The Beacon THE STUDENT VOICE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PORTLAND SINCE 1935 April 14, 2016 • Volume 119 • Issue 24 • upbeacon.com
ARE YOU LISTENING NOW? A COMMENTARY BY THE BEACON EDITORIAL BOARD It’s time for change: We tried to start a conversation, now we want action This university — students especially — is mobilizing around issues of race. The Beacon has written many stories about the racial and cultural tensions on our campus: from being black at UP to microaggressions to cultural appropriation. Last year, students joined the Black Lives Matter movement at UP. This year, the Presidential Advisory Committee on Inclusion (PACOI) focused on addressing racial inclusion on campus. In the last few weeks, students and the administration organized two racial inclusion discussions on campus. And next week, Diversity Programs in the Office of Student Activities, the School of Nursing, the Office of University Relations and the Moreau Center are bringing scholar and anti-racism activist Tim Wise to campus. But there’s still a disconnect between students and the administration. Despite the administration’s best intentions, the outcomes of many of their discussions, meetings and planning have been counterproductive to improving racial inclusion on campus. On March 22, PACOI hosted a Community Engagement on Racial Inclusion event. While the event was planned with good intentions, it resulted in students of color feeling silenced. Freshman Carolina Sanchez was shocked by the event organizers’ decision to not let students of color speak. “In that moment, I felt really … disrespected,” Sanchez said. “I felt not included. I felt … minimized and marginalized once again.” Senior Khalid Osman helped plan the event, but said he never meant to make anyone feel uncomfortable. “I don’t want anyone to feel like they were disrespected,” Osman said. “There was no intention to harm anyone at the event … We did want to honor every student’s story.”
Sophomore Emma Martinez is the only official student representative on PACOI. She was also on the planning committee for the event, but she hardly felt incorporated in the planning — or in the committee as a whole. “I never felt part of the group,” Martinez said. “I think that UP is just trying to prove to its students that there is a strong connection and relationship between students and administration on issues that are important to us, but there’s not.” Recently, the administration hired a white man for the vacant VP position, associate vice president for student development, that was created when Laurie Kelley, the first and only female VP in the administration, left UP. The Beacon wrote an editorial months ago strongly encouraging the University to fill that position with someone who could bring diversity to UP administration. While perhaps the administration approached this open position with the intention of finding diverse candidates, the outcome was not that. The outcome was another white male in a position of power, which reduced the gender diversity in the upper administration and left some students of color feeling marginalized again. Senior Alexa BryantCapellas, co-president of the Black Student Union, said she believes administrators are afraid of acknowledging their blind spots and sitting with their own discomfort. “People were expecting more,” Bryant-Capellas said. “People were expecting (administration) to (take) this perfect opportunity to introduce somebody into the power circle of the administration that represents a population that, not only says they’re underrepresented, but is clearly, statistically, undeniably underrepresented.” It’s these short-sighted administrative decisions that, according to Bryant-Capellas, cause more harm to the UP community.
On top of that, last month The Beacon was told by professors that Black Lives Matter posters were being taken off professors’ office doors and thrown in the trash — an incident of vandalism with concerning racial implications. Yet the administration and Public Safety never alerted students directly about the racialized element of the vandalism they listed on their crime log — which was vague and confusing. And while their intention might have been to investigate the situation before concerning the community, the outcome was some community members of color feeling disconnected, uninformed and marginalized again. “You tell us when a priest on our campus gets reassigned, and you’re not going to tell us when someone … attacks a racial, ethnic, cultural group on campus,” Bryant-Capellas said. “That’s BS to me. It just shows that they don’t think that much of us, that they’re not willing to be transparent.” These three instances are only singular examples of how good intentions can result in bad outcomes — and that’s mostly how modern day, structural and institutional racism works. Rarely do our decisions begin with racist intentions, but sometimes the outcomes are racist. Sociology professor Ashley Mikulyuk spoke at the second event on racial inclusion last Tuesday expressing this exact sentiment. “Institutional policies and practices can injure people of color, and when it does, it is racist in outcome, if not in intent,” Mikulyuk said. So while we appreciate the administration’s good intentions — that’s not enough. Good intentions are not enough. We need good, diverse, inclusionary, tangible outcomes. We don’t need more statements of inclusion. We need students and staff to feel included. We don’t need to improve the “perception” of diversity on
campus. We need to improve the reality of diversity on our campus. We don’t need you to bring speakers to campus or hold a one-time event to address our concerns. We need a change that influences the everyday operations of our administration, that impacts the daily experiences of students of color at UP. We need the administration to DO something. At last Tuesday’s event, several students spoke explicitly about ways administration could make changes to incorporate diversity into our institution. Senior Julie Pham identified the core curriculum as an area where diversity could be infused into the structure of our community. “One of the requirements at UP is to take philosophy and ethics classes, and in most of the classes we see from the white male perspective,” Pham said. “Why is that dangerous? It’s biased and short-sighted. Bring in more minority perspectives, people from a different racial or cultural perspective or more women … I believe when we have more diverse perspectives in the classroom, it will enhance our education.” Freshman Ezedin Jabr also spoke at the event and identified hiring practices as a way the administration should be including diversity. “Students need to be equally represented in staff, administration and faculty … in order to feel a sense of belonging,” Jabr said. Changes in hiring practices could include changing how and where open positions are advertised, or it could include establishing an opportunity hire program, which already exist at countless colleges across the United States. Opportunity hire programs set aside funds specifically for employing and retaining individuals who are qualified and who bring a unique
See WE NEED ACTION page 9
Hannah Baade • THE BEACON
MISSED THE RACIAL INCLUSION EVENTS?
Videos of both events online at upbeacon.com
THE BEACON • APRIL 14, 2016 • UPBEACON.COM
NEWS
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Jesse Dunn: On a mission for wellness By Clare Duffy THE BEACON
Jesse Dunn was one of the few people still awake at 2 a.m. when his friend posted a suicide note on Facebook. Not missing a beat despite the early hour, Dunn met Logan Crabtree and several other friends next door to his friend’s apartment in Tyson. It wasn’t long before they decided they had to go looking for him. Cathedral Park is eerie late at night. But Dunn and Crabtree searched the grounds, checking the bridge and walking along the train tracks in an attempt to find the place, any logical place they thought their friend might have gone intending to harm himself. For nearly four hours, the duo combed through the park. The sun was peeking up when they got word from police that their friend’s phone had been located heading east toward Bend. All they could do was go home and try to sleep. Just an hour and a half later, Dunn woke up to a call from Crabtree. Their friend was dead. “My whole body was completely cold, like I went into shock almost,” Dunn said. “I remember just being so cold, physically cold, and I could not get warm. I had so many blankets on me but I could just not get warm. And then I took a hot shower and cried.” That friend was Michael Eberitzch, a UP student whose death in March 2015, with Dunn’s help, initiated a campus-wide conversation on suicide and mental health.
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People just need to love unconditionally.
Jesse Dunn Active Minds UP Chapter Founder
Now, Dunn tells this story over coffee in The Commons — easing back against the fireplace and breaking the surface of the foam on his latte. He is not the kind of person you have to slowly drag the truth out of. He has no qualms about sharing who he is and where he’s been. His openness is something the senior psychology major has come to be known for on campus. And it’s made him a walking example of his philosophy on fighting the stigma that surrounds issues of mental health: “I’d like to get to the point where we can talk about feeling anxious today in the same way that we talk about the fact that we have a headache today,” he says. Dunn has made huge strides in improving the UP community’s understanding of mental health over the last year through Active Minds, a mental health awareness and advocacy group. Last month, he received the National Depression on College Campuses Conference national award for exceptional mental health advocacy for students. He and Active Minds Co-President Crabtree also received the Rev. John van Wolvlear, C.S.C. Award from the Office of Student Affairs for their outstanding involvement
in student life. Although Dunn encourages struggling students to get professional counseling through the Health Center, he’s acted as what he calls a “quasi-therapist” for his peers facing personal challenges. And while that added responsibility weighs on him at times, for the most part, Dunn doesn’t mind. In fact, he says it’s allowed him to practice for his future career as a counselor. That, and he can relate. Dunn’s challenges with mental health started in the eighth grade — a drug and alcohol addiction that came to a head his first semester at UP. This start of his college experience, at first glance, wasn’t atypical. Drinking, smoking, partying and reveling in the newfound freedom that college brings all created a semblance of “fun.” But Dunn wasn’t free. He was tortured. On top of everything, his dad was dying of Huntington’s Disease, which he’d been fighting for most of Dunn’s life. In some ways, Dunn says his family in Christie Hall, headed by “father figure” Hall Director Joe Burke, saved him during that first semester. And they taught him the value of community in overcoming personal challenges, a lesson Burke said he’s seen Dunn internalize throughout his time at UP. “In all the years that I’ve known him, (Dunn) has got an intense desire for selfdiscovery and really clear way of reflecting on who he is and how he can do better, and how he can help live for others,” Burke said. “He has an intense desire to live his life for the benefit of others. That’s one thing that I think really has shaped his own personal philosophy and own personal life, and shaped his philosophy in Active Minds as well.” Dunn took the second semester of freshman year off to go home and get sober, and returned to campus which was a test of his commitment to sobriety. “It was really hard, I made an unwise decision to keep living with people, who were great people, but who I knew partied,” Dunn said. “It was like grinding my teeth, whiteknuckling it through that first year. It was challenging but also, in retrospect, I haven’t had any close calls since that first year … so it definitely made me stronger in my sobriety.” It also made him realize the importance of focusing on his mental health. “I’m an alcoholic, a drug addict, and I pushed away all of my mental health stuff when I was going through that,” Dunn said. “I realized after that that the reason I abused substances in the way that I did was because I didn’t want to deal with my mental health issues. It made me understand that mental health is something that really often gets shoved underneath other shit and masked by shit. So after getting sober I realized how important it is to be introspective and honest with yourself, and how important it is to prioritize your
mental health.” This priority was a personal one for Dunn to start, he began rock climbing and meditating regularly to focus on his anxieties rather than distracting himself from them. “I like climbing in that it’s not a competitive sport, those stress me out too much,” Dunn said. “Climbing is really fun in that it’s just for me.” Senior Hannah Thorson, Dunn’s friend who introduced him to climbing, says the kind of unguarded honesty with which he shares his story is typical for Dunn. “He’s like that in every aspect of his life,” Thorson said. “He’s a full-transparency kind of guy, he’ll tell you everything that’s on his mind.” After Eberitzch’s death, Dunn realized he couldn’t keep the lessons he’d learned about mental health to himself. His friend since freshman year of college, Eberitzch was someone Dunn knew wouldn’t have wanted to talk about the fact that he had a problem, and when it seemed like the UP administration didn’t want to talk about it either, that hit a nerve. Dunn and ‘15 graduate Joe Shorma wrote an impassioned letter to The Beacon, emphasizing the need to openly acknowledge the mental illness that led to Eberitzch’s death. The letter reads, “At (Erberitzch’s memorial) service, Father Mark DeMott said that, ‘We will never know exactly what happened in the middle of the night on Highway 26.’ The two of us have been confused and frustrated by the school’s response to Mike’s death. In what could have been a perfect opportunity to have an open dialogue about the risks and consequences of depression, our University has opted to sweep it under the rug.” Dunn, Shorma and Crabtree — the founding members of Active Minds — knew that something had to be done. “We started off as a group of really just three pissed off students with no plan,” Dunn said. “We just wanted to kind of express our disapproval with the fact that UP wasn’t having open conversations about suicide and mental health.” But they channeled their frustrated energy into productive action, setting up meetings with administrators who were more invested in student mental health than the three had initially assumed. And Dunn says it was a push from Br.Tom Giumenta, now Active Minds’ faculty adviser, that finally encouraged them to harness their power as students to create a formal group dedicated to making change. “It was important for them … rather than emphasize any possible mistakes of others that may or may not have been made, to really try to think about what’s really going on with you personally as an individual human being, and what can you bring to the table to make something positive for other members of the community,” Giumenta said. “I think it really speaks to (Dunn’s) personality, his
Parker Shoaff • THE BEACON
Jesse Dunn is graduating from UP this spring, but the legacy he’s created at UP through Active Minds doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon. character and really his selfdiscipline. To choose positive over negative really requires self-discipline.” Since its official outset last fall, UP’s branch of Active Minds, a national organization dedicated to awareness advocacy for mental health, has grown to a steady average of nearly 40 participants attending its monthly meetings. They have had countless pieces aimed at de-stigmatizing mental health published in The Beacon and had a high level of consistent engagement enjoyed by few student clubs on campus. “From the get-go, there have been so many people who want to be involved, and I think that really just speaks to the topic at hand,” Dunn said. “Everyone is affected by mental health in one way or another. I think it’s interesting, too, because I think people realize that even if they’re not going through stuff, even if they’re not going through hard stuff, there’s lessons to be learned about how to thrive because we have this image of mental health that it can only go wrong, but in reality, people want to know about how they can make themselves really good in terms of their mental health.” And this gets at Dunn’s ultimate goal, as well as the mission of Active Minds: To eradicate the stigma associated with mental illness. Dunn knows that he has
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his sights set high, perhaps so high that this goal won’t be attainable in the foreseeable future. But he believes UP has a long way to go in creating a culture where mental illness is not stigmatized and overall wellness on campus is supported. He’d like to see a growing awareness that “mental health” doesn’t necessarily equate to “poor mental health” and that, in fact, one can care for their mental health as they would their physical health, which Dunn does through rock climbing and meditation. He’d like for the movement to extend beyond Active Minds, beyond the student body, and says he sees positive growth in this direction through administration’s ad hoc panel on mental health. “If there’s one thing that I really hold to be true, it’s that people just need to love unconditionally,” Dunn said. “And I think that Active Minds, when embodying that principle, is going to be its most effective. And I think that when UP is really genuinely trying to embody that love for everyone, we’re going to be alright.” Dunn takes one last swig of his coffee and heads off to give a presentation on the development of Active Minds this year for his capstone project — spreading the word about mental health, and spreading his love along the way.
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The Beacon wants story ideas from its readers. If you see something that should be covered, email News Editor Clare Duffy at upbeacon@gmail.com
THE BEACON • APRIL 14, 2016 • UPBEACON.COM
NEWS
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Presidential election bickering extends beyond candidates
Library changing approach to finals week
Clare Duffy • THE BEACON
For many college students, this presidential election is the first they will be voting in. The divisive nature of this election and eccentric candidates have made for challenges among students and their friends and families. By Cheyenne Schoen THE BEACON Tori Dunlap and her boyfriend rode in the backseat of the car, her parents in the front. The four were on a road trip that was going well, until the conversation in the car turned toward that one topic to avoid during family gatherings: Politics. “Because my boyfriend supports Hillary and my mom does not, things got a bit heated as to their perspective on her and her background,” Dunlap, a senior organizational communications major, said. The conversation eventually extended beyond the political arena, leading to personal judgements about one another based on their differing views, resulting in a particularly heated fight between Dunlap and her boyfriend. “It was actually one of (our) worst fights,” Dunlap said. “I was upset with him over fighting with my mom, and that led to all of us being upset with each other.” Dunlap’s story of heated political debates is not one unique to her. For most college students, the 2016 race to the presidency is the first and most divisive election they have faced. The candidates have proven everything from entertaining to downright terrifying, which has sparked discussion not only in the classroom, but also at home among students’ families. For sophomore theology major Niko Strom, the discussion caught fire after he switched his ballot from Independent to Democratic five weeks ago. “Switching my ballot actually caused a huge problem,” Strom said. “A lot
of my family members joked about it, especially when I said I was going to vote for Bernie Sanders. They were so mad. They were like, ‘He’s a socialist, he’s going to ruin America.’” But Strom says this is the first year he’s felt “savvy enough” to argue his position. When his grandfather brought up the fact that Sanders is a socialist, Strom questioned his grandfather about who the last great socialist president was. “And (my grandfather) said, ‘I don’t think we’ve ever had one,’ and I was like, ‘FDR. So of the same cloth, you’re saying that FDR was terrible?’” Strom’s grandfather gave in — just as Strom had suspected. Provided they vote, millennials could carry a substantial weight in this election. According to the United States Census Bureau, those born between 1982 and 2000 now outnumber baby boomers by nearly 8 million, and represent more than a quarter of the nation’s population. The 2016 election is also unique because it has seemingly accentuated the generational rift between millennials and their elders. Political science professor Gary Malecha, who has facilitated many political discussions with students in his classes, theorized that the generational rift may have to do with experiential differences between generations. “Part of this is, I think, are different experiences,” Malecha said. “For example, there are differences within generations with regards to, for instance, like someone for Bernie Sanders, as opposed to someone in support of Hillary Clinton. I do think we
see that borne out in public opinion polls and in exit polls. I think it might be a result of the experiences of different generations. And that may be important in terms of shaping their responses to the candidates.” The bureau also reported that millennials are more diverse than preceding generations, with “44.2 percent being part of a minority race or ethnic group (that is, a group other than non-Hispanic, single-race white).” Additionally, 2014 PEW research suggests that the millennial generation tends to tilt democratic, with “51 percent identifying as Democrats or lean Democratic, compared with 35 percent who identify with the GOP or lean Republican.” But it all depends on whether millennials’ strong political opinions will translate into actual votes. Junior history major Nicolas Vavuris has felt the divide among his family members as well. He said that political discussions in his house tend to turn into a frenzy of yelling. “There’s no such thing as a healthy debate,” Vavuris said. “Whoever yells the loudest wins.” Vavuris said he’s had to keep quiet on issues he and his mother disagree on so as not to become too heated. “When things that I violently disagree with, like Donald Trump’s thoughts about undocumented immigrants, when those come up I have to fight to hold my tongue because otherwise I want to lash out,” Vavuris said. Malecha feels it’s important in situations where there are differing opinions to consider
both sides of the conversation and to understand that people have valid points for many different arguments. In a heated situation, Malecha said it is best to take a step back and listen to the other person. “When talking about politics it can be pretty controversial, but you always recognize you’re talking to your mom, or your dad, and they love you and you love them,” Malecha said. “You have to recognize that, well look, this person that you care very deeply about has these views. And at some point, you have to be willing to respect that and understand why they might be holding this position.” While the home might not be the most supportive environment to hash out political differences, Dunlap said she has found support for open discussions in her classes. “It’s finding people who support you, not necessarily who agree with you, but finding people you can have those conversations with in a safe and supportive environment,” Dunlap said. “And usually that’s a UP classroom, which is phenomenal.” Malecha said it’s important not to shy away from having those political discussions, however controversial they may get. “We need to start entering into conversations that don’t necessarily result in shouting matches and angry discussions, but to try to promote a greater understanding as to why they think this way or that way,” Malecha said. Contact Staff Writer Cheyenne Schoen at schoen17@up.edu.
THE BEACON
Students aren’t the only ones preparing for finals week. The Library has changed it’s approach to finals by implementing a “Find Your Zone” system for quiet areas. Alana Laanui THE BEACON “Shhhhhhhhhhh!” This is usually what you would hear during finals week in the library, but a new system hopes to change that. During the week of finals, the Clark Library has traditionally hosted a “Whisper Week,” when all three floors of the library are to remain quiet. Library staff have found this expectation unrealistic and are now implementing the “Find Your Zone” technique for the week of finals. Instead of having the whole library be a quiet space, only the lower floor, library classroom and digital lab will be set aside as quiet zones. This will allow for group projects or study sessions to be held on the first and second floors of the library without disturbing those seeking some silence. For those students who still prefer to work in the the louder collaborative spaces, they will have the option to check out headphones. Free earplugs will also be available. Librarian Diane Sotak hopes the new system will effectively help students get through finals week. “Instead of the whole building being a quiet place, students will have choices,” Sotak said. “This allows students to come in one day to work with a group and then come in the next day and study in a quiet zone.” Contact Staff Writer Alana Laanui at laanui18@up.edu.
THE BEACON • APRIL 14, 2016 • UPBEACON.COM
NEWS
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Student leadership stipends raise questions By Rachel Rippetoe THE BEACON What people are getting paid on The Bluff is a hot button issue this year. Professors say they don’t get paid enough. Many UP staff also feel they are underpaid. But what about students? In particular, student leadership stipends in government and media? Stipended positions can be a tricky line to walk. When students aren’t clocking in every day, a stipended position could be a sweet deal, or it could be a job paying well below the minimum wage. While many students working these stipended jobs may feel they aren’t making enough, comparably, some believe that certain positions may be getting paid too much. Each member of the ASUP Executive Board makes $6,000 a year. In comparison, KDUP general manager and The Log editor-in-chief make $4,000 a year. That’s a 34 percent decrease in wage for jobs that could presumably warrant the same amount of hours. An executive board stipend is unmatched by any other stipend on campus. Even The Beacon’s editor-in-chief, who manages a staff of 30 and oversees daily content read by thousands of readers at UP and beyond, makes $5,150 — a wage still 15 percent less than any member of the board. Yet for current ASUP Secretary Joseph Rojo, it’s not only the hours that matter. “You’re seen a lot and you kind of get thrusted into that public spotlight,” Rojo said. “You get paid the most not necessarily because there’s more to do but because you get put in that position where you can no longer separate yourself from the role.”
Senate decides the stipends for both ASUP Executive Board and positions on Campus Program Board (CPB). Executive Board stipends took up a little under 30 percent of the ASUP upper budget (excluding funding for clubs and student organizations) this semester. According to Student Activities Director Jeromy Koffler, Senate has allowed these Executive Board stipends to remain high for two reasons: to attract the best students on campus to apply and to reflect the weight of responsibility each job holds. “We’re asking them to be the people that represent the entire student body to the administration to the faculty to all students,” Koffler said. “If we’re going to have that level of responsibility then (Executive Board stipends) should be differentiated between what a regular student worker would make.”
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Overall, the focus should be less on interorganizational competition, less comparative bickering and more of a large scale picture on student employment and, ‘Is it fair what students are getting out of what they’re putting in?’
Jack Greenwood KDUP General Manager
Former ASUP President Khalid Osman, questions the influence Executive Board actually has on the student body. During his time in office, Osman said his hour to dollar ratio fell far below Oregon’s minimum wage. Yet he still feels that Executive Board’s highest paid stipends do not reflect the lack of impact the board has on campus. Osman presented the
question: Are the Executive Board members the ones making a change on campus or are the clubs and senators — unpaid positions — the ones that are having a direct impact on the student body? “If it’s something like increasing mental health awareness on campus, it’s the clubs that do that. It’s not Executive Board,” Osman said. “(Executive Board) empowers people, but I don’t think we roll up our sleeves and get down and do the grit to actually accomplish those goals.” The former president, a senior, said he has always found it strange that Executive Board gets paid the same across the board. For Osman, “It doesn’t create any accountability. When everyone’s equal, it’s hard to get things done.” Now that roles have been updated based on the recently-passed revised ASUP constitution, Osman sees it as the perfect time for Senate to lower certain stipends, create a greater level of hierarchy on the board and leave room to pay the newly-added Speaker of the Senate position. “You’re talking about a vice president whose role just got cut in half; they’re not president of the Senate anymore,” Osman said. “I think they should look at what five people are getting paid and restructure that to pay six. They won’t like me for saying that, but that’s the truth.” While Executive Board stipends are paid for with student government fees, each student media organization —The Beacon, The Log and KDUP — is allotted a budget from the University through student activities. According to Koffler, stipends for big leadership
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CRIME LOG April 8, 3:58 p.m. Officers responded to a report of a small bark dust fire near the smoking bench by Mago Hunt. The fire was quickly put out with out any damage to persons or property. April 8, 11:35 p.m. Officers responded to a report of an intoxicated individual near the 5200 block of N. Princeton. The individual was transported to Detox by Portland Police. April 9, 2:56 p.m. Public Safety received a report of a suspicious voicemail left on a campus phone. During the investigation it was determined that the voicemail was not referring to the University of Portland. No other calls were received.
Beacon job.” While Copic wishes she could pay her staffers more, ultimately she’s grateful she gets to pay them at all. She pointed out that a few colleges don’t offer any type of payment for student media. Even on UP’s campus, there are unpaid positions that many argue warrant a stipend including ASUP senators. CPB director Sammy van den Berg believes that raising stipends or providing any type of senator stipend is unlikely after a year in which Senate has had internal issues and has passed zero resolutions. However, she finds this to be a real shame. “I know there are people that wish they could do Senate, but they need to work at The Commons instead because they need the money,” van den Berg said. “I love student leadership so much and that just breaks my heart that that has to be a deciding factor for people.” For KDUP General Manager Jack Greenwood, the stipend system points to a greater problem within the administration. While Greenwood admits that he is envious of the higher pay on ASUP Executive Board, he thinks that leaders in all student-run organizations would be better off working together. “Overall, the focus should be less on interorganizational competition, less comparative bickering and more of a large scale picture on student employment and, ‘Is it fair what students are getting out of what they’re putting in?’” Greenwood said. Contact Staff Writer Rachel Rippetoe at rippetoe18@up.edu.
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roles like editor-in-chief of The Beacon and The Log or General Manager of KDUP tend to stay consistent from year to year in order to create an incentive for students in lower positions to work their way up. According to The Log Editor-in-Chief Tori Dunlap, the yearbook has been looking into getting rid of the stipend system. Dunlap said that she has run into problems with certain yearbook staff members not doing their fair share of the work but still receiving their full payment. Dunlap and her adviser, Rachel Mills, have apparently spoken with Koffler about implementing a “pay to play” system in which staff members get paid when they turn in their work. The strongest drawback to the stipend system for student leadership may be the hardship it presses on students who have to work to support themselves or try to pay off student loans while still in school. A $6,000 stipend might make a small dent in a student’s tuition costs, but other positions within student media and leadership get paid as low as $1,000 a year. Students paying their way through UP, may have to forgo the valuable resume-building, quasi professional experience of a stipend job for something more mundane but lucrative. “There have been students who have had to quit because they’ve had to take an hourly position at Starbucks,” Nancy Copic, assistant director of student media, said. “One time we had a student who wasn’t doing his job very well and it turned out he had been working at UPS on the graveyard shift five nights a week in addition to doing his
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Hannah Baade • THE BEACON Photo cour tesy of Wikimedia Commons
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David DiLoreto • THE BEACON
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ON CAMPUS “Love, Scorn, and the Assertion of Black Humanity” The philosophy department will present this lecture by Ryan Preston-Roedder from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Friday, April 15 at 3 p.m. in Franz 120. His talk is free and open to all.
Composer David Maslanka The University of Portland Wind Symphony will welcome one of America’s foremost composers, David Maslanka, in a special performance on Sunday April 17, at 3 p.m. in Buckley Center Auditorium on campus. The concert is free and open to the public. The program will include Maslanka’s Clarinet Concerto featuring Yamaha artist Myroslava Hagen.
Relay for Life The UP chapter of Colleges Against Cancer will hold its annual American Cancer Society Relay For Life on Saturday April 16, from 12 to 8 p.m. in the Academic Quad. The Relay For Life program will honor cancer survivors and caregivers and feature the society’s mission to save lives from cancer. The funds raised at Relay support patient services, lifesaving research, prevention education and advocacy efforts.
Guided Meditation Beauchamp Recreation & Wellness Center, Studio 30. Wednesdays at 9 p.m.
Living
APRIL 14, 2016 • UPBEACON.COM Karen Garcia Living Editor garciaka17@up.edu
GHOSTING By Luke Loranger THE BEACON In the digital age of dating, ghosting has become a cultural phenomenon. It removes the awkward encounters or conversations that inevitably happen when you want to end a relationship with someone by allowing people to entirely avoid the encounter, usually via text message. Ghosting is defined as ceasing all communication with a friend, loved one, or someone that you are intimately involved with. For many in platonic relationships, it is an easy way to express that their attention is otherwise focused. “I do it to people on a friend basis, and it is basically to show them I am busy at the time,” sophomore business major Jack Hulbert said. “I’ve done it in a fight with a friend, or basically to say, ‘this (isn’t) worth responding to.’” Ghosting has come of age in the era of read receipts and Facebook Messenger, in which someone can know — down to the second — when someone has read their message. For some, the act of ghosting can be an intentional way of letting another person know that they
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are not interested in them, or that they want to cut them out of their lives. “I feel that for romantic or sexual relationships it is sometimes the best route to go when you feel that further communication wouldn’t take your relationship anywhere, positively or negatively,” sophomore history major Alex Mitchell said. “I had an ex boyfriend who would verbally assault me, so I ended things. His response was to threaten me, so my response was to talk things out with him. It came to the point where I had to ghost him. It may be seen as cruel but I just knew that I didn’t want this person in my life anymore.” Situations like this may show the best side of ghosting, one in which silence displays a sense of disinterest better than any words could — but ghosting is still primarily used to remove oneself from uncomfortable situations that arise after a regrettable night or simple loss of interest in another person. “We had known each other for over a year, and it turned into more than friends for six months. Then out of the blue it was like, ‘Bye see you later,’”
THE NEW AVOIDANCE MECHANISM
sophomore Madeline Ochs said. “If you don’t want to talk to me that’s fine. People change; I get it. I would love a heads up, like ‘Hey I’m not feeling this anymore.’ It hurts more when it gets cut off.” Ghosting as most often discussed in popular culture is still a very bad way to end a relationship, friendship or the gray area in between that often dominates modern dating culture. “I feel that (ghosting) is the new way of rejecting people,” Mitchell said. “We meet a lot more people in our generation than our parents have, because of social media.” Both the ghosted and ghostees have a word of advice: Think carefully before you make the choice to ghost someone, and only do it when it’s clear that you’ll never see someone in person again. You are, after all, dealing with another person’s feelings, as noted by freshman engineering major Thomas Ryan. “Ignorance is bliss, but ignoring someone is pain.” Contact Staff Writer Luke Loranger at loranger18@up.edu. Twitter: @Loranger18
Rebekah Markillie • THE BEACON
Ghosting, a new form of ignoring and avoiding people, has become especially prevalent with social media.
Advice from 2016’s Valedictorians
Jacob Fuhrer • THE BEACON
Nihat Cem Inan
Nathan Seppi
Electrical engineering and music major What study tips do you have?
You have to be interested in the material. You have to enjoy what you learn. With every class, I’ve taken it as if I was in that discipline. For classes that require memorizing, it’s important not to just blindly memorize but also understand what you do.
What advice would you give to incoming freshmen?
It’ll be challenging at first. It’s not as difficult as they may think. There are more distractions and more independent responsibilities. In high school everyone tells you what to do … in college, you still have to maintain that rigorous schedule. As they say in “Spider-Man,” with great power comes with great responsibility.
What do you do to decompress?
I sometimes play music as a hobby. In school, I played the piano and saxophone for most of my performances. I play some Turkish musical instruments too. My family is originally from Turkey. Music gave me a good activity to do in my free time. I love going skiing, biking, swimming, hiking and other things too.
What has been your favorite part of your time at UP?
In engineering, my favorite part was when we had the presentations on Founder’s Day. I got to present the knowledge I got from my senior design project. I felt like a real engineer dealing with real problems. In music, I placed in a competition that allowed me to play in Carnegie Hall.
Philosophy and French
What study tips do you have?
Time management is the biggest thing. Have a planner, divide up your tasks into different steps and then plan specific times when you’ll do each of those steps.
What motivated you to keep going when things seemed difficult?
My whole approach to learning and grades and all wasn’t for the grades specifically. It was much more for taking advantage of the opportunity and the class. A lot of it was relationship based. I feel like I had a relationship with the professor and if I didn’t do the work, I felt like I was letting them down.
What do you do to decompress?
I climb a lot. I like rock climbing
Hannah Baade • THE BEACON
down at The Circuit or Planet Granite. Also, physical activity and hanging out with friends. But climbing is a big one right now.
Where are you headed next?
I’m going into environmental work. I am an intern with the Forest Park Conservancy. I’ll probably be looking at AmeriCorps programs. For the immediate future, I’m doing Christian ministry at the national parks.
Anything you wish you could have done differently?
I would seek community more in my freshman year. I think that’s one of the reasons the transition was challenging. In high school all your communities and friends just fall on you. In university, you have to seek them out.
THE BEACON • APRIL 14, 2016 • UPBEACON.COM
LIVING
Dorm baby turns dorm toddler
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By Luke Loranger THE BEACON A year has passed since the birth of Gregory Wode, and he has found a welcoming home in Corrado Hall. Gregory was born Jan. 4, 2015 — and Mike Wode, Corrado’s hall director and Jessica Wode, an office manager in Residence Life adopted him soon after. Gregory is a welcome distraction for often stressedout students, many of whom have welcomed the presence of Gregory into their lives, often while hanging out in the common spaces in Corrado. “When we are tired we will bring (Gregory) into the lobby and someone will want to play with him, bounce him around,” Jessica said. This sentiment was echoed by the students who live in Corrado, such as sophomore Brody White. “There will be baby breaks during homework,” White said. “Gregory loves the elevator and so there will be a bunch of people in the third floor lobby doing homework and we will play with the baby for 20 minutes.”
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When we are tired we will bring (Gregory) into the lobby and someone will want to play with him, bounce him around.
Brody White Sophomore
The Wodes’ adjustment into the small apartment has also worked out well. They have a play-pen that they put into halves to block off the living room as a play area. The Wodes will move into a new apartment next year, when
Parker Shoaff • THE BEACON
At just over one year old, Gregory Wode is Corrado Hall’s youngest resident. The Wodes plan to move to the new residence hall when construction is finished later this year. the new dorm is finished, and hope to adopt another child in the future. They also hope to move the child in a toddler bed in their room with the larger apartment. Still, being a hall director with a child is not without challenges. “As a hall director you don’t
really have your own yard (and) I’m always on display,” Mike said. “If (Gregory) is having a tantrum, I don’t want him to be a disruption to the students’ lives.” Mike thinks the experience of being a hall director with a child has benefited his tenure at Corrado.
“It makes me more approachable. It disarms me as an authority figure, and makes me more human,” Mike said. He believes the many roles he serves as a father and husband allow him to show what a healthy family looks like. “Some people have made comments that cuddling
Gregory is good stress relief,” Jessica said. “They just like seeing his smiling face, we have really only heard positive things about having him in the hall.” Contact Staff Writer Luke Loranger at loranger18@up.edu. Twitter: @Loranger18
Q&A with Brian Doyle Brian Doyle is known on campus for being the editor of the University’s Portland Magazine, but outside of the UP community he is also a big deal. Doyle is the author of 13 books which range from collections of essays and poems to more recent novels. Doyle has received three Pushcart Prizes, the John Burroughs Award for Nature Essays and he has been a finalist multiple times for the Oregon Book Award. “Chicago” is his latest novel, it tells the story of a recent college graduate who moves to Chicago and the interesting people he meets along the way.
What is your new novel about?
It is my fourth or fifth novel, I can’t remember. Most of my books are a collection of essays or poems, and a couple nonfiction books. In recent years I have been writing novels and have been having an enormous amount of fun. This book is about Chicagoness. I did live in Chicago a little bit when I was fresh out of college, and to be young and strong and penniless and tireless is a perfect way to see a city. I just love Chicago I thought it was
a great American city. It is in the middle of the country, rising out of the plains like Oz. It is a big city, it’s a big ruff, beautiful, cruel, violent, outstanding city. It just seems like the most American city to me. So the book is short of a coming-of-age novel in which a young guy moves to the city for a couple of years. He gets an apartment building in the city and the adventures of all those people in that apartment building makes up almost all the plot. For one thing it’s an exploration of cityness. Why are cities cool? Why do they (have) different characters and flavors? I think by trying to poke deeply at the Chicagoness, readers will enjoy a large contemplation of what cities are. Thinking of cities as a song almost and how they are composed. I think anybody who loves Chicago and who is interested in slowly waking up will enjoy it.
What inspired you to write “Chicago”?
Part of it was a fixed memory. Part of it was one of my brothers was very sick and
I decided to send him a note or a drawing everyday just to make him laugh. And those notes quickly became little fictional notes about Chicago. All of these people just started to wander into my imagination. So I would write these stories for him every day and finally my dad, a wonderful wise man, said to me you may want to work these out into a real novel. So when your dad tells you to do something you do it.
Do you have any other personal connection to Chicago?
I try to get back every other year or so. Anyway, it’s a different city from when I was there years ago, it’s much bigger and more confident. No one in Chicago thinks they’re the Second City, they think they are the capital of the middle of North America — and they are probably right. It’s a wild city, and it’s a rare city that’s actually on the sea. You know the lake is far bigger than most inland seas, so when I get back I try to walk along there. Read the full interview online at upbeacon.com.
“Chicago” is available for purchase on Amazon.
Cover courtesy of Amazon
LIVING
THE BEACON • APRIL 14, 2016 • UPBEACON.COM
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Rock The Bluff (2016)
All photos by Parker Shoaff • THE BEACON
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“I was quite literally going out of my mind. I lost it. That night, I left the Chiles Center with cartoon heart eyes — kind of like the one’s Johnny Bravo would have — and the glowing look of love radiating from my face. Or maybe that was just the sweat.”
Natasa Kvesic • THE BEACON
Read Natasa’s full review online at upbeacon.com, and see the rest of the pictures on The Beacon’s Facebook page.
THE BEACON • APRIL 14, 2016 • UPBEACON.COM
LIVING
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faith & fellowship: Love and mercy: It’s what we need on The Bluff
On Nov. 16, 2015, I received an email that sent chills down my spine. Fr. Mark Poorman was Victor Amador notifying Junior the student body of Conner Hall’s suicide and although I didn’t know Connor personally, I was deeply troubled by the news.
Conner’s suicide was one of a growing number of suicides at the University of Portland since I arrived back in Fall 2013, and the melancholy and shock on campus was palpable. We became conscious more than ever to the tragic truth that there are people here on The Bluff that are fundamentally unhappy and feeling unwelcome, so much so that they cannot bear to live one more day. We realized that suicide does not always have visible symptoms before it
strikes. There were mental health seminars, vigils and many other projects put on by the faculty, staff and student body on campus to promote healing and awareness. UP’s response to this string of unspeakable tragedy made me proud to be a Pilot. Unfortunately, as someone who has attempted suicide, I personally know that it is not enough to “respond.” Several years ago, I found myself in a dark place, and sadly, I was
not the only one. According to www.cdc.gov, a suicide occurs in the US approximately every 13 minutes. I look at these numbers and the people around me who have been affected by suicide and I feel helpless. What can I do? Pope Francis has given us a wonderful tool to combat the sadness in our world by declaring this Year of Mercy. Mercy, by definition, is treating a person with compassion when you have the power to punish them. Mercy,
as described by Pope Francis, is “the fundamental law that dwells in the heart of every person who looks sincerely into the eyes of his brothers and sisters on the path of life.” So what does mercy look like to me? Mercy is anytime someone shows me compassion or kindness when they have the power not to. Mercy is a classmate who is seeing me struggle on homework in the library and takes the time to check on how I’m doing. Mercy is a professor making time to help me prepare for a job interview. Mercy can even be a smile from a stranger. Mercy is taking the extra step to let someone know that they are valued and worthy of compassion and kindness just because. Often on campus, I barely notice the people around me as I’m worrying about the zillion other things I need to do, a sedated zombie crushed under the stress of school. But when I take a moment to stop and actually notice the people in the quad, I realize that I need to slow down and be present. As a suicide survivor, I owe my life to mercy. By creating a culture of mercy on campus, a culture where everybody is treated with kindness just because, we can help those who are silently suffering say “yes” to life for one more day. Victor Amador is a junior mechanical engineering major. He can be reached at amadorv17@ up.edu.
Opinion
APRIL 14, 2016 • UPBEACON.COM
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Lydia Laythe Opinion Editor laythe16@up.edu
FROM THE EDITORIAL BOARD
We need action:
Student voices unite around need for actual action around racial inclusion Continued from page 1 perspective to the institution. This kind of program could be used to intentionally diversify our faculty and the administration when exceptional candidates present themselves. While the administration recently hired Terry Porter to coach our men’s basketball team, that doesn’t discount the structural and institutional barriers that prevent more diverse candidates from getting jobs at UP. It’s great that students will have a strong, black male role model in a position of power on campus, but a singular hire doesn’t address the larger, structural problem. And in order to create larger, structural change, the administration needs to act. Students can only say and do so much. Students are organizing and communicating. Students are trying to open dialogues and doorways. Students are trying to create positive, structural change on our campus. But we need cooperation. We all have a part to play in this discussion — but we all need to participate in order to have a meaningful conversation. Sometimes that means stepping up to the
microphone and sometimes that means passing it. And sometimes that means putting the microphone down so that you can go and effect change. Despite students’ large investment in this institution, the power still lies in the hands of the elite administrators. Freshman Lydia Heye, who spoke on the panel on Tuesday, expressed her respect for students’ action and disappointment with the administration. “It’s empowering to see how students can step up,” Heye said. “But it’s discouraging because the students are tasked with doing something the administration should already be doing from the top down.” ASUP’s newly elected president, Brandon Rivera, and vice president, Tsikata Apenyo, understand this issue and plan to set a good example in the following year. “I think, when administration looks at ASUP, the last three general elections have led to an AfricanAmerican president or vice president,” Apenyo said. “So why isn’t administration making steps toward that? Obviously the student body is cognizant of the problem and they’re willing to address it ... ”
Rivera said he and Apenyo are not afraid to fight for the students’ concerns. “We want the student body to know we’re not afraid of criticism or anything like that,” Rivera said. “We’re willing to stand up for them, for what they… want to see changed on campus. We’re willing to put ourselves out there and say, ‘Hey, this is what the students want. What are you doing about it?’” UP administration could learn a thing or two from Rivera and Apenyo’s commitment to student voices and concerns. But frankly, we’re getting really tired of having to repeat ourselves: It’s time for change. Administration, you need to start dealing with race — actively and proactively, constantly and consistently. There should never be a time when administrators aren’t addressing race in some way — because that’s a privilege UP’s students of color are never afforded. Administration, you need to stop waiting for something big to happen. That’s not how racism works. Modern structural and institutional racism is thousands of small, everyday events and interactions that lead people of color to feel excluded, isolated
and disregarded. You don’t need a big event to signal a time for change because we’re telling you right now: It’s time for change. We’re getting really tired of having to repeat ourselves … But don’t think that we’re going to stop. We’re not stopping. We’re not going to let white privilege silence the voices of students, faculty and staff. We’re proud to serve as the voice of students at the University of Portland. The Beacon print issues may end after today, but our commitment to giving marginalized voices a powerful platform for expression won’t ever go away. We’re fed UP, but we’re not going to give UP. This is too important. Students are too important. People are too important. UP is too important. Enough is enough. Editor’s note: To our knowledge, The Beacon has never put an editorial on the front page in its 81-year history. We’re doing this because we support the recent outcry from students of color.
Race isn’t just black or white I couldn’t have been more than seven or eight years old, on the way to the park with my dad, when a neighborRebekah Markillie Junior hood kid asked me if I was adopted. That was the first time someone had brought to my attention the disparity between my complexion and the one of my so-called biological father’s. Another time more recently, when my mother tried introducing me as her daughter to another woman, she paused for a moment, looked at me and laughed, “You’re not her daughter!” We hear it all the time that race can’t be divided into nice boxes to check. But this is rarely the reality. In many well-meaning discussions about racial inclusion and racial diversity, mixed race identities are completely left out. I’ve been told countless times that I can’t talk about racial discrimination, or Asian racial issues, because I’m not brown or Asian. People who are mixed race always end up somewhere in between. According to Pew Research Center, 6.9 percent of American adults are
See Mixed page 10
We are going digital, and we are still the voice of the student body
There was a time when I would sit at my kitchen table in my checkered pajama bottoms and oversized sweatshirt Malika Andrews and flip Junior through the morning paper, mostly in search of cartoons. This morning though, as I sipped
my black coffee out of my favorite white mug, I was scrolling through the latest news stories and reading tales of Kobe Bryant’s glory days on my Twitter feed. Like so many of our readers, a part of me will miss the print version of The Beacon. But online, our stories reach thousands and it is time for us to march forward onto that larger stage. Taking the reigns from Katie Dunn is an incredible
honor and one that comes with a lot of pressure. She set high standards and gave no wiggle room while letting the staff know that we had to get things done and we had to get them done right. But more than anything, Katie taught me that being editor-in-chief is about more than the words people read, it’s about the 100 little things that no one else sees but that ensure that the final product meets a high quality standard that we demand from
ourselves and that our readers have grown to expect from us. In a way, everything about The Beacon changes next year as we shift to an all-digital format but in other ways, in our core values as a publication that Katie led us in upholding, we will remain the same. Next year, instead of readers having to brave Portland’s downpours to pick us up on the purple stands sprinkled around campus, we will be coming to you.
SUBMISSION POLICY Letters and commentaries from readers are encouraged. All contributions must include the writer’s address and phone number for verification purposes. The Beacon does not accept submissions written by a group, although pieces written by an individual on behalf of a group are acceptable. Letters to the editor must not exceed 250 words. Those with longer opinions are encouraged to submit guest columns. The Beacon reserves the right to edit any contributions for length and style, and/or reject them without notification. University students must include their major and year in school. Non-students must include their affiliation to the University of Portland, if any. Please send submission to beacon@up.edu.
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For advertising information, contact Katie Dunn, business and advertising manager, at beaconads@up.edu.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions are available at $30 for the year, covering 24 issues. Checks should be made payable to The University of Portland: The Beacon. For more information about subscriptions or billing questions, contact Circulation Director Manager Matt Rodriguez at beaconads@up.edu.
We are launching a new digital newsletter that will be delivering our best content in a convenient manner to your email inbox every Thursday to keep with our Thursday publication tradition. The staff members that we have picked to tell the stories of the University of Portland are among the most creative, innovative and personable students on campus. There
See Beacon page 10
THE BEACON Editorial Board
Staff Writers
Editor-in-Chief Katie Dunn
Design Editor Rebekah Markillie
News Editor Clare Duffy
Living Editor Karen Garcia
Opinion Editor Lydia Laythe
Asst. Design Editor Hannah Baade
Sports Editor Malika Andrews
Copy Editor Melissa Aguilar Photo Editor David DiLoreto
upbeacon.com • upbeacon@gmail.com • 5000 N. Willamette Blvd. Portland OR
Jacob Fuhrer, Molly Vincent, Luke Loranger, Cheyenne Schoen, Natasa Kvesic, Alana Laanui, Ben Arthur, Sal Aversa, Hunter Jacobson, JD Nguyen, Hannah Sievert, Rachel Rippetoe
Photographers Hannah Baade, Kristen Garcia, Parker Shoaff,
Thomas Dempsey, Shelby Vaculin
Student Staff Members Business & Ad Manager Web Content Manager Social Media Manager Cartoonist Circulation Director
Katie Dunn Christian Rodriguez Malika Andrews Nathan DeVaughn Matt Rodriguez
UP Staff Members
Adviser Nancy Copic
Publisher Fr. Mark Poorman
OPINION
THE BEACON • APRIL 14, 2016 • UPBEACON.COM
Mixed: Student reflects on mixed racial identities Continued from page 9 neither white enough, brown enough or black enough. We don’t have a cultural or racial identity, because we identify with aspects of several. This lack of identity manifests itself in many harmful ways. “White passing” is considered a form of white privilege because it means being able to navigate through life without having to worry about the stereotypes associated with darker colored skin. But white passing is also a form of erasure. White passing removes all cultural heritage associated with a non-white or mixed race person. This means that when I pass as white, I lose my — and my mom’s — entire South East Asian heritage.
And on the opposite side, mixed race people are constantly misidentified. I’ve been mistaken as white, Filipino, Chinese and even Mexican. Racial stereotypes are powerful; this misidentification means that people don’t know how they’re supposed to treat me because I don’t fit into their binary racial system. As racial inclusion discussions at UP continue, please keep in mind the less obvious and more nuanced aspects of racial diversity. Multiracial people also have unique perspectives and experiences that should be vocalized, not silenced. Rebekah Markillie is a junior communications major and can be reached at markilli17@up.edu.
Beacon: Still committed to student voices Continued from page 9
will be no paper, but there will be a richer reader experience with high quality images that complement the text that will be featured on our brand new website. Our new site, which will be unveiled this summer, will look cleaner, cooler and move faster. It will also feature a new “magazine” tab that houses the long form features and profiles that I am partial to and our readers have proven to love. The opinions section, that under Lydia Laythe’s expert hand, has become a student favorite with the addition of the “Let’s Talk” column, will remain a place for students to write in and voice their thoughts, reaching a far wider audience than our 1,750 print circulation could. The conversation will be
more open. Tweet us to give us story ideas. Like us on Facebook to stay current on the stories of your peers and the faculty members you love or the ones you aren’t as fond of. Follow us on Instagram to stay current on the wonderful work our photographers do. How you read The Beacon may change next year, but our mission remains the same. In bold black letters under our masthead and on our homepage it says we have been the voice of the University of Portland since 1935. Next year, just like the last 81 years, The Beacon will remain a place for “free and responsible public dialogue.” And I am thrilled to help facilitate that conversation as your editor-in-chief. Contact sports editor Malika Andrews at andrewsm17@up.edu or on Twitter @malika_andrews.
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A big thank you for the memories
I’ve seen a lot of changes over my four years at UP. Some of these changes I can walk by every day, like Katie Dunn Senior the Clark Library, the Pilot House and the Beauchamp Recreation Center. Some changes are less visible everyday, like the addition of sexual orientation to the non-discrimination policy and the increased awareness for mental health. These changes all have something in common: The Beacon has been there to document it all. As many of you know, The Beacon is making the move to an all-digital format next year. This is an exciting move because it allows The Beacon to reach students more effectively and consistently. Breaking news doesn’t wait until Thursday and neither do we. The Beacon is the student voice of the University of Portland. Over my four years on staff, I’ve realized just how important that fact is. The university functions
because of the students, and sometimes there are things that the students want to see changed. Those changes are often voiced in The Beacon, and we understand how important The Beacon is as a platform for students. It’s hard to ignore a big picture of students protesting in the quad for equality or a headline showing the disconnect African-American students feel on campus. But headlines and pictures are no match for a story that gets read by over 1,000 students and faculty online. While print may be going away, the digital world is growing rapidly. The Beacon is still the student voice of UP, we’re just going to be on your laptop or smartphone instead of left on a table in St. Mary’s. We’ll still be everywhere on campus. We’ll be in The Commons during breakfast, in the library, in classrooms and anywhere else the UP community goes. I have to shift to some big thank yous. First and foremost, to our incredible adviser Nancy Copic. I have spent countless breaks between classes in your office talking about all things Beacon. I deeply appreciate
your care, advice and time you graciously give to everyone on staff. Next, to our readers. Without you we would be irrelevant. We know what students are concerned with and want to read about because our readers tell us with clicks on the website, likes on Facebook or conversations in class. Please continue telling us what needs to be reported on. Finally, to my staff (current and former). Some of the best people I’ve met in college worked for The Beacon. And to my editors especially. We’ve spent countless hours in the newsroom, and this year has been the most entertaining of my four years on staff. I can’t express how thankful I am to have had the opportunity to serve as your editor-in-chief. I know I am leaving The Beacon in incredibly capable hands, and can’t wait to see the changes that happen at UP from now on. Katie Dunn is a senior marketing major and editor-inchief of The Beacon and can be reached at dunn16@up.edu.
THE BEACON • APRIL 14, 2016 • UPBEACON.COM
SPORTS
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Top 10 Biggest Moments in UP Sports in 2015-2016
Between the hiring of a new men’s basketball coach, the cross country team running into the national record books and UP alums playing in the World Cup, it has been an exciting year in Pilot athletics. Hunter Jacobson • THE BEACON
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PILOTS VOLLEYBALL GOES ON PILOTS BASEBALL MAKING BIG FORMER PILOT WINS WORLD RECORD BREAKING RUN IMPROVEMENTS CUP TITLE After losing their first match of the season, the Pilots volleyball team looked as if they were headed for another rough season, but they proved the doubters wrong and went on a dominating run to get off to a 7-1 start on the season. Seven wins matched their win total from the previous season. The Pilots rattled off three more wins, extending their win streak to 10 matches, but the streak would stop there. The improvements in the program were apparent not only by the win streak, but by their overall record. The Pilots ended their season with a 16-15 record, more than doubling their win total of 7 from the 2014 season. The Pilots also went 6-12 in WCC play, improving significantly on their one conference win in the 2014 season.
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With the addition of new head coach Geoff Loomis, the Pilot baseball squad is looking like a new team. Loomis, a former Pilot, has led the team to 13 wins so far this season, surpassing their win total of 12 from last year. Senior pitcher Jordan Wilcox has been a key component of the teams’ success. He has four wins on the year and an ERA of 3.59. Cooper Hummel and Caleb Whalen have provided a spark at the plate with batting averages of .358 and .333, respectively. The Pilots’ improvement on the field coupled with a new turf field and new improvements to the stadium on the way, the future of Pilot baseball looks promising.
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While UP students were preparing for another school year, a UP alum was playing soccer on the world’s biggest stage — the 2015 Women’s World Cup. Megan Rapinoe, who attended the University of Portland from 20052008, was a key member of the U.S. women’s national team as they made their way through the World Cup rounds. Rapinoe had two goals throughout the tournament, which was good for the second most goals scored on the team. She also added two assists to her stat line during the tournament. On July 5, 2015, the U.S. team beat the Japanese team 5-2 in the World Cup finale, forever linking the Pilots with World Cup glory.
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FORMER SOCCER PLAYER SHINES IN A NEW SPORT
WOODY KINCAID POSTS NATION’S BEST 3,000 M TIME
Junior Parkes Kendrick, who played soccer for her first three years at UP, switched to track for the 2016 season. In her first collegiate race, Kendrick took first in the 1,500m with a time of 4:28.59. The following week at the Willamette Invitational, Kendrick placed first in the 5,000m. Her time of 16:19.93 set a UP record and clocked in as fourth best time in the nation. Kendrick’s transition to a new sport has been seamless and she has been a great addition to the women’s track & field team.
Senior track & field athletes Woody Kincaid and Reid Buchanan both competed in the 3,000-meter race at the TrackTown USA High Performance Meet on Jan. 22, 2016. Both athletes set PR’s in the event as they faced off against some of the top pro athletes from around the world. Kincaid’s time of 7:48.89 set a UP record in the event and was the fastest time in the nation at the college level. As a result, Kincaid was named the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Student-Athlete of the week. It was his second time receiving the honor during the 2015-16 indoor season.
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PILOTS TRACK & FIELD REACHES NO. 20 IN NATIONAL RANKINGS
TWO PILOTS EARN ALL-WCC HONORS
MEN’S BASKETBALL UPSETS BYU AT HOME
UP SOCCER WELCOMES NEW COACH NICK CARLIN-VOIGT
MEN’S BASKETBALL WELCOMES NEW HEAD COACH TERRY PORTER
Men’s track & field had a successful indoor season highlighted by a spot in the nation’s top 25 at No. 20. The Pilots jumped up from No. 44 nationally after Woody Kincaid posted the nation’s top time in the 3,000m race. Kincaid also held the top time in the 5,000m while teammate Reid Buchanan posted the 16th fastest 3,000m time and qualified for Nationals. The top 25 ranking for the Pilots was well deserved as athletes broke school records and competed with top runners in the nation all season long.
Two Pilot guards earned All-West Coast Conference honors as a result of their play during the 2015-16 season. Senior Bryce Pressley was named to the All-WCC second team and Junior Alec Wintering was given first team honors. Wintering led the team in scoring with 18.3 points per game and Pressley came in second with 14.7 points per game. Wintering also led the team in assists, averaging 4.9 per game, along with moving into fourth place in total assists in UP basketball history. Pressley will graduate this May, while Wintering is scheduled to return to the court
The Pilots were the underdog in the Chiles Center when they tipped off against BYU on Jan. 16. When the final whistle blew, the court was flooded with UP students celebrating the Pilots 84-81 upset win. The Pilots fed off of strong play from D’Marques Tyson, Alec Wintering and Bryce Pressley who scored a combined 64 points. Wins against the top teams in the WCC have been hard to come by over the years and BYU has been no exception. Their win against BYU was only their second in the last 15 meetings with the Cougars and was the biggest and most notable win of the 2015-16 season for the Pilots.
Bill Irwin’s 13-year run as the men’s soccer coach at UP came to an end in November of 2015. In January 2016, the UP athletic department announced Nick Carlin-Voigt would be the new head coach of the program. Carlin-Voigt spent the past four years as an assistant coach at UCLA where he helped put together the top recruiting class in the nation for three straight years. Before UCLA, Carlin-Voigt coached at George Mason University where he put together top recruiting classes in three of his five years with the program. Carlin-Voigt brings his recruiting and coaching abilities to a program that is looking to make its way back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2009.
On March 15, 2016, the UP athletic department decided to part ways with men’s head basketball coach Eric Reveno after 10 years. This led to an extensive search for the next head coach that ended with the hire of Portland basketball legend, Terry Porter. Porter, a former NBA player, spent 10 of his 17 years in the league as a member of the Portland Trail Blazers. In his time in the league, Porter was twice an All-Star and made two NBA Finals appearances. In addition to playing at the highest level, Porter was also a head coach of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks. The hiring of Porter brings a track record of experience and success to a program that is looking to build a winning tradition and to compete with the top teams in the WCC.
Graphics by Hannah Baade
Dreaming of the big leagues By Sal Aversa THE BEACON
Kristen Garcia • THE BEACON
Cooper Hummel crouches to catch during a game on Joe Etzel Field. Hummel and teammate Caleb Whalen both have a shot at being drafted this year.
Most young kids that grow up playing baseball dream of one day going to the major leagues. While dreams of sugar plums dance through some children’s heads, dreams of hitting a walk-off homerun make their way into the dreams of the kids in Little League. When they watch their heroes play in game seven of the World Series, most cannot help but picturing themselves. For Portland’s center midfielder Caleb Whalen and catcher Cooper Hummel, these dreams could become a reality. During this year’s draft on June 9, Whalen and Hummel will be anxiously waiting for the phone call that could change their lives. The phone
call telling them they were wanted by a Major League team. For Whalen, this is not his first experience with the draft. Out of high school, the Milwaukee Brewers drafted Whalen in the 42nd round. The draft has now been trimmed too 40 rounds, but Whalen hopes to go higher than he did last time.
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It’s always been a dream of mine to play pro ball.
Caleb Whalen Senior
“It’s always been a dream of mine to play pro ball,” Whalen said. “I don’t want to get to excited early on, but once it happens, I’ll be on cloud nine.” For Hummel, this is a first.
“I love playing catcher. I’ve been playing catcher since I was in fourth grade,” Hummel said. “If I got to play catcher professionally, I’d love that, but if someone said, ‘Keep your bat and your legs healthy,’ I’d play wherever they want me. Playing pro ball is the dream.” Hummel is a junior and has a year left at the University of Portland. When draft day comes, rest assured both players will have their phones on, waiting for their screens to light up with the call that could make their dreams come true.
Contact sports writer Sal Aversa at aversa17@up.edu Twitter: @Sal_Aversa
Sports
APRIL 14, 2016 • UPBEACON.COM Malika Andrews Sports Editor andrewsm17@up.edu
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Get to know Eugene ‘Pooh’ Jeter Interview by Ben Arthur
Pooh Jeter attended the University of Portland from 2002-2006 and was a member of the men’s basketball team. He played in the NBA D-league and overseas in Spain, Ukraine and Israel. Hannah Baade • THE BEACON
How does it feel being back on The Bluff? I haven’t been here in five years. The Pilot House is like a club on campus. It’s amazing. Just seeing the new library, and seeing Beauchamp, it’s incredible. When I was here from 2002-2006, the men’s basketball team locker room was small. Now they got TVs (in the locker room) and we didn’t have that. We didn’t have none of that. The training room to the weight room, like everything has changed and is going in the right direction for future students. I’m excited and so proud to see the improvements of this whole campus.
players to continue to make them play hard for the name on their chest, not the ones on the back. It’s not too much on Coach Porter. His job is to make sure they’re ready, but it’s on the players to do their job. He just has to motivate them.
What was your experience at UP going from a predominately black high school to a predominately white university? It prepared me for life. The culture shock, you know, it woke me up. It was shock that I needed to realize, ‘Hey, this is preparing you for something.’ That What are your thoughts preparation prepared me for Ukraine, Spain, on the Terry Porter hire? Israel, China, just for everything. I didn’t I think he’s going to do extremely well. I just see myself as the only black student just hope that he connects with the players. in class. Me being who I am, we were one. They should be pumped up. Coach Porter is (The students) knew me because I played an NBA vet and did tremendous things and basketball, but everybody accepted me. they should play hard because of what he Each and every student here showed me so brings. His relationship (is) not just to the much love. That’s what I love about Portland. city, but to the NBA … I hope he changes That prepared me to be the only black on the program. I really do because of the new my team in my professional life so I thank facilities being made and all the upgrades at Portland for that. Portland. It’s gonna match and I can imagine people would want to start coming because If you could play 2v2 with we’re winning and not just on the court but any of the current players on off the court too. the current Pilots team as a teammate, who would you What was your choose? conversation with Porter I would want to go against Al like? (Wintering). Even though it’s heart over His main thing is just connecting to height, I’d want to compete against him. the players. That’s it. Once he has a trust It could me and Jason Brough. Or me and from the players and the right formula to you. It doesn’t matter. As long as we’re do the plays and the system, he should do competing. I’d want to go against Al for sure well. But he has to continue to get the right though. people in. Hopefully, his staff will be able to recruit everywhere. He’s already connected to the city. I heard that maybe 400 people were here at the press conference? That’s huge. That says something right there. That was our conversation. Just that he’s excited Contact Sports Writer Ben Arthur at arthur17@up.edu. about the opportunity, he just needs to continue to have that relationship with the