ACP Pacemaker Award for a Feature Magazine, its first Digital Magazine Silver Crown and three Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Awards. Generation Progress named Ethos Best Overall Publication in 2012-2013.

advertising AD DIRECTOR Emily Leadem AD REPS Nathan Krettler, Spencer Tanner, Lalita Thardomrong

public relations PR DIRECTOR Lindsey Simmons PR REPS Ally Allen, Sierra Gamelgaard, Makenna Huck, Olivia Kalk, Daniel Kantor, Nikki Maroney, Caitlin Monohan, Riley Morales, Erin Roetker, Lydia Salvey

contact ethosmag@gmail.com

Ethos is printed on 70 percent post-consumer recycled paper Ethos thanks Campus Progress for helping support this student-run publication. Campus Progress, the youth division of the Center for American Progress, is a national progressive organization working to empower young people to make their voices heard. Published with support from Generation Progress.

’m of the school of thought that journalism is best done on the streets. Not at a desk. Not over the phone. When you’re a journalist, your job is to get into the thick of the action -- and that’s what Ethos reporters have done this year. One of the most fun things about being Editor in Chief is seeing our reporters occasionally subject themselves -- willingly, mind you -- to “immersion” journalism. At times that leads to some hilarious situations that arise from a student journalist armed with a pen and notebook chasing around a source or putting themselves within the scene. (I suppose a bit of schadenfreude begets narrative nonfiction writing.) Maybe I’m reading into it too much. Maybe it’s just fun to see your friends do something crazy. When Travis Loose was assigned the Eugene Hash House Harriers story, Vol 7. Iss 1., about a local running club with a drinking problem (or is it drinking club with a running problem?), he looked back at me, blinked a few times, and said, “Okay.” He knew he’d have to run and drink with the Hashers, and that was just fine with him. But after his first interviews, he briefed me about the ceremonial bedpan, bedazzled with rhinestones, from which Hashers apparently drink during rituals. He shifted in his seat, grumbling a bit. Maybe he regretted telling me about the “sacred vessel.” Too late. Dude, you’re drinking some bedpan beer. Now get out there. When writer Kevin Mataraci told the Ethos senior editors that he wanted to explore alternative sleep cycles, we were fascinated but a bit apprehensive. He volunteered to put himself on a “polyphasic” sleep cycle for two weeks to see if it would increase his productivity. Some self-proclaimed sleep gurus on Reddit claimed it would. What followed was the quick deterioration of Kevin’s mental faculties (although no permanent damage, I promise) through sleep deprivation. Honestly, I was worried about him for a while. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. And then Rachel LaChapelle said she wanted to write about bugs being used as food. And you know what that means: you’re eating bugs. After some cricket tacos and meal worm fried rice, we had our cover story. Spoiler: crickets taste like cricket.

ON THE COVER On this issue’s cover, shot by Emily Albertson, a fried cricket makes us wonder if bugs are food.

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BUGOUT Insects may be the food of the future.

WORDS RACHEL LACHAPELLE / PHOTOS EMILY ALBERTSON

e stared back at me with black faceted eyes. It must have been an imperceptible breeze, a trick of the light, but I could have sworn I saw his delicate feelers and jumping-jack limbs move, just a bit. The little bugger had been shipped, starved, frozen, boiled, roasted and fried. Why did he still seem decidedly undead? Reader, I munched him. I bit down on the brittle body of a whole cricket. My mantra, “mind over mouthfeel,” was harder to hold fast to than I had previously thought. I knew in my mind that I was eating the sustainable superfood of the future, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. But the crunch in my mouth as exoskeleton gave way to waxy insect guts was enough to make me gag. Even after I forced myself to swallow, tickly cricket legs remained stuck between my teeth. The benefits of entomophagy, or bug eating, are manifold. The UN sees edible insects as a promising solution to world hunger, global warming, and pollution. They’re a cheap, efficient, accessible, and nutritious source of food, and eating them is a healthy choice for both humans and the environment. Using these micro-livestock as a food source is an environmentally friendly alternative to raising cows, chickens and sheep because insects emit lower levels of greenhouse gases. Compared to farming traditional livestock, rearing insects requires less input for the same output: they efficiently convert their feed into bodyweight, and they don’t need a lot of land to live on. Crickets contain about the same amount of protein per gram as beef, and mealworms are comparable to fish in their levels of omega-3 fatty acids. Besides protein and healthy fats, edible insects provide essential vitamins, minerals, and fiber.

PHOTO — The FDA allows a certain amount of bug parts in mass-produced food.

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EA INSE OF TEN CTS AS DIFF IN A CAN ER GR M B O OR UN ENT ULTI E T W RO D AS -UP AYS UDE TE D A INTO , SUC WH H N F OL D EA LOU E. TE R N

Around a third of the world’s population already eats insects and incorporates them into their traditional cuisines. Approximately 1900 species of bugs are consumed worldwide. Though insects are the cousins of shellfish like shrimp and prawns, Westerners remain averse to the idea of dining on them. And I am among the guilty. “Insects are yucky, dirty. You get trained into believing this as a child,” explains Sujaya Rao, professor of entomology at Oregon State University. She says reactions like mine are all in my mind. Rao supports and partakes in entomophagy even though she’s a vegetarian. But not all who avoid eating animals agree. In 2012, some vegans and vegetarians protested when they found out that Starbucks’ strawberry Frappuccino contained cochineal, a red food coloring component sourced from crushed beetles. In response to the pressure, Starbucks transitioned to a plant-derived dye. Even so, a cup of coffee — with or without the beetle juice — provides a protein-packed daily dose of bugs, as up to ten percent of coffee beans can be insect infested. Like it or not, we all regularly consume creepy crawlies. The FDA readily approves foods containing up to a certain amount of bug parts. These “defects,” as the FDA so diplomatically calls them, are purely aesthetic and carry no health risk. Rao’s advice: “Stop worrying about insects in your food. You can’t avoid every single one, and it means you have no insecticide.” Organic food, that holy grail of healthy eating, is roach-ridden as well as pesticide-free. In 40 to 50 years, insect eating may become mainstream, says Rao, especially if we start feeding bugs to the next generation while they’re kids. For now, edible insects are something of a novelty in Western culture. Is it novelty that compels me to order 200 crickets

ket ric

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INSECTS ARE YUCKY, DIRTY. YOU GET TRAINED INTO BELIEVING THIS AS A CHILD.

and 500 mealworms from Southern California based Rainbow Mealworms? Their insects, raised on all-organic, non-GMO feed, are intended for the distinguished reptilian and avian palates, and are safe for human consumption. I choose my specimens by age and size: the crickets are five weeks old, and the mealworms half an inch. They are shipped live. I will have the privilege of butchering the bugs myself. I’m a happy carnivore with no ethical concerns about edible insects. From seafood to snails to still-mooing steak, I regularly enjoy meals that have recently left the land of the living. But for some reason, the sound of my crickets chirping on the kitchen counter makes me shudder. The mealworms crawl across their newspaper habitat with a crackling sound. Professor Rao tells me I can eat the mealworms alive and still squirming, but that is more adventurous than I am willing to attempt. There are many ways to skin a cricket. I choose them all. I barely open the box before popping them straight into the freezer. After an hour or so in cold temperatures, they will enter a state of stasis, in which they’re technically alive but unmoving. Just to be sure, I leave them in there for a few days. The night before the feast, I boil them clean. Bubbling away on the stove, the bugs give off a pungent aroma, something between earth and excrement. Then, I dry roast them, determined to avoid, in the words of The Lion King, anything “slimy yet satisfying.” I plan an amateur’s arthropod dinner menu, trying to pick out dishes that will trick me into taking a bite. The charmingly named chocolate “chirp” cookies will be my first foray into the world of insects as food. I stir ground up crickets and mealworms into the batter, along with a sprinkle of cinnamon to distract from the insect specks. My taste buds fail to detect any significant difference. Later, my all-too-trusting brother Alex will be two bites into the cookie and completely unaware of its secret ingredient, before he looks at me, eyes narrowed with suspicion. My evil laugh may have given me away. I make mealworm fried rice, and I don’t mind it so much. Looking down at a bowl of maggots could take some getting used to, yes, but if I close my eyes I can take a bite. The mealworms add a pleasant crunch to the dish, and I can easily convince myself that they’re extra crispy grains of rice. If they have their own flavor, it blends into the colorful backdrop of soy and ginger, green onion and egg. The final dish is a cricket taco; I’ve saved the most difficult for last. Perched on leaves of lettuce and sprigs of cilantro, the crickets look like they could be crawling around. It’s a rich flavor, too intense to be easily masked in a sauté of garlic and lime. I taste savory fat and a robust meatiness — but it’s a far cry from bacon or chicken or nuts or anything I’ve ever tasted, contrary to what some entomophagists have compared it to. Cricket tastes like one thing: cricket. I’m not a picky eater, but these are something else. Nutritious they may be, but delicious they are not. Of the three courses, two were tolerably tasty, one was just not for me. Perhaps it was psychological, but I wasn’t lining up for second helpings — or even second bites. When it comes to eating creepy crawlies, I will remain cautiously curious.

Cr ick et Ta cos

Illustrated by MATT SCHUMACHER

INTRODUCING

Ethos Cartoons!

PHOTO — The crickets were shipped alive, then frozen, boiled, roasted and fried.

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FORGE

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is named “Stress Less,” and contains olive and coconut oil.

WORDS CASSADIE JERDIN PHOTO EMILY ALBERTSON

Local soap maker and owner of Camamu Lori Basson pours her heart, soul and favorite essential oils into the all-natural products that she makes from hand.

ori Basson’s personality seeps out of every corner of her soap kitchen. Decorative coffee mugs are stacked amongst Pyrex measuring cups while a ruffled floral apron hangs on the shelves surrounded by vividly colorful blocks of soap. A new smell comes to life in every step around the kitchen. Lavender is on one side, while the bright and spicy scent of turmeric cuts through another. A glass jar full of rum, juniper, and allspice cooks in the sunlight, perched on a windowsill next to 15 shiny spools of gift wrapping ribbon. The most fascinating parts of the kitchen are the shelves where blocks of soap are stacked high, waiting to be retrieved and sold. Each block flaunts a unique texture, design, or color from its spot on the shelf. Some were marbled and had two or more colors such as a burnt orange and bold navy swirling throughout the bar, while others had natural ingredients, like dried roses, clinging to the edges of the soap.

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Every unique product came to life by the experience and creativity of Basson, the owner of Camamu, a soap company run from a little red barn in Southeast Portland’s Sellwood neighborhood. Camamu is a thriving business. It creates, sells, ships, stamps, opens and closes. But something about it, probably Basson’s inviting demeanor, made the shop in the little red barn feel more like walking into a friend’s home. Basson says she dislikes the business side of soap making the most. Paper order forms piled neatly on her desk while towers of boxes were waiting to ship Camamu soap around the country. Her landline phone rings at least four or five times an afternoon, and each time Basson answered with a charming “Hello?” and continued a business conversation in her lofty and genuine tone. Business is good, but the craft is much better and more fulfilling.

“

s PHOTO — Camamu’s lavender soap

SOAP DOESN’T JUST HAVE TO BE THIS GREEN OR WHITE BAR. IT CAN BE A WAY TO BRING AESTHETICS INTO EVERYDAY LIFE.

lly

of cia ne espe o s. is s, ay iday soap D l ’s o al ne l h et nti ssfu se p e l Va cce ro — st su ped O o ha OT m t-s PH mu’s hear t ama eir C th th wi

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I HAVE PLACES I’VE BEEN AND THE WAY SOME PLACES SMELL THAT I TRY TO RECREATE IN A SOAP.

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t PHOTO — All of Camamu’s soaps are hand-made in the back of their store, which is based in Sellwood.

Before opening Camamu in 2000, Basson explored other interests and potential careers. She attended the University of Wisconsin where she graduated with a degree in nursing and spent time working as a nurse in Beirut, Lebanon during the civil war. Although Basson loved the act of healing and helping others, she did not enjoy having a boss. “I feel a lot of existential angst when I work for someone. So I just kept going,” Basson says. After working in Beirut, she started a career in cheese making, which she had a scientific curiosity for. “I spent the most beautiful summer of my adult life on a biodynamic cheese farm outside of London,” she says. Basson would spend her days working with the cheese artisans doing grueling work like lifting, stirring, and lugging pounds of cream or soft cheese. In the evenings she would walk through the adjacent forest while the summer sun set to take in the beauty of the nature around her. Basson describes the soap making process with passion like an artist with hundreds of creative dreams floating in her mind; the only way to give them life is by turning them into a bar of soap. She understands that every batch of soap is ephemera and will eventually cease to exist, but she cares to make each product beautiful. “Soap doesn’t just have to be this green or white bar. It can be a way to bring aesthetics into everyday life. You may even marvel at it when you use it and watch as the swirls take different patterns or as the color changes,” she says. “I bring my whole life experience to it. I have places I’ve been and the way some places smell that I try to recreate in a soap. I tailor in my own memories.” Basson then passed over her Thalassa Sea Salt Soap bar laced with juniper and cypress, which was inspired by her childhood in Cyprus. This bar reminds her of days when she and her family would take a boat out on the Mediterranean Sea and swim off of the coast of Greek islands. With only a small backpack and a sleeping bag each, they would camp for the night, marinating in the scents that she now stirs into a bar of soap. “I’ve lived in Lebanon, Jordan, Cyprus, and I spent a lot of time in England and France,” Basson says. Wild thyme is one of her favorite scents, and it reminds her of touring the South of France years ago. She pays homage to the soap makers of Marseille with a wild thyme bar that was made in Castile fashion with an olive oil base. Even the name of the business was inspired by her travels. Camamu is a city located on the eastern coast of Brazil. When Basson visited Camamu, she was stirred by the beauty of the town. She remembers “entering Camamu through a palm lined bay and

staying in an ecolodge on the Atlantic surrounded by native people in dugout canoes.” Although it was a “beautiful little town,” Camamu stuck as the name of the business when Basson discovered that the word camamu meant “the bath water that falls from a woman’s breast,” she says laughing. Her beginnings as a nurse also play into her love for soap. Basson loves the idea that a bar of soap can have the power to heal the body whether it may combat stress, acne, or a sore body. She uses her experience as a nurse to think of ways that she can make people feel better, coupling her knowledge of the human body and natural essential oils. Although every aspect of her journey from nursing school to a summer abroad learning the craft of cheese making to her years growing up overseas play into the business that she grows now, she never intended for it to be this way. Basson followed what she loved and moved passionately into the life she has now without a plan. It’s safe to say, even now she still doesn’t have a plan. The life overseas where she has family and treasured memories still calls to her, but her business keeps her nestled in Portland for now. “I just got onto this path and stayed on it. The longer I’ve been doing it, the more life has opened up for me.”

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MOTION

OASIS BENEATH THE BRIDGE Eugene’s skateboarders find a nighttime home at the Washington + Jefferson Skatepark WORDS FORREST WELK PHOTO DEBRA JOSEPHSON

skateboard rolls on unoccupied after a miscalculated trick sends the rider hurtling toward the skatepark floor below. The fall is obviously unpleasant, the smooth concrete provides no give to comfort a landing at full speed. Yet, the skater’s reaction doesn’t reflect any pain felt whatsoever. He laughs, claps his hands, gets up, and runs after his missing board to try again. Nearby, 30-year-old veteran skateboarder Ashley Marion rolls past, focused only on conquering his own chosen obstacles at the Washington + Jefferson Skatepark and Urban Plaza (WJ). Having skated for 18 years, the Eugene native has suffered his fair share of bad falls and injuries. He doesn’t care. He skates on as the sounds of boards crashing and wheels screeching amplify through the busy park. A train passes nearby, the rumblings vibrate off the park pillars. To Marion, these sounds become white noise. What matters is perfecting his skills in the skatepark that he and the rest of the Eugene skateboarding community have been craving for years. Along with being an enormous covered skate park, WJ remains open until 1 a.m. by virtue of having bright white lights built into its highway canopy, which illuminate the tricky curves and bends for those who prefer to perfect their talents into the late hours. Tonight, the park entertains dozens of skateboarders, each getting a taste of the beautiful, yet brutal nature of WJ. The world outside WJ’s boundaries is dark. But within, the lights above guide the way. “I try to go daily,” Marion says. “That’s the main thing to do if you’re a skater in Eugene.” WJ opened in April 2014 to the excitement of Eugene skateboarders and BMX enthusiasts. City officials touted the 23,000 square foot park as the largest covered outdoor skatepark in the US, a title it retains to this day. The attraction sits under the Washington-Jefferson Bridge and features impressive contemporary art on the bridge pillars. Planning for the project originated in 1990, when a group of skaters met with city officials to plead their need for a large skate park in Eugene. After a stalled development process due to a lack of funding, Eugene landscape architect Emily Proudfoot took over as project manager in 2008.

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t PHOTO — The Washington + Jefferson Skatepark has provided a safe place for Eugene’s skateboarders to ride at night.

gotten better only to a certain extent. “This park has helped out a lot, but this area is still a mess,” he says. Grant points to the basketball courts outside the skate park. “Over there you still get the bad apples,” he says. “A lot of people doing drugs here and stuff. I’ve literally seen people doing crack in the open. I’ve walked in on someone shooting up heroin in the bathroom.” At the very least, most skaters acknowledge that the area is improved from what it was before, and that drug activity mostly occurs outside the confines of the skatepark itself, their home. Proudfoot admits that the situation is not perfect, but points out that the increased visibility from the bright lights at night helps eliminate the problem. “The truth is, there are hundreds of more people coming to that park every day than we have before. When you just have that many more people coming to that park for a legitimate use, it just improves safety so much,” she says. To complement the increased safety, many view the park as an escape from a society that still holds negative stereotypes of skateboarders. As someone who skates both in skateparks and on the streets of Eugene, Marion shares this sentiment. “Not really too much at skateparks,” he says, “but for skating streets, people will definitely get upset if you show up at their business trying to use it as a skate spot.” He wouldn’t go so far as to call it discrimination, but acknowledges that some people are friendlier than others when it comes to skating on the streets. “Some people will come up and

get kind of physical with the skaters,” he says. “People can freak out about it more than they need to, or threaten to call the cops.” Many skaters avoid the streets for similar reasons. Often, WJ is most popular at night, up until closing time at 1 a.m. Skaters share the common sentiment that riding in a public skatepark is an effective way to avoid trespassing or provoking law enforcement. At night, many opt to be within their own community of skateboarders, not isolated in the less-friendly, dark streets of Eugene. Proudfoot says this was a factor in building the skate park. “There’s this saying, ‘If you don’t have a skate park, then your city is a skate park,’” says Proudfoot. “We really have provided a destination for people to go. We can direct them to the skate park.” Grant is one skateboarder who uses the skate park as the primary outlet for his passion. His life completely revolves around the sport. His aspirations include skateboarding and filming skateboarding, spending every day at WJ. Grant feels at home there, mostly because the rest of the city rejects him. “They don’t take the time to get to know us,” he says. “Everyone I know skates, I know how skateboarders are. They’re good people, but they get frowned upon…People just think we vandalize everything.” While he only finds acceptance from his fellow skateboarders, Grant is ultimately content with skating within the confines of the park he calls home. Unfortunately, the WJ community isn’t totally united in keeping their park clean, Marion says. “There’s new people there all time,” he says. “People I’ve never seen before just come here and skate. Some people make huge messes.” However, he notes that some dedicated skaters take pride in taking care of WJ. “They’ll go through and pick up all the soda cups and cigarette butts and throw them in the trash,” Marion says. “As a skater, I don’t want to be rolling through and eat it because of some trash on the ground.” Many fellow skateboarders resonate that opinion, and despite some detractors, the park looks close to as new as it was when it opened. As the clock creeps past 10 p.m. the night has just begun for many skateboarders at WJ. Some simply watch the active skaters, forming an outer ring surrounding the park, lines of skateboards

PHOTO — Without the comfort of the Washington + Jefferson Skatepark, Eugene skateboarders would be out on the streets.

“ THERE WAS A

VISION FOR IT A LONG TIME AGO. FOR A LOT OF PEOPLE IT’S LIKE A DREAM COME TRUE.

“

“There was a vision for it a long time ago,” Proudfoot says. “It was clearly a very desired facility by a lot of people over a long period of time. For a lot of people it’s like a dream come true.” Proudfoot says that she prioritized how to keep the park safe, particularly in the later hours of the short winter days. Despite concerns about overnight camping, City of Eugene officials acquiesced the skateboarding community’s request to skate late into the night by changing the initial closing hour of 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. “For visibility, we used to have to go to parking garages to see, but now the skate park just gives us a good place to go late at night,” Marion says. Overnight camping and drug use remain an issue on the outskirts of the park. On most nights, small groups of vagrants gather across the street from the park, using the bridge as shelter. Before the skatepark was built, the area contained a large sandpit with old playground equipment. Its actual use was far less innocent. “We had a terrible public safety problem there,” Proudfoot says. “It was kind of overrun with people who were homeless, drug-addicted, had felony convictions — it was not a safe place to be for most people.” Many long-time Eugene residents and skaters felt that danger, and many chose to avoid the area before the park was built. “It was pretty abandoned,” Marion says, “They weren’t utilizing the space down there, and it made it so people could be pretty sketchy. It made that part of town worse.” Some skaters are still pessimistic about the drug activity in the area. Caleb Grant, a 23-year-old Eugene native, says that he has been skating in Eugene his whole life, and the situation at WJ has

against the walls and smoke filling the cool air. For an attraction less than a year old, the mood is largely community based and reminiscent of a family. For many, it’s because they grew up in Eugene together, all waiting for the park they have now. And while not everyone has the patience to learn to skateboard, those passionate and willing to suffer repeated physical pain will find success. As a result, even after much of the city has gone to sleep, many WJ skaters continue to tackle the challenging park despite accumulated cuts and bruises. So, as the sounds of traffic from the highway above diminish, all that can be heard are the screeching of wheels and the crashing of wooden skateboards, followed occasionally by the thunderous rumble of skaters applauding in their fashion (literally pounding the ends of their boards into the concrete repeatedly). On any given night of the week, Eugene’s nighttime skateboarding community at WJ rolls on. spring 2015

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WORDS MELISSA EPIFANO PHOTO JAEJIN LEE

Does academic advising favor student athletes?

or students it’s a familiar scenario: It’s three in the morning, empty mugs of coffee are standing amongst the mess of papers on a desk. The studying never seems to end. Class itself gets in the way of cramming. Not far down the street, another person is up too. They aren’t much different, but this person just came home from a basketball game. Drenched in sweat and exhausted from physical exertion, student athletes also have to study for exams. Although it may seem that student athletes have a studying advantage because of dedicated tutors, reality is not so sweet. Many students have extracurricular activities that take up time throughout the day. Maybe they have a job and are constantly working. Or maybe they just have a large class load on their shoulders. For student athletes, who may have five or more hours of practice a day, games throughout the week, a full course load, and meetings they must attend, staying up on their grades can be quite a challenge. And though students and athletes have different commitments, they all need access to services that help them learn and study. There are two specific sources on campus that cater to the needs of students and the needs of student athletes alike. Towering above other campus buildings on Kincaid St. is Prince Lucien-Campbell Hall (PLC), a blocky building dimpled with a seemingly endless numbers of windows. At the corner of 13th St. and Agate St. is the Jaqua Center, a modern glass building, surrounded by a serene, bubbling infinity pool. Inside PLC is the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC), a hub of academic resources

for every student on campus. And within the Jaqua Center are resources designed for athletes such as tutoring and academic advising. While the Jaqua is specifically for student athletes, the TLC is tailored for anyone who needs academic help. This seems unfair to some students and professors around the school. They envy the Jaqua Center and those who get to use it. With its superb academic services for student athletes and beautiful building, the Jaqua Center makes it seem as if the University of Oregon is playing into the game of favoritism, but according to several student athletes, the Jaqua is anything but that. Matt Hidalgo is a student at the University of Oregon, majoring in general social science with an emphasis in crime, law, and society. But this isn’t the only thing he works hard at -- Matt is a redshirt polevaulter, and a good one at that. With many awards and height records under his belt, he works hard to balance his academic career and athletic success. That’s why the Jaqua has been so important in his life. “The practicing hours are really long so it’s really nice to have that support,” he says. “We have up to five hour practices multiple times a week, so it’s extremely busy.” The Jaqua gives student athletes like Hidalgo a quiet place to study for those who need it. “Fortunately enough, my grades are good enough to where I’m not required to have tutors anymore. But they make it available to us. If we want a tutor we can have a session assigned to us with someone to help us out before quizzes or exams,” he says. Even with such demanding schedules, athletes are expected to maintain a high GPA, and the Jaqua Center helps them do so. Another student athlete, Carlyle Garrick, a redshirt linebacker, also finds that the Jaqua is incredibly helpful for the strenuous schedules athletes have. As an advertising major, he uses the building’s computer lab for digital work and used tutoring services as a freshman. Lexi Petersen, a point guard on the women’s basketball team and journalism major, says the services offered to her through the Jaqua have been quite useful

as well. “The Jaqua provides so many opportunities for student athletes, especially being a female athlete, it gives me more opportunities for when basketball ends.” She currently uses the Jaqua as a quiet environment for studying and place to hang out in between classes. On the other side of campus, the story is a bit different. The TLC is one of the campus’ greatest resources for academic help. With a wide range of tutoring, career, financial, and academic services, students of every kind flock there. The TLC has served more than 2,000 students for tutoring services this fall alone and about 4,600 students last academic year. Susan Lesyk, the director of the TLC, oversees all that goes on and works with a team to provide these amenities to students. With a large demand for help during test periods and finals week, they do a great job trying to cater to as many students as possible. Kim Lilley, the tutor coordinator and office manager, says that math and writing are the biggest demand. “We are able to do tutoring for classes up through calculus, and we offer several writing circles and programs.” Both Lesyk and Lilley agree that math tutoring is a huge need on campus due to its importance in many different career paths. “It’s a gatekeeper to some majors. If you don’t pass then you have to readjust your plans,” Lesyk says. Due to this they have been holding pop-up math labs once a week in residence halls. Both wish that the TLC could provide more services for students for free and provide one-on-one tutoring. Yet with a publicly funded school, it is challenging to receive money to offer services for free, regardless of what type of student service it is. Lesyk hopes that the TLC will someday be able to provide what the Jaqua can. “I do wish we had some of the services the Jaqua offers,” she says. “But I think it’s a really beautiful thing that they have over there. And I think it’s great they have those services for students.”

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FEATURE

take the

LEAD

ike his stand-up bass, Eric Richardson is spindly, dark. His cadence reminds of improvisation; subdued intonations much like the syncopated notes of an avant-garde jazz melody, or perhaps a walking bassline, roll off his tongue. With jazz, you may not know the bass is there unless you listen closely, purposefully. But it’s there. And to the same effect, Richardson is ubiquitous in Eugene social justice circles as its National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter President, even though he seeks no recognition or high praise. His work and advocacy plumbs sometimes at below-audible levels, silently keeping the beat, setting the pace. A rhythm section. Richardson never imagined he’d be an NAACP leader, but it’s not hard to see when you examine his early life. The values his family affirmed — independence, freedom, and rights for African Americans, to name a few — molded Richardson at an early age not into a figure ready to make boisterous, dogmatic proclamations into a megaphone, but into a leader who recites poetry, smiles broadly, and is warmly approachable. A native of St. Louis, a transplant at 2-years-old to Eugene after MLK’s assassination, a once-was ex-pat to Guyana shortly thereafter, and a black child in the

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1960s, he grew up no stranger to the notion of cultural perspective. Beyond the physical setting of his childhood, his family at home played a strong roll in his identity; he calls his parents “far thinkers.” His father was a friend of Ken Kesey, and as a child, now back in Oregon after nearly three years on a Guyana commune, he’d watch his dad and Kesey hang out and listen to jazz artists like Charles Mingus or John Coltrane. “In my head I’m like, ‘Oh, Ken Kesey is 100 percent down with John Coltrane, knows what that means. This is John Coltrane,’” Richardson says. Growing up, jazz was a delight but its meaning was a pursuit on its own, spiritual at times. It’s the connection to jazz — the music, its traditionally black culture, and its time-tested resilience (and, its evolution) which in many ways aligned Richardson to be Eugene’s NAACP leader. “I think this whole idea of using music as universal connection — not necessarily jazz — but, music is important,” he says. “So to me, it’s even an inspiration with the work that I do at the NAACP, ’cause it’s the same connection that music gives you to one another. That empathy. That it what is needed, even in work that we do at the NAACP.”

The life and passions of Eugene's NAACP president WORDS GABRIELLE DECKLEMAN & GORDON FRIEDMAN PHOTOS DEBRA JOSEPHSON

The values of Richardson’s past and present blend, another aspect of his perspective on life. He’s the father of five children (not all eager musicians, mind you), and married to a black woman who was adopted and raised by a Norwegian couple. He learns from his family, yet he also teaches them, along with the black community in Eugene, about his beliefs and those of the NAACP. “In general, I’ve been working for the NAACP principles all my life,” he says. Today, it’s mostly thoughts of community and connectedness that drive him. “A lot of people think of black power, black consciousness, as this separative group. But really it wasn’t about separating anyone,” he says. “It was about redefining oneself.” “For me, is it about making a bunch of money living the life, or is it about me taking care as a human, giving to my kids and being real and giving to myself ? That was more important to me. To identify with these poor people.” As marches are coordinated, speaking engagements are scheduled, and the bustle of running a household builds to a crescendo, Richardson is there, the bass in the background, holding the whole scene together.

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“

FOR ME, IS IT ABOUT MAKING A BUNCH OF MONEY LIVING THE LIFE, OR IS IT ABOUT ME TAKING CARE AS A HUMAN, GIVING TO MY KIDS AND BEING REAL AND GIVING TO MYSELF?

“ s PHOTO — Jazz and playing the bass has always been a central component of Richardson’s life.

s PHOTO — Richardson and his son Tarik share a bond through activism and music.

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t PHOTO — Anu often works with his father at speaking events or charity functions.

s PHOTO — Richardson attends his son Anu’s basketball game. Richardson has worked to support his community as the Lane County NAACP president.

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PHOTO ESSAY

HELPING

HORSES WORDS & PHOTOS LORIN ANDERBERG

Abused horses find their permanent home at the Oregon Horse Rescue.

or horses who have been neglected, abused or whose owners simply can’t afford to care for them any longer, the Oregon Horse Rescue, located in Eugene, Oregon, is an organization that provides “forever homes.” Founded in 2012 by locals Jane and David Kelly, they’ve taken in over 40 horses on their 70-acre piece of land, complete with open space, food, water, shelter and personal care. The Kellys decided to devote their lives to rescuing horses after responding to a Craigslist ad for a horse adoption and found the animal to be severely neglected and unhealthy.

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t PHOTO — Curious about their visitors, these horses came from across the field to see what was happening, as a group of students from the University of Oregon toured the rescue.

he horses at the rescue have a diverse set of personalities because of their unique backgrounds. Some horses are friendly and want to stick their nose in other people’s business until you pet them, while others are too timid to even make eye contact, revealing signs of their abusive past. The horses who seem to suffer the most are those who have lost their eyesight.

B s PHOTO — TOP: While the horses don’t always get along at first, they will often befriend another horse and develop a close bond, pairing the two for the rest of their time at OHR. BOTTOM: Safe in their new home, rescued horses start be more playful and friendly once they are in good mental and physical health. 31

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ees are an integral part of Oregon’s biodiversity, but they are dying. Use of neonicotinoid pesticides have caused bee die-offs around the state, but local beekeepers still practice their craft with pride. Whether it’s a hobby or a profession, beekeepers love their busy, buzzing bees, their ability to pollinate our plants, and their delicious honey. spring 2015

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t PHOTO — Many horses at the OHR have lost their eyes to disease or injury. This particular horse struggles with being blind and can have difficulty trusting her caretakers. However, once spoken to and caressed, she displays her affection.

atie, the barn manager, says that those who didn’t take well to losing their sight “see monsters,” and have a hard time trusting others, or even trusting themselves. She says that one-on-one attention is what these horses need most. The organization hopes to attract volunteers that will visit with the horses and show them much needed affection. The future of the OHR is bright. With more awareness, funding, and volunteers, the program will continue to thrive and help horses in need.

s PHOTO — David Kelly, Co-Founder of OHR, spends his free time caring for his horses, while also working a full time job.

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FEATURE

C including

EVERYONE

Changes made to campus policies promote acceptance of transgender students.

ollege is where some build new identities and find different ways of being. Many are in a new town away from childhood friends and family, freer than ever to explore ourselves, and decide who or what to be. “Once I declared my identity, I was more comfortable with presenting as my identity,” Sam Doss says. Doss identifies as a non-binary person, or genderqueer. Being away from home gave them the freedom to express themselves the way they wanted to. Doss works as a cook in the Department of Sports Nutrition at the University of Oregon. “I had to explain it to my cis friends,” Doss says. “They didn’t know it automatically. I was born female, but I have never identified with female. And that takes a long time to figure out because gender is not something that is taught in schools. The idea that there are more than two choices isn’t taught.” Media coverage of transgender people and issues are becoming more prevalent, though it might be difficult for cisgender people (people who identify with their biological sex) who have little to no knowledge of transgender communities to understand what being transgender is. Transgender students are a variety of ages, ethnicities, races, economic classes, and sexual orientations. Some are out and some are not. Some will identify strongly with the language of the transgender community, others won’t. Some will transition and live as a gender different from the one assigned at birth, some won’t. And some will choose a path that lies in between or completely outside of society’s concept of what gender can be. The perception of gender is generally confined to male and female by society it perceives it that way. But, people are more complex than that. Simplifying people into categories with the criteria of having either a vagina or a penis is arbitrary. To many trans people, that binary reinforces a way of looking at gender that mitigates personal experiences. In essence: gender is not defined by what’s between your legs.

When thinking about trans people and trans issues, it needs to be said that there is not a single way to be transgender, just like there is not a single way to be a woman or a man. Cisgender students face some of the same challenges as transgender students: Do I have enough time to eat breakfast before class? I have an assignment due tomorrow, but I haven’t even looked at it yet. What classes should I take next term? But there are many challenges on campus that trans individuals must face that many other students have the privilege of not having to think about. Some of these challenges include: inclusive housing, non-discriminatory health care and support; sex-segregated spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms; potential discrimination based on expression of gender identity; records and documents that reflect their gender identity. Doss says that presenting the way they want to is possible because the Pacific Northwest is a generally safe place to be out, specifically the campus area. “I can present how I want, and feel fairly safe doing it, which is nice because a lot of parts of the country, or the world, you can’t,” they say. “I do not speak on behalf of all genderqueer people; we are individual humans like everyone else, but being trans around campus is being part of a community that is fairly strong and awesome.” But this doesn’t mean that Doss and others in the trans community around campus don’t experience some negatives. Doss says they have been misgendered at work, “I’m kind of rocky with my boss, but in Oregon, trans identities are protected. In a lot of states they aren’t. But as far as friends go, once people understood what I was trying to say, they were pretty much in support of it.” The University of Oregon is fairly safe and accepting of trans people. In a 2012 post from The Advocate, a news source for the LGBTQ community, the university was reported to be in the top 10 trans-friendly colleges and universities in the U.S. The list was compiled by the Campus Pride Index. “Only about ten percent of colleges and universities have

WORDS JACKIE HAWORTH PHOTOS KYRA BAILEY

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s PHOTO — LEFT: UO is beginning to make the campus more trans-friendly with the designation of gender-inclusive restrooms in centrally-located buildings. RIGHT:Sam Doss says that for transgender students fitting in on campus can be difficult.

“

ONCE I DECLARED MY IDENTITY, I WAS MORE COMFORTABLE WITH PRESENTING AS MY IDENTITY INTO EVERYDAY LIFE.

“ 37

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trans-inclusive nondiscrimination statements,” the article says. Nondiscrimination policies that make campus so transfriendly include gender identity/expression with transitionrelated medical expenses covered under student health insurance. With transition costs covered, trans people who are transitioning can focus on their mental and physical health. Dr. Brent Horner, staff psychologist at the University Counseling and Testing Center (UCTC) says, “We prioritize and make a point of trying to make ourselves available, accessible, safe, and affirming to our transgender students.” The Health Center as well as the UCTC ask about gender identity without making students check female/male boxes. According to Dr. Horner, the Health Center has created the Transgender Care Team. The Team works with trans students as a support service so that they can start hormone therapy on campus at the Health Center. And the two branches of on-campus health work together closely to make sure that they are on the same page when it comes to health standards. Currently, the Health Center and UCTC work under The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) standard. If the UCTC wants to help students gain access they must agree follow this standard as well. To get transspecific health care, such as hormones, there are four eligibility requirements a person has to meet: age of majority (typically 18 in the U.S.); persistent, well-document gender dysphoria; capacity to make a fully informed decision and consent to treatment; and, if significant medical or mental health conditions are present, those conditions must be reasonably well-controlled. “For our purposes, we don’t need to see a paper trail of gender dysphoria,” Dr. Horner says. “I think there’s a narrative out there that often trips people up where if you’re trans

you knew it at age 3. I think, for some people, that narrative is close to the truth, but I don’t think it’s most people.” Dr. Horner believes that all people recognize their gender identity at different places in life. This narrative is not something the UCTC goes by, and even though it’s a common fear, people shouldn’t be worried about trying to fit a certain narrative in their search for health care. He also wants to emphasize that having a mental health concern does not prohibit people from receiving support, something he cites people are afraid of. With that fear comes the potential to hide their true feelings. “It is so normal to feel anxious when you are experiencing dysphoria and getting misgendered left and right,” Dr. Horner says “I would much rather this be a place where we can talk openly about that and we can support students than having students think they have to propose a perfectly composed kind of case.” Elle Mallon, who is a non-binary trans femme and identifies with “she/her” pronouns, is the Gender, Sexuality, and Diversity advocate for the ASUO. She doesn’t think WPATH is the best system out there. She has been working with the Health Center to get a different standard of care. She says that WPATH is a “paternalistic approach to trans people and their bodies,” and advocates for a system of informed consent. Informed consent “lets people know what they are getting into and lets them do it. This is the standard of care for cis people, Mallon says.“But when it’s trans people you have to have this production to get everything together.” Dr. Horner shares Mallon’s concerns about the WPATH system. “People feel pathologized, stigmatized. There’s something really hurtful and painful about that,” he says. “I don’t blame people for being pissed. And I don’t blame people for being sensitive and careful.” Bodily autonomy is a huge trans issue. Being

trans used to be seen as a disorder or character flaw, but this is not the case now. Dr. Horner explains that the current diagnosis is gender dysphoria, which is progress, but also still limiting. He finds there are areas that can be improved on and stopping at what has been done for trans people now would not be beneficial to them. And his sentiment seems to be shared among his peers, “I believe the team feels pretty strongly about seeing where we unintentionally create barriers because our hope is not to get in the way,” Dr.Horner says. “Our hope really is to provide access.” In the future, Dr. Horner wants to see the system simplify. The current system and team is still learning and it will take time. Dr. Horner sees improvement, but there is still work to be done to make it better. Along with the Health Center and UCTC, the university is taking steps to make the campus more trans-friendly. Already it has made it possible for students to use a chosen first name, rather than a legal name (if it hasn’t been changed on legal documents) on campus records and documents such as directory listings and course rosters. Students can also change their gender on their campus records without evidence of medical intervention, making it inclusive of trans people who don’t wish to go through, or can’t go through, medical procedures for whatever reason. And there are gender inclusive restrooms in centrally located buildings that are open and accessible to all students. But the work is not done yet. Not all buildings have gender-neutral bathrooms, health care standards still have room for improvement, and information about services provided to the trans community are not always stated explicitly or easily accessible. In Mallon’s position with the ASUO she helps run campaigns on campus. “This year, we’ve been working on a campaign to get more gender inclusive bathrooms on campus and make them findable,” she spring 2015

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“ I THINK A LOT OF CIS PEOPLE FORGET

THAT TRANS LIVES EXIST BEFORE WE’RE MURDERED, BEFORE WE KILL OURSELVES.

“

says. Doss describes the campaign as trying to get all single-stall restrooms labeled and signs changed to be gender inclusive in every building. Doss says that a lot of health issues come up due to non-inclusive bathrooms such as “purposeful water deprivation and bladder issues.” According to a study done by the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, 54 percent of transgender people have experienced health complication because of the lack of access to gender-neutral bathrooms. The goal of the university’s bathroom accessibility campaign is to create spaces that will make people who are part of the trans community feel safe and decrease the chances of health problems. There are many groups on campus helping the campaign including the Women’s Center, the ASUO Executive Branch, and the LGBTQESSP (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Education Support Services Program). Mallon mentions that the campaign has been going well and the last step is to get commitment in writing from the Provost’s office. One other group helping with the campaign is the university’s gender inclusive Greek Chapter, Theta Pi Sigma. Mallon, along with being the diversity advocate for ASUO, is a member of the group. She says that the chapter “was founded on our campus with the intent of creating a specifically queer space within Greek Life and also try to eliminate a lot of the reasons why people don’t do Greek Life. “We try to make it as affordable as possible and as welcoming to people of all identities.” Mallon has also worked within the ASUO Senate to make their space more inclusive by encouraging them to use better terminology when they do pronoun check-ins. She has supported adding a trans advocate, and queer student of color advocate to the LGBTQESSP. She, along with other advocates, would like to see a pronoun policy on DuckWeb that is similar to the first name policy where someone could choose the pronoun they identify with so it would appear next to their name on the roster. Mallon also focuses on getting cultural competency training for faculty, staff, and even students. “The transgender community is a lot bigger than people realize,” she says. “The problem is that it’s very spread out. There’s not a trans student union where

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people can gather and feel safe in their identity. We have the LGBTQA, but sometimes you get people in there who don’t really understand transness or don’t know how to be respectful to trans people. It’s not that they intend to be disrespectful it’s just that there are mistakes made.” For prospective student Wesley Ryan, who identifies as male and uses he/his pronouns, the trans community is a tight knit group with lives just like everyone else. He finds that it is time for trans people to be more open. Not just around cis people, but around fellow trans as well. “There are trans people who never want to be publicly trans and I want them to be able to do that,” he says. “But the only way they can live the way they want to do is for others to be visible and be visible with other trans people.” Ryan wants cis people to see that transgender people are just that, people. “I think a lot of cis people forget that trans lives exist before we’re murdered, before we kill ourselves. We also really like things like: less discrimination at work, a place to live, and affordable health care; reasonable things. I just wish people would remember that more often. We don’t just die tragically for your cause. We also live,” he says. Doss and Mallon share the same sentiment as Ryan. People should be treated with respect as human beings, transgender or not. “I’m just a person like everyone else,” Doss says. “I get up early in the morning. I put on my uniform. I walk to work. Serve breakfast. Get off by 1pm. Go workout for like an hour. Go on the computer, Netflix, or hang out with friends. Like a normal person.” Safety and inclusion of all students on campus does not stop with rules and laws about anti-discrimination. It starts with changing the community’s mind about trans individuals. As a campus community, we need to educate ourselves to make sure that campus is a place where everyone feels welcome. Although it has already been said, it needs to be said again: trans people are human beings and should to be treated as such. Laws do not change the underlying problems in the way people think and act, but with some work and shifting the way we collectively think about the possibilities of people and gender we can make campus a safe space for everyone to live, explore, and learn.

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FEATURE

SLEEP OVER Rest affects the mind.

atastrophe. Utter catastrophe. My two-week stint with polyphasic sleep was a catastrophe in all its manifestations. That’s the only appropriate word for it. It started as a simple experiment. It seemed too common an occurrence that I would get home, well after the sun had set, and struggled to decide whether to satisfy my urge to sleep, my urge to work, or my urge to go out with friends. Since the start of winter term, I couldn’t remember a day in which I had satisfied all three. After some shallow reflection, I thought I had found the answer. I’m not sure when or where I first heard of polyphasic sleep, a type of sleeping pattern that breaks up the habitual seven or eight hours at night with core sleeps and naps throughout the day. The great Leonardo da Vinci was rumored to be a polyphasic sleeper. But so was Seinfeld’s Kramer, whose stint with polyphasic sleep eventually landed him in a burlap sack in the Hudson River.

WORDS KEVIN MATARACI PHOTO EMILY ALBERTSON, DEBRA JOSEPHSON & COURTNEY THEIM

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t PHOTO — Kevin attempts to talk to a professor about missed class, but stumbles and falls asleep in the doorway.

PHOTO — Kevin chooses the odd, three-way couch in Allen Hall to pass out while onlookers go about their way.

all the sleep I get and maybe cut back an hour or two. The week before I start Everyman, I try a self-designed schedule to prepare myself for fewer hours of sleep. I split my monophasic cycle, meaning getting my day’s sleep all at once, into two threehour segments. As it turns out, this kind of sleep pattern is similar to the way many rested during medieval times, says Martha Bayless, an English professor at the University of Oregon. I consult Bayless for some advice before I start; her research has uncovered evidence of historical polyphasic sleep. I often wake up in the middle of the night, mumble some profanity about being awake, then turn over and fall back asleep. Bayless says waking is something almost every sleeper experiences, but just a few centuries ago, and perhaps up until the early ‘20s, sleepers went about the “midnight wake-up” much differently. Before alarm clocks and widespread electrification of cities, people would generally go to sleep an hour or two after dusk. They too would wake up in the middle of the night but instead of trying to go back to sleep, they got up and did something. They would read, meditate, talk, pray, or have sex. After that, they would go back to sleep and wake with the morning’s light. Literary evidence implies and explicitly states that the brain is in its most relaxed and tranquil state in between what were known as the first and second sleeps. With tranquility in mind, I begin my new “biphasic” sleep schedule. The first three days are great. In the two extra hours I create for myself in the middle of the night I am incredibly productive; with a sleeping town and nothing to distract me, I finish two internship applications, clean my room, watch a film and catch up on some long procrastinated reading. During the daytime, I am not more tired

than usual. I revel in the opportunity to say, “I told you so,” to my previously skeptical friends. But on night four things start to take a turn. In some kind of freak occurrence, I sleep through my alarm; something that I have never done in my life. I wake up a bit before 7:00 A.M. and curse my failure. The following night, I set two alarms and do indeed wake up, but incredibly tired. Thinking only half logically, I go for a 1:30 A.M. run and return rejuvenated, awake, and, an hour later, unable to fall asleep. I manage to get only an hour of what should have been a three-hour sleep. The day is dreadful and it’s the first time I take full advantage of my pre-arranged nap room: the Ethos office in the basement of the University of Oregon’s student union, the Erb Memorial Union, or EMU. I had a sleeping pad, pillow, and blanket stashed in the cluttered corner room for this experiment but had only used it twice so far. Not usually being a napper, my first two attempts at twenty-minute power naps were, in reality, me listening to the low hum of a heating vent and star-

ing blankly at the Ethernet wires strung on the basement’s unfinished concrete ceiling. My first few attempts left me more tired than I began. At the end of my first week, I am tired, but definitely far from the most sleep deprived I have been in college. Despite that, when the 1:00 A.M. alarm goes off on the last night of my first sleep schedule, I skip the snooze and straight up turn off the alarm, saying to myself, “I need rest for the real experiment.” At this point nothing has suffered. I’m slightly tired throughout the day, but the quality of my work has stayed the same and I am just as affable as ever. With the extra couple of hours at night, I was able to do a considerable amount of catch-up on my schoolwork and thus was feeling confident going into the first night of Everyman sleep. The first day of Everyman sleep does not go according to plan. Due to classes and meetings, I am only able to take two of the three naps I am supposed to take. I plan to just add an extra twenty minutes to my core nighttime sleep, but, my core sleep also doesn’t go to plan; my alarm goes off

at 3:30 A.M. and I wake up in total confusion. “Why is my alarm set?” I think to myself at first. After remembering I’m now an Everyman sleeper, I spend five minutes trying to draw myself from my bed, but lose the fight to my heavy eyes. I wake up five hours later, thirty minutes after my 8:00 A.M. class began. During day one of Everyman I’m already discouraged, lethargic, and seriously tired. I pass my roommate in the kitchen who asks, “How is the sleep thing going?” I’m not sure what exactly my reply was, but in my haste out the door I believe I said more profanities than anything else. After only one day, the experiment was starting to wear down on me psychologically. My responses to any kind of communication were delayed and either oddly giddy or defensive. At an Ethos editorial meeting, the editors gave me concerning looks as they asked, “Are you okay?” After the second night, I started to lose control of my sleeping pattern. My three-and-a-half hour core sleep was a success, but I was only able to take one nap throughout day two; meetings, work, and

“

I AM TIRED, BUT DEFINITELY FAR FROM THE MOST SLEEP DEPRIVED I HAVE BEEN IN COLLEGE.

“

There is little, if any, scientific research on the viability or success of polyphasic sleep. But there are those who will sing its praises throughout the Internet. To find my own proper sleep pattern, I perused a handful of articles scattered on the web, the Reddit community on Polyphasic sleep (reddit.com/r/polyphasic), and the website of the Polyphasic Society. I decided to take on Everyman sleep for a week. Consisting of a three-and-ahalf hour core sleep and three 20 minute naps throughout the day, I found Everyman most appealing for its potential to add at least three hours of consciousness to my day. I’m not one to go skimpy on the sleep. There are very few nights in which I get fewer than eight hours. Though I am a grumpy, hardly functioning human being with less than eight hours, I assume that with an international cult of followers, polyphasic sleep can’t all be nonsense. I may not end up being as prolific as Da Vinci, but I’m sure I’m not going to end up in a sack in the Willamette. If anything, perhaps I’ll be able to appreciate

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school assignments became a priority over sleeping. To have to miss a twenty minute nap or push back my three hour core sleep is not a predicament I expected myself to be in. With an additional three hours, I imagined I would be overly productive and would sit around waiting for a sleeping time to come around. I struggled to find free time for anything. As the week went on, my motivations and ability to think creatively froze over. All I could think about was sleep. Work that would have otherwise taken me an hour to complete took more than twice as long and came with drastic sacrifices in quality. While I anticipated I would have extra time to debauch with my friends and pursue personal projects, the time was actually filled by completing, at a much slower pace, all the regular work I had. As the week progressed, I fell more and more out of my intended cycle: missing naps and doubling or tripling the times of others; and some nights all out ditching the prospect of waking up early. One early morning, after waking to my alarm set at 3:30, I proceeded to hit snooze every eight minutes until I absolutely had to get out of bed at 7:15 for my class forty-five minutes later. The following night, I put my alarm clock — my iPhone, that is — on my desktop change dish on the other side of my room. I knew I couldn’t possibly ignore the vibrating calamity the phone would create, figuring once I got out of bed I would be up for sure. My efforts fall short. I take a seat on the couch by my desk, trying to figure out what to do next, and I am asleep within minutes. At this point, no amount of caffeine is an adequate antidote. After finishing a twenty-ounce shot in the dark, I fall asleep immediately in my Ethos office turned nap room. Naps had a refreshing effect on me, but lasted only about thirty minutes. I became less and less friendly and interactive. I began to resent more than anything being asked how I was feeling or how my sleep experiment was going. In my increasing inability to focus on any task I try to complete, my mind drifts back to my discussion with Bayless.

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It seems obvious that culturally, we Americans take sleep for granted, or at least give it minimal priority. The past week hasn’t been the first time a lack of sleep has affected my personal, professional or academic life, and I am also no stranger to all-nighters. In my deprivation, I curse the phrase “sleep when you’re dead,” and dream of the day when I can tell my boss or teacher that I can’t come in today because “I just didn’t get enough sleep,” and he or she won’t question my sanity. Clocks and artificial light work against thousands of years of biological evolution. Humans’ natural circadian rhythm has developed based on roughly 12 hours of light and 12 of dark. “We’re out of synch with our biology,” Bayless told me. “Traditional ways of human sleeping require more time.” With three days left, I head to the polyphasic subReddit for some support. I find no reassurance. One Redditor advises that I just get used to being tired all the time. Another says after a month I will have adjusted. I don’t have a month to devote to this. I don’t want a month. Bayless left me thinking: If it’s hard to find enough time to sleep, what does that say about our cultural priorities? I finish my Everyman sleep cycle one night early, cutting the experiment short. My academic and social life has become so out of whack, I have myself convinced that just one more day and I may very well somehow end up in a sack in the Willamette. On what is supposed to be my last night of polyphasic sleep, I fall into bed two hours early and sleep — through my 8:00 a.m. class, through a meeting — fifteen hours after my alarm was set to ring, peacefully, dreaming of nothing.

(POTENTIAL)

1 2 3

Benefits ofPolyphasic Sleep Restorative sleep in fewer hours More time to be awake

Insomnia relief

Uberman Three 20 minute naps

Three 20 minute naps

Everyman Two 30 minute naps

3.5 total hours

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ethos

FEATURE

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EVERY MORNING THERE WAS ‘JEWS GO TO ISRAEL’ WRITTEN ON MY DOOR

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WORDS ALIYA HALL PHOTOS COURTNEY THEIM ILLUSTRATION WHITNEY DAVIS

RELIGION TAKEN,

TAKEN BACK Julia Nemirovskaya relates her story of anti-Semitism, oppression, and ultimately spiritual renewal to growing up under communist rule.

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here’s this saying in Russia, ‘Where you are born, you’re good.’” Julia Nemirovskaya, a Russian and Eastern Studies Professor at the University of Oregon, looked down at her hands before smiling thoughtfully. “But I hope we’re good here too,” she says. Nemirovskaya was born in 1962 to a Jewish father and a half-Jewish, halfRussian mother during the rule of the Soviet Union, when being openly religious meant persecution. Later, Nemirovskaya converted to Christianity after the death of her grandma; it was safer to be a Soviet Christian. Her father wasn’t comfortable with her conversion, but the safety of his family was persuasive. “Of course, us being children of a Jewish father and half-Jewish mother, being Christian was awkward,” Nemirovskaya says. Along with that awkwardness was the fear in expressing her religious background. “You couldn’t have a good job, like one that influenced people or a state job. They closed all universities for you. To be openly religious you would subject yourself to propaganda,” Nemirovskaya explains. During the time after World War II Nemirovskaya recounted that many Jews had abandoned their religion in order to embrace communism because it liberated Jews from the little villages they were forced to stay in under the old government. However, many still made the decision to migrate to Israel or the United States; but Nemirovskaya’s father, who ran away from home at age 14 to fight in WWII, stayed loyal to the state.

s PHOTO — Julia with her favorite childhood toy, which remains tucked away in her closet to this day.

That loyalty was put to the test in 1948 during the height of the anti-Semitic campaign that Stalin started in response to a false accusation that Jewish doctors wanted to poison Communist Party officials. The plan was to eliminate the Jews by taking them on trains to Siberia, where angry mobs were supposed to destroy the trains and kill everyone on board. However, during the plan’s implementation, Stalin died. “The Jews say he died on Purim,” Nemirovskaya says, referencing the Jewish holiday based upon the book of Esther, when Esther saved the Jewish people from the villain Haman, who wanted to eliminate them. “That was a great celebration for all the Jews. Stalin was finally being punished for what he was doing to the Jewish population.” Because of the campaign, Nemirovskaya’s father wasn’t accepted into Moscow State University, and instead began to gamble, drink, and have many female companions. It wasn’t until he married and Nemirovskaya and her sister were born that he changed his ways. “I think he realized that he needed to be very low profile,” Nemirovskaya says. “He wouldn’t fight anymore, he had fought in a lot of street fights. Once he broke all the mirrors in a restaurant where someone made an anti-Semitic comment. Once he was thrown into the river by this little gang he didn’t want to yield to. So, after the war he was very messed up, very macho, and burly, I think. But once he had us, he became very conservative and didn’t fight that much. I think he never spoke against the government. He loved his job, he wanted us to learn English,

and he wanted us to go to Moscow State [University].” Nemirovskaya’s father made a decision that would influence the rest of Nemirovskaya’s life. “[He decided] to present us everywhere, like school, as Russian because that would give us a green light at Moscow State [University], which was his dream,” she says. “Then, when I went to Moscow State [University] and I started to list my parents they told me not to say that he was ‘Alexander Salomonowitz,’ which means that his father was Jewish. He asked me to change it to ‘Simonowitz,’ a common Russian name, which was a lot of compromise for me. I still remembered, it had hurt because I know my dad under a different name and I have to put down that different name.” Although her father attempted to hide and protect his daughters, there were times where Nemirovskaya couldn’t escape the anti-Semitism happening around her. At her school, once a week there was a meeting concerning political information. At one of these meetings she learned that one of the girls from her class ,who was the daughter of Rabbi, was going to be condemned the next day because her family tried to apply for Israeli citizenship. However, Nemirovskaya’s parents kept her home from school that day, and she didn’t have to go. “We were supposed to call her bad names, and to present her as a traitor to the communist state. That’s what everybody did, everyone had to say: ‘She is a traitor and she betrayed the Soviet government, she betrayed her school, she

betrayed her comrades, and the goals of communism,’” Nemirovskaya explains. Unfortunately, incidents like this happened more than once in Nemirovskaya’s life. In 1980 while attending college, the head of the admissions committee, Professor Avramenko, gave her a job grading papers. She distinctly remembers one instance when she gave a student an A minus on an assignment. The boy came back to appeal his grade. When she met with both him and Professor Avremenko, she learned that his grade had been changed to a C minus, which wasn’t a passing grade. Nemirovskaya tried to correct the mistake. “Avramenko took me out and shouted that I wasn’t allowed to interfere. That’s when it struck me that the boy might have been Jewish. I saw when we came back that he had the Jewish nose and black hair. I was so traumatized by that that I didn’t show up for the job again,” Nemirovskaya says. She tried to avoid the rest of her folklore department and was afraid of seeing 49

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Professor Avramenko again, especially after another incident took place. She recalled when the head of the department was reprimanded and ostracized by the party for Christian propaganda, and how hard that was for her to watch. “That incident especially was bad for me because we were summoned, and my parents couldn’t guard me from that meeting, so I went there, and this poor old head of chair from folklore was accused of propaganda. That was pretty terrible,” she says. In 1988 through 1989 things only got worse. The Soviet Union was beginning to to open up, which in theory should have been a good thing, but in reality all the hidden tensions suddenly became open wounds. Political parties began to speak out against the Jews. There was also a plan to organize a pogrom, an organized massacre of Jews in Russia or Eastern Europe, and Nemirovskaya and her family always had to be on high alert. Many people said that it was the KGB (Russian for the State Security Committee) spreading the

rumors about the pogrom so that the tension would be drawn away from the failing economy and the government. However, that didn’t stop the time from being stressful for Nemirovskaya. “We were living with the idea of pogrom. There comes that day when everybody says the pogrom will be today. A lot of Jews on the outside began to wear a cross, just to hide themselves, especially girls. I was pregnant at that time with our son, so I remember my mom putting a big cross on me,” she says. The pogrom didn’t happen, and Nemirovskaya thought the Russians could never do a thing like the Holocaust because she says they are ‘disorganized and lazy’. Even without the pogrom, persecution for her didn’t stop when she married her Jewish husband. “Every morning there was ‘Jews go to Israel’ written on my door, and every morning I would get up early and wipe it off so my husband wouldn’t see it,” Nemirovskaya says.

had one suitcase. He could only play with small toys because I didn’t want to carry the big toys in the suitcase,” she says. After settling in the United States Nemirovskaya turned her attention to convincing her family in Russia to move to the United States. Her sister was afraid to leave because of the Russian propaganda about the United States. “ [The United States] is really capitalist, like people only value money. And some people said that Christians are everywhere, and they tell you what to do because they’re the predominant religion, and that they are very extreme. I don’t know, I never experienced that here,” explains Nemirovskaya. However, all of Nemirovskaya’s family came to live in the United States, despite their reluctance. Nemirovskaya says that every year before her family moved over, she would ask her husband when they could move back to Moscow, but now that her family is in the United States with her, she feels settled. Now that she and her husband are older and away from the anti-Semitism, they have had the chance to do more soul searching and think about religion without fear of judgement. Still Nemirovskaya doesn’t let that old fear taint her image of her home country, and goes back almost every year to visit. In addition, they both love Israel which they visit often. “Jerusalem is my favorite city, I think in the air there is prayer of so many generations. It’s magic. You go there and there I felt like I had the most amazing religious experience. Anyone of any faiths should go and enjoy,” she says. Nemirovskaya didn’t go to church often, although when she grew older she felt she should be true to what she was baptized in. She even tried to convince her ethnically Jewish husband to convert, but he always responded simply with “I’m Jewish.” It wasn’t until later on in life that both her and her husband really focused on religion, which Nemirovskaya believes came from all the things that they saw and experienced, such as when her five-yearold niece died of cancer. “We went to this store and my niece who at that time was four,” recalls Nemirovskaya. “She came up to the shop owner and says, ‘Can you please sell me a cross? I want this for my uncle.’ And my husband always said that he would never become Christian. But everyone still said, ‘Thank you, for your kindness, Katja,’ but

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FOR ME IT’S IMPORTANT. EVERY EVENING I’M TRYING TO PRAY FOR EVERYONE INCLUDING STALIN AND HITLER, BECAUSE IF I DON’T PRAY FOR THEM, THEN WHO WOULD?

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s PHOTO — LEFT: A terracotta amulet from 17th century Bulgaria, given to Julia’s daughter after her own Russian icon was on display in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the U of O. RIGHT: A Russian candle with a baroque church of the Novodevichii Convent on it, where they exiled Russian tsarinas if they rebelled or had no children.

But even in fearing for and experiencing the worst in people, Nemirovskaya makes the conscious effort to forgive everyone for their mistakes. “For me it’s important. Every evening I’m trying to pray for everyone including Stalin and Hitler, because if I don’t pray for them, then who would? Though I hate them with all my heart. But this is an exercise if nobody prays for the worst guys then I don’t know what would happen.” In 1988 Nemirovskaya and her husband left Russia for the first time to work in Sweden. Her father had just died, leaving her mother and sister with no means to survive. She recalls them eating only oatmeal three times a day. Nemirovskaya and her husband left her family and Russia to make money, as well as take an adventure; they knew that Russia wasn’t going to stay open for long and they wanted to have a chance to experience Europe. Their 7-month-old son stayed with her husband’s family from Kiev, in Ukraine while they were abroad. A year later, they returned. They planned on moving back to Sweden again, this time with their son, but instead of traveling back there, Nemirovskaya’s husband got an offer from a colleague to collaborate with him in Boston. They hoped to stay just nine months and then return to Russia, but in a month after their arrival, Nemirovskaya got word that there was a revolution back home. “Tanks went into Moscow and my sister and her husband were with the crowds opposing the tanks. Gorbachev was removed and Yeltsin came in and the Soviet Union broke down completely. I was crying nonstop, I wanted to go back,” Nemirovskaya says. “I was afraid for my sister and her husband. The Boston months were the worst months, to think that everybody is in the revolution over there and I can’t go back. My mom was like ‘Stay there, stay there, please. If anything happens then you can be the people to help us.’ So, we stayed.” After nine months in Boston, the collapse of the Soviet Union also led to the the end of institution Nemirovskaya’s husband was working at in Russia. Her mother kept telling them to stay in the United States, so her husband arranged to be a visiting professor and Nemirovskaya was also offered a job in the Russian department in Texas. “We were there for nine months, I didn’t even have enough clothing for my son. We

then she started crying and said again that she needed to buy a cross for her uncle. So, we bought the cross, and when Katja died, this was the cross that [her husband] was baptized with. It was an incredible journey through Katja’s illness. We understood totally like completely that we belonged to that realm of religious people.” Now as a mother, Nemirovskaya has opened religion up to her three children. In fact, she fully supports both Christianity and Judaism. When she and her husband wanted to adopt a child, they picked Ethiopia because Judaism and Christianity were both dominant religions there. For her, religion is an important part of her story, a part that she now has the freedom to fully embrace. She says, “People can connect with one another, but they live on different stages of emotional development, so this connection very rarely happens. I think if we all felt at one point the same thing. I think that humanity would immediately turn into God or something. Sometimes I feel that it’s just a design. If we could just be on the same place with the ones we love, than our love would become a flame and heat up the whole thing, or burn everybody.”

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IDENTITIES

fixing

MEOWERS

A Springfield woman takes her love of cats to work

few months ago, Grandpa Tigger was in bad shape. The owner of Tigger, a 12-yearold cat who needed treatment for cancer, left him in the hands of a family friend. That didn’t last very long. His new owner’s dachshunds saw him as prey, hunting and attacking him on a daily basis. Grandpa Tigger was then left on his own, eating whatever he could to survive, suffering from flea dermatitis and severe food allergies, resulting in scar tissue beneath the frayed orange fur on his lower back. Today, Grandpa Tigger is sitting plump and purring inside Action Mower & Equipment Repair. Here, he along with about 50 other cats, has found a new home and a second chance at life. All of this is thanks to the owner of Action Mower, Norma King. She’s made it her duty to not only fix lawn mowers, but to fix cats as well. King’s career in animal rescue began in 2011 when a feral cat living under her home gave birth to a litter of kittens.“I couldn’t stand to see all of those kittens without the proper care that they deserve,” she says. “I’ve been a cat owner for my entire life. I had to do something about it.”

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King then enlisted the help of a friend who was also a volunteer for West Coast Dog & Cat Rescue, a Eugene-based nonprofit organization that rescues animals in need. Together, they took the mother cat to the vet to get it spayed, along with 30 other kittens. But the problem didn’t end there. King says that the Eugene and Springfield area has a major problem with stray pet overpopulation: it’s estimated there are more than 15,000 feral cats roaming the city each day, says King. Pets are abandoned all the time, whether their owners have passed away, or they’re living with college students who move away and leave them behind. Whatever the case may be, King has made it her mission to help provide care and shelter to animals in need by turning her small lawn mower repair shop, located in front of her home in Springfield, into a cat rehabilitation center of sorts. The shop has become an extension of the West Coast Dog & Cat Rescue; people can call King if there is a stray cat that needs to be rescued. Once she receives the call, she drives out to the location, assess the situation, and set traps for the cats using canned food as bait. When the cat

WORDS BRETT KANE PHOTO DEBRA JOSEPHSON

enters the cage to eat the food, the door closes, and King can take the cat back to Action Mower. The cat is then fixed, dewormed, vaccinated, and either released or made available for adoption, depending on the situation. If the cat is able to be socialized, meaning it is well-behaved around humans and other animals, then it can be adopted. If not, it is set free. This process is called “Trap/Neuter/Return,” or TNR. King says the hardest part of her job is rescuing cats that she knows will never find a happy home. “It’s challenging to go out to a property with ten or 15 cats that I can’t do anything more with except trap, neuter, and return them.” Fortunately, many of the cats that King takes into her shop are able to find caring homes. And, the cats live in Action Mower while waiting for adoption or recovering. “I usually come in for work at about 8:30 every morning and feed and water the cats,” King says. “They hang out with me while I order lawn mower parts and call customers. I leave at about 5:00, but I normally come back to visit them later in the evening. They’re all very comfortable here.”

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I’VE CREATED A BIG SPIDER WEB NETWORK OF PEOPLE AND ANIMAL RESCUE ORGANIZATIONS TO HELP SAVE THESE CATS

TNR Project says. “I was working full time at the church before I joined last year and I’ve been hooked ever since.” Although King has made some substantial steps towards fixing the pet overpopulation crisis in the area, the problem isn’t solved yet. She says it has definitely improved over the past couple of years though, with 200 cats adopted and more than 550 fixed since 2011. “I’ve created a big spider web network of people and animal rescue organizations to help save these cats,” King says. From the outside, Action Lawn Mower & Equipment Repair looks like any other small-town business. Once you’re inside, however, it’s an entirely different story. Not many other lawn mower repair shops can advertise that they double as a cat rescue center that has helped decrease the number of stray and abandoned cats in the area. “It’s a serious workload, but it’s worth it,” King says. “I don’t believe that all of these cats need to be just dumped in the middle of nowhere. They deserve a second chance.” As Grandpa Tigger sits next to King in the center of Action Mower & Equipment Repair, he purrs, and she knows that he is grateful for that second chance.

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Care and comfort is what King provides the cats with on a daily basis -- she works 11 to 12 hours per day, balancing managing a lawn mower repair business with her volunteer work rescuing stray cats. “There have been times where a customer has walked in on me cradling a cat and feeding it a bottle of milk,” she says. Whether she’s bottle-feeding kittens or travelling out to a property to trap a pack of stray cats, King spends her days making sure that each cat in her shop gets the chance to start over, no matter how long that may take. While some cats can be adopted out within several days of being taken into Action Mower, other cats take several months, depending on their health and behavior. Over the past year, King has expanded the cat rescue operations as well. Last December, she was named the Executive Director of the Stray Cat Alliance, a volunteer organization that fixes strays. She has also started her own animal rescue volunteer group, the Springfield TNR Project, which is in the process of applying for a city grant in order to expand the operations to combat pet overpopulation. “This is life-changing stuff for the cats and the volunteers alike,” Toni Ray, the volunteer coordinator of the Springfield

PHOTO — TOP: Some cats like Grandpa Tigger come to King in bad shape, but she helps them get the medical attention they need. Grandpa Tigger has now found his “forever home” thanks to King. BOTTOM: Pipsqueak now rests comfortably with King’s efforts to curb Springfield’s stray cat problem.

s PHOTO — Norma King brings stray cats to her business in Springfield, OR where they are fixed and released.

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EUGENE I

magine you’re in Tolkien’s Shire, with its rolling green hills, tall trees, crystal blue lakes, and blossoming plant life. That’s what Cale Bruckner saw while he was coming off the freeway into Eugene one night in July 2012, except it was real, with more offices and fluorescent lighting. And instead of people putting quill to parchment to write about their perilous journeys through Middle-Earth, these offices were filled with people putting hand to keyboard working away on a different kind of magic: computer programming, software development, or biotech engineering. “We can all be quite Hobbit-like when we’re busy, or when the weather is bad,” Bruckner says. “We’ll lock ourselves inside with our tea, not to be seen for hours.” Bruckner is the Vice President of Concentric Sky, a web, mobile, and enterprise development firm based in Eugene. On that night in 2012, Bruckner was returning home from an extended business trip in Northern California’s Silicon Valley when he was struck with an idea. “Having graduated from the University of Oregon, I’m always hearing about all of these students who are struggling to find jobs after graduation,” Bruckner says. “I thought to myself, ‘I can do something about that.’” Previously, he’s worked on and designed apps for the Encyclopedia Britannica, National Geographic, and the United Nations. Recently, he decided to put his work to use to help students entering the job market. With the help from his development team at Concentric Sky, Bruckner launched the website Silicon Shire at siliconshire.org, serving as a business directory that lists all of Eugene and Springfield’s tech-related companies, including ones that specialize in hardware and software development, gaming, biotech, and micro-brewing. Designed around a map of the area, visitors can pinpoint the exact locations of these companies and even find which ones are hiring. With technology spreading at the rate that it is these days, finding tech companies that are hiring shouldn’t be much of a challenge. “The Silicon Valley is crazy busy in terms of technology,” Bruckner says. “Eugene has the potential to do even better. This community offers such a great quality of life. You can afford to buy a home and your commute time is relatively low. If we can get some tech-savvy minds to stay and invest in this area then our

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Silicon Shire will prosper.” Bruckner often assists students around the area, from the University of Oregon and Lane County Community College, in finding tech-related occupations and entering the job market after graduation. He thinks of the Silicon Shire website as another way to help students. Karen Estlund, the Head of the Digital Scholarship Center in the University of Oregon’s Knight Library, also understands the difficulties that students face in entering the job market after college and does her fair share to help as well. The Digital Scholarship Center provides a wide range of services, from designing and developing digital research tools, to training and assisting students, faculty, and others who need help preparing online, digital course materials, and other multimedia presentations, to hiring students who are looking to gain experience in the web development industry. Estlund and the Digital Scholarship team have even developed websites and online learning simulations and quizzes. “I see our center as a stepping stone for students looking to try their hand at web design and development,” Estlund says. “We provide a comfortable learning environment, as well as excellent experience.” The crew at the Digital Scholarship Center takes on roughly two to three projects every year, with about ten smaller projects in between. Students who work here can gain experience by providing blogging services for campus, as well as designing online computer programs for instructional and classroom use. Students’ majors can range anywhere from business to computer science, but one thing is for certain: everyone shares a strong passion for technology. However, much like Bruckner, Estlund recognizes a problem amongst students looking to gain this experience. “We have vacancies in our student positions because there’s just so much competition amongst all of these tech and software companies in the area,” Estlund says. She sees this as both a blessing and a curse. The amount of competition means that technology is thriving, but that simply makes jobs harder to come by for some students. “I think Eugene is appealing for small businesses,” Estlund says. “The overhead is low, and the rent is far less expensive than it is in the Silicon Valley. You can move here and try new ideas.

< WORDS BRETT KANE /> < ILLUSTRATION ALLIE WITHAM />

Growing at the core of Eugene is a technological heart of silicon.

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IT STARTED OUT AS JUST AN IDEA — I THREW IT OUT THERE AND LET THE COMMUNITY DECIDE WHAT TO DO WITH IT.

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INNOVATIONS INNOVATIONS

Not to mention both of the major universities here have top notch computer science programs.” Estlund hopes that the Digital Scholarship Center, along with Bruckner’s Silicon Shire, will not only help students, but allow Eugene’s tech industries to thrive. And thriving is exactly what is starting to happen, thanks to the Silicon Shire. When Bruckner and his development team at Concentric Sky first launched the website back in 2012, only 60 tech and software companies were listed on the website’s interactive map. In less than three years, that number has grown to more than 200. Silicon Shire’s design is sleek and simple to use, which makes finding a job all the easier. Suppose that you’re a digital arts student who is about to graduate the University of Oregon and are looking to make a career in the video game industry. With just a few clicks on the Silicon Shire website, you’ll know that there are six video game developers in the Eugene and Springfield area. Not only that, but you’ll be provided with their addresses, the numbers of employees, and links to their websites. Bruckner checks up on the website on a quarterly basis in order to update its information on the companies that are listed. After that, he lets the website perpetuate its own success. “I’ve already heard from a lot of students thanking me for the Silicon Shire,” Bruckner says. “It’s always so great to hear. It started out as just an idea – I threw it out there and let the community decide what to do with it. I’m glad that we are able to help so many people, and I can’t wait to see how much more our community will grow.” spring 2015

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t PHOTO — Jeffrey Stolet is the director and creator of the Future Music Oregon program.

Future WORDS ALIYA HALL PHOTOS KEVIN TREVELLYAN

Sounds

Students create new sounds in the Future Music Oregon program.

ith the sounds of electronic music taking over the radio, it appears that computer made music is here to stay. And, for budding musicians that offers a chance of opening new doors for creation. Future Music Oregon lends a helping hand to students who want to explore what electronic music has to offer and gives them a chance to share the innovative music they create with the world. Future Music Oregon is home to electronic musicians, composers, and performers. The program, run through the University of Oregon School of Music and Dance, is one of the few across the country. The program goes into multiple disciplines: electrical engineering, programming computer science, physics of sounds, cognition, and perception. Chet Udell,

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one of the program’s professors, calls the program a “hodgepodge of all kinds of disciplines,” but the real magic happens when all the disciplines come together. “The central thing that leads all these disciplines together is musical expression. And how do we leverage all these theories, technological complexities, and skill sets of the 21st century into new ways of musical expression,” he says. The program was created by its current director, professor Dr. Jeffrey Stolet, a musician whose work has been heard around the world. “It’s important to create music that is representative of a time. Clearly the music from this time is mediated through technology, so almost everything comes to you from speakers of some sorts,” Stolet says. “Someone has to make the speakers and wires. Going through these wires is

representations of sound, and how we do that in a beautiful and expressive way is something that had to be developed — it didn’t just happen. The way we push sound, around and make sound that sort of envelopes our lives. We want to be able to teach that and have it be a goal for students if they choose to pursue that,” Stolet says. When Stolet first created the program he remembered that there weren’t many models to base it off of. “There are just things where it’s like, ‘It’d be a good idea to do this,’ and I think it was a good idea because there’s been a lot of interest about how to use technology with art or performance using computers and related devices,” he says. This program is anticipating the surge of electronic music’s popularity and gives musicians a new way to perform music.

“We’re in a world where you can map any performance gesture into any sound,” says Udell, who along with teaching is also a musician. “We as performers and musicians in this new media, we’re in a strange point in history where not only do we need to conceive in our music, we have to conceive in the devices that we build, and how that will initiate and shape sound. So, it’s a very tall order.” Udell became interested in the program when he saw what students were accomplishing and how they used technology to address the question of what it means to compose new and electronic music. The goal of Future Music Oregon, according to Udell, is “to make some kickass music!” “We see all the stuff in front of us and we’re curious at leveraging all these things for new and creative purposes. The real pitfall is that it’s really easy to fall into the ‘gee wiz factor’ which is to geek out over the technology, and it’s not about that at all,” he says. For Nayla Mehdi, graduate of the Intermedia Music Technology program and Future Music Oregon, the program brought out her love for sound.

“The director of the program, Jeffrey Stolet, always manages to have you care about every sound that you decide to create. It is intrinsic to his teachings and philosophy,” Mehdi says. For a project on interactive sound instillation, she gathered field recordings of natural sound outside, and after applying electroacoustic techniques, incorporated them into her project. She is also working on a musical program in Portland. She credits her success to Future Music Oregon for nursing her passion and giving her a chance to use it. “When I was first introduced to the world of experimental music and sound art, I appreciated all that came along with it; the excitement after innovation, challenging your brain with all the new and surprising information in this ever-changing field, and being savvy with technology all while being creative,” she says. Udell says he’s inspired by Mehdi’s success in the program. He enjoys seeing his students find new ways to express themselves and think about music. “Applying these really heady leftbrained principles in a right-brained creative applied way, students’ eyes light up. A light goes on like they get it. I think we get something really special out of this.”

“ WE’RE IN

A WORLD WHERE YOU CAN MAP ANY PERFORMANCE GESTURE INTO ANY SOUND.

“

SOUNDWAVES

s PHOTO — Jeffrey Stolet is the director and creator of the Future Music Oregon program.

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JOURNEYS

PANIC WORDS & PHOTOS COURTNEY THEIM

trip

“

I DIDN’T LET FEAR TIE ME DOWN TO ONE PLACE, I SIMPLY PICKED UP THE ROPES AND TOOK THEM WITH ME.

“

The trials and triumphs of the silent battle with anxiety on foreign soil.

buckled myself in, closed my eyes and prayed that both my body and my mind would make it. I had taken an antidepressant to help me relax, but it wasn’t combating against the baby’s cries, the stale air, or the fact that my knees were pressing against the seat in front of me. The thought that I would be trapped here for the next ten hours was enough to send me back to the cabin bathroom on frequent trips, just to squeeze my eyes shut and attempt to turn my hyperventilating breaths into deep, calm ones. As the engines roared in my ears, I thought of my family, 30,000 feet below

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s PHOTO — A tiny, one-street village tucked away in the Swiss Alps, Lauterbrunnen is known for its huge cliff faces wrapping 360 degrees, and 72 natural waterfalls.

me, slipping further and further away, oblivious to the terror I felt as the reality of my decision to move across the globe settled in. As I walked down the narrow aisle back to my seat, the walls of the plane pressed in around me like I was trapped in between two mattresses. Anxiety is something that’s not often talked about, like we’re the last little line of society that the dust pan just can’t reach. “Suck it up, you’ll be fine.” “Why can’t you just get over it?” “Change your thought process.” All these statements just make it worse. I know anxiety isn’t all “just in my head” and science proves that. Sometimes it just made a stressful situation a little harder to deal with. Other times a panic attack would sneak up on me, with a racing heartbeat and shortness of breath, for no real reason at all. I wouldn’t say that

my anxiety made me less adventurous, it just made me more cautious in unfamiliar situations. Anxiety and all, I had decided that I wasn’t going to let it stop me from living my life-long dream of studying abroad in France. During my junior year, I was accepted into the direct exchange program in Lyon, France. I arrived in August before my senior year began. The first few months were hard. I felt like I was trapped in an elevator that wouldn’t be fixed for nine months. I cried a lot and swore to myself that I could stick it out until Christmas, but even that seemed bleak to my frazzled brain. It was hard to make friends, especially French ones, and loneliness, a lack of ability to fully communicate in my new language, and the months stretching out before me made my situation seem

hopeless. I had been taking a low-dose of Xanax daily for months at this point, something that I had fought hard against. I didn’t want to feel like I needed to depend on something to feel happy or calm, but sometimes asking for what you really need shows more strength than weakness. When I made my first appointment at a French doctor’s office to refill my prescription, I arrived at his home. Generally speaking, doctors in France don’t have clinics, and his home workspace was a room filled with a large wooden desk and house plants of every size. There was no examination table, no thermometer, no charts, just stacks of paper, books, and various objects spilling off of every surface. I felt extremely small and out of place. I sat down across from the doctor who had been recommended to me as “English-speaking,” but found myself forced to mime how I felt, and the medication I thought I needed. After an exasperated sigh from us both, he took my American prescription bottle and slowly slid a scrap of paper towards me across the table. I shyly wrote my name and slid it back like some crappy negotiation. The exchange lasted a total of five minutes and I left with a refilled prescription and a mental note to learn more French medical terms. After a couple more long months of resilience, things finally started to fall into place. I started to connect with a few people I had met, and leaned heavily

on their encouragement as we became that new kind of family you find when you live or travel abroad. As my level of comfort steadily grew, so did my sense of adventure. There were multiple occasions where it would have been easier for me to just stay in for a weekend, save some money and relax, but I had come here to see the world and I refused to spend too much time on the things I could do back at home. If others were too busy to travel with me, I found myself booking flights and trains to see cities completely by myself, something that I thought someone who hates being alone would never do. I decided on a whim that I would take a solo trip to Copenhagen, and spent the time wandering museums, botanical gardens, and fancy coffee shops. I learned that being alone and being lonely are two completely different things. That’s the thing about going abroad: you learn things about yourself. Like, really learn things. Adventurous, daring, and bold were never the words that would first come to mind when describing myself, but now they don’t seem so

far out of reach. I didn’t let fear tie me down to one place. I simply picked up the ropes and took them with me. And while anxiety is probably something that I will deal with from time to time throughout my life, I’ve learned to do things that scare me on purpose so that I can control it and not let it control me. Everything I experienced abroad showed me that fear cannot keep me from opportunities or dictate my life. Because if I hadn’t stuck it through, I wouldn’t have traveled to 16 countries in ten months. I wouldn’t have wandered into Vatican Square while Pope Francis was giving a blessing over the city. I wouldn’t have rented a house on a Greek island with five friends and dance under sunsets that took my breath away. I wouldn’t have met the people I was supposed to meet, who have left deep impacts on my life. If I hadn’t stuck it through, I wouldn’t be the person I am today, able to encourage people that even if you try something and it’s different than what you thought, it’s okay. Don’t let that hold you back.

s PHOTO — Courtney in Lyon.

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THE LAST

FROG IN BOILING WATER Sometimes you slow dance with your best friend. Sometimes your cheek brushes red again his stubble You have that feeling you love that feeling you hate. Some nights the heat comes on by itself. You don’t realize until you bolt awake in your empty apartment Throw the down comforter off your sweat-slicked body Catch a chill from the saltwater drying on your skin. You wonder whether to blame the anxious dreams or the furnace in the walls or the fire in your belly.

After

Writing about sex trafficking takes a toll. WORDS TRAVIS LOOSE

had formulated my action plan: I was going to visit every strip club in Lane County to get an interview with a stripper. That plan fell through, and my excitement transformed into dejection. Despite my growing confidence as a reporter, asking a half naked woman to share her life story with me was going to require more tact than I anticipated. “You reporters are all a bunch of perverts,” she’d said. “This shit probably gets you off, doesn’t it?” She asked if I really wanted to hear about how many times she’d been raped, or if I’d like the details of how her father sexually abused her. I was a deer in headlights, panicked. I wasn’t prepared for this. I knew writing a piece on human trafficking would expose me to nightmarish stories, but I had no idea of what that was going to be like,

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PHOTO SAM RICHARDS

Shock

especially not when it was looking me in the eye. In that moment, I wanted to back out of the project entirely. Was it really my place to tell this story? My path here, though winding, hadn’t been a long one. A few conversations led to an idea, which sprouted with the help of professors who knew about sex trafficking. As the idea grew into a story, the reality of what I was getting myself into became clear. This was uncharted territory for me. Lacking a compass, I did what I knew how: interview on foot and face-toface. My first trip to the exotic dance clubs of Springfield was a bust, but it gave me perspective. You know, if at first you don’t succeed, and all that. I formulated a new plan: do everything as before, but this time I’d take my wife with me; hopefully I wouldn’t come off

quite as sleazy. We had drank and ate subpar strip club hamburgers in a corner booth. After a brief exchange with a stripper passing by, I found myself lucky to have randomly found a surprisingly trusting, kind woman. She called herself Amber. I had my first source. Talking with an escort is different kind of challenge. Finding them is easy — getting one to talk was difficult. I went down the list of phone numbers on backpage. com, calling each one, and realized escorts put a high value on their time, even if all I wanted to do was talk. Eventually, and through a somewhat scary moment involving a possible pimp, I found Crystal. We met Turtles Bar & Grill in Eugene, where she ate salad while I interviewed. The scene was normal, save for all the

A frog in a pot of water You didn’t realize someone had lit the flame underneath you Until the water started to boil. Slow dancing with your best friend Cheek to feverish cheek Left foot, right foot one step back, one step forward. — Hannah Golden

things she told me. As we sat down she said she’d been raped the night before. In her line of work, she said, it happened often. She usually didn’t call the police if the crime wasn’t terribly violent. This all caught me off-guard. I’ll never understand why she confided in me like that. (This anecdote never made it to print because I couldn’t verify it — not that I didn’t believe her. Even now, I don’t know whether I made the right call by disregarding it.) I interviewed Jes two days later. We spent two hours on the phone together discussing her transition from prostitution to advocacy work. Jes’ story was the most difficult for me to hear, though she seemed to be at peace with it. My next source, however, took me in a direction I could never have seen coming. We’ll call her Katie (not her real name). We met at a Starbucks two days after I’d interviewed Jes. The story she told me never made it into the article because

it was so heinous I took it to the police. After confiding in me that she had been sex trafficked for five years as a teen, she told me detailed knowledge of the alleged murder of a 7-year-old boy. I called my editor on the way home, telling him everything. I pulled into my garage, walked into my bedroom, and passed out. I woke up three hours later face down, still wearing my shoes, hat and everything. These two weeks of interviews were exhausting. I had heard four stories, three of which were the most awful stories I’d ever been told in my entire life. When I explained my situation to a university sponsored mental health therapist, I was told I experienced “vicarious trauma.” Evidently, this is something that therapists often experience, but it made sense to her why a journalist might also have it. During the subsequent hours of therapy, we discussed how I could separate myself from my sources for my own well-being. Later,

I attended a three-day human trafficking workshop and a Students Against Modern-day Slavery (UOSAMS) presentation. I knew I wanted to do more — to help. After the workshop, I knew that the threepart series was how I would do it. A piece on advocacy followed, and I interviewed four women who give survivors an opportunity to share their stories. Next was a piece about another beast: the cops. I interviewed a Portland PD detective and a District Attorney, along with an FBI agent, who offered me unexpected access to the FBI building in Portland. Writing these stories changed me. They gave me perspective and experience. I met people whom I would never have the opportunity to otherwise, and I was able to put their stories into words that have hopefully left a positive effect. Without it, I think, we might never know what it takes to be an officer who investigates sex crimes, or a DA who seeks to prosecute traffickers. We’d never know what it takes to be an advocate, who only wants to spread awareness, hoping it brings about change. And perhaps we’d never fully understand what it’s like to be the victim who only wants to survive. When I sat down at Taylor’s Bar and Grill ten months ago next to the student who suggested that I write a story about student prostitution, I wouldn’t have guessed that I was about to embark on the journey that I took. Yet, I’m thankful for it; that I was able to do something significant with my time, something that may have made a real world impact for people whose voices often go unheard. Maybe now, with the voices growing, people will hear.

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REVIEW

BOOK

REVIEW Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell WORDS JORDYN BROWN

ife, love, and the truth of a woman’s heart are found in the pages of Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell. This unique novel follows the life and growth of Mrs. India Bridge in the upper middle-class of Kansas City suburbia between WWI and WWII. In just 254 pages, it reveals to us what it really meant to be a wife and mother during that time. The book begins with Mrs. Bridge’s life running smoothly dayto-day. Her children are young, spritely, and sometimes unconventional in ways that don’t make sense to her. She is a woman of manners and class; a woman devoted to her husband, the stern, and sole breadwinner of the family who is often not around. Through a series of very short episodes each about a page or two long, Mrs. Bridge carries on her life running errands, gossiping with the other housewives, hosting dinner parties, and being painfully persistent trying to keep her children on the straight and narrow path which she herself knows so well. But as time goes on, Mrs. Bridge’s perfect, well-mannered life starts to fray. Her children eventually move away to unexpected places and sometimes defy her. Her friends reveal themselves to be less put together than she assumed. And she comes to the realization that her life is only given meaning through the mindless tasks of mothering, schmoozing, and being “the perfect wife” to a husband who is

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There is even a scene where the Bridges are at a country club having dinner, and there is suddenly news of a tornado coming toward them. Mr. Bridge refuses to budge from his seat and takes his sweet time finishing his dinner, regardless of the fact that everyone else has retreated to the basement for safety. Even more shocking, is while she feels a bit uneasy about the situation, Mrs. Bridge simply sits quietly next to her husband carrying out her dreadful, dutiful role and neglecting her own safety. This is one of many moments in this chronicle of Mrs. Bridge’s life where she has been subject to the influence of her husband, and nothing else. This book drives its reader forward at every page turn since each one is a new episode and new short story all together. It takes you on a trip to a time when upper middle-class citizens ruled by bumming smokes and keeping secrets. When “marriage” meant “money”, and the only known purpose a woman had was found in the bottom of the cocktail she served. Mrs. Bridge explores the inner-workings of a woman’s heart during this time, and brings it into full, colorful understanding in a story that is quietly heartbreaking and thought provoking.

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rarely there. This book takes a hard look on this point in American history, and makes us ask, “Is life really worth it when it is being lived so monotonously?” Toward the end of the book, Mrs. Bridge often finds herself staring into the dead of night, contemplating her role and purpose, as so many things, she identified with now seem frivolous or have disappeared completely. There is a moment of clarity when Mrs. Bridge lay in bed recalling a book she had left on the mantle long ago, “which observed that some people go skimming over the years of existence to sink gently into a placid grave, ignorant of life to the last without ever having been made to see all it may contain,” which she then had to put down. This episode ends by saying: “She wondered what had interfered, where she had gone, and why she had never returned.” This perfectly represents the inner turmoil Mrs. Bridge feels about her life at this point in time. This novel also ironically points out the almost-nonexistent presence of her husband, Mr. Bridge, and how two people can be an integral part of each other’s lives without hardly being in each other’s lives at all. The way that Mrs. Bridge lives entirely for her husband without really living with her husband speaks volumes to the societal norm of the time of how the wives served the purpose of their family and practically nothing else. spring 2015

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