portland state vanguard 10-18-2012
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amanda fritz (left) and mary nolan face off about Portland’s issues at the city commisioner debate. Flouridated drinking water and urban renewal were among the topics discussed.
killifish embryos can survive in mortally harsh enviroments.
KAYlA nguYen/VAnguARD STAFF
Gearing up for election
PSU hosts city commissionersJOSh KElETyVanguard Staff
Portland city commissioner candidates Amanda Fritz and Mary Nolan came to Portland State Monday night for a verbal wrestling match.
About 50 people gathered in the Cascade Room in the Smith Memorial Student Union to listen as the candidates sparred over the city’s Education Urban Renewal Area plan, fluoride and each other’s political records.
With elections just around the corner, the exchange served as a
critical chance for both candidates to prove their worth, not just to the Portland community but to PSU students in particular. The debate was organized by the Associated Students of Portland State University and the PSU Debate Team.
Fritz, the incumbent, is a retired registered psychiatric nurse. She was elected to the Portland City Council in 2008 and was a member of the Portland Planning Commission for seven years. She was born in England.
Nolan, a Democrat in the Oregon House of Representatives since 2001, was House Majority Leader from November 2008 to November 2010.
One of the first topics was the city’s planned Education Urban Renewal Area, a plan projected
to provide up to $169 million in tax increment financing for investment in educational facilities, affordable housing and private taxable development in the downtown University District.
Nolan said she is a strong advocate of these development programs.
“It [urban renewal program] has lots of potential and has done wonderful things,” she said, calling the plan a “top priority.”
“[Because of ] the critical role that Portland State plays, and the critical need for having a really strong university, I support the education urban renewal district,” she said.
Fritz, on the other hand, does not support the plan, and voted against it in May.
“Urban renewal is supposed to be for blighted areas,” she said, adding that PSU has already had much investment and that there are other, more deserving, areas of Portland.
“If we are going to invest more in blighted areas, we should invest more in really blighted areas,” she said. “If we look around at Portland State, it is not a blighted area. It already had its turn at urban renewal.”
The moderator asked several questions about how the candidates approach civic engagement and how elected leaders should interact with and respond to their constituents. The issue first came up via a question about representation
See DEbATE on page 4See ClEAN AIR on page 3
Clean air coming your way
ERIK MUTzKEVanguard Staf
Smoke-free zones to be enforced
It’s happening all over Oregon.In 2009, Portland Community Col-
lege became a tobacco-free campus. On Sept. 1, Oregon State University
and the University of Oregon also be-came smoke-free.
Starting Jan. 1, 2013 Portland State is introducing a Clean Air Corridor—officially beginning the university’s campaign for a clean air environment on campus.
The corridor will be a designated pollution-free zone in the heaviest foot traffic areas of campus: between Lincoln Hall and Cramer Hall; Cra-mer Hall and the Smith Memorial Student Union; SMSU and Neuber-ger Hall; and Neuberger Hall and Shattuck Hall.
The university currently has no plan in place for a designated smok-ing area on campus.
The hardest question for planners to answer has been where smokers are going to go, according to Alex Accetta, campus rec director, who helped put the plan together.
“We understand that there will be unintended consequences and it will take at least two years to figure out. We are still in a stage of forecasting and have decided to begin with one compact area,” Accetta said.
life in the extremeStudying nature’s most uncanny embryo MAyA SEAMAN Vanguard Staff
There is a creature that can survive without oxygen. It can live for weeks without water.
It stops its own heart for months at a time, and starts it up again without physical repercussions.
This organism could be an evolu-tionary key to helping humans sur-vive life-threatening illnesses.
To hear it described, one might en-vision something out of a superhero comic—an indestructible mutant or a genetically advanced alien. A being that is larger than life.
In reality, it’s a fish embryo.The annual killifish is a fish found
in the deserts of Africa and South
America. Yes, you read that right—deserts.
They live in small puddles and ponds that form after intense sea-sonal rains and are called an “annu-al” because they only live for one year. Once the ponds dry up, the adult fish die. Any spawned eggs are left in the hot, caking mud, where the embryos somehow survive without oxygen.
Claire Riggs, a graduate student of biology at Portland State, studies the killifish’s tolerance for zero oxygen, a state called anoxia.
“As humans, we don’t do very well within a matter of minutes with-out oxygen,” Riggs said. “If we can learn some of [the killifish embryo’s] tricks, maybe that can be applied
to help people survive heart attack or stroke.”
During development, killifish embryos go dormant when exposed to harsh conditions such as anoxia. They reduce their metabolism to base levels, put their cell development on pause, and can even stop their hearts for more than 90 days with no consequences.
f that mechanism could be devel-oped in humans, it would be a major breakthrough for cancer therapy or reducing the damage caused by lack of oxygen during a heart attack or stroke.
To determine how the killifish sur-vives and, moreover, how it can start its heart back up without tissue dam-age, Riggs examines its microRNA.
“MicroRNA can suppress genes. The thinking is that maybe something is being suppressed during this COuRTeSY OF ClAiRe RiggS
i just tweeted to say...
OpiniOn PAGE 11
Celebrities stoop to new social media lows
See KIllIfISh on page 4
2 Vanguard • Thursday, OcT. 18, 2012 • news2 Vanguard • Thursday, OcT. 18, 2012 • news
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New Park Blocks vendor sells vegan hot dogs
CASSANDRA MOOREVanguard Staff
When Cicada Zayda moved west to Portland, his life in Akron, Ohio wasn’t the only thing he left behind.
The day he moved, he gave up coffee, cigarettes and animal products. The cross-country drive he and a friend made to the Northwest was edgy, to say the least.
“[In the car] my friend was like, ‘Dude, I think you’re driving over the [yellow] line,’” Zayda recalled. “I was like, ‘No I’m not,’ Jesus!”
The son of a Holocaust survivor, Zayda and his wife, Rocks, are the Park Blocks’ newest food cart vendors.
Settled into a life far re-moved from his old vices, Zayda and his wife ride to work on a rainbow-colored tandem bicycle and sell veg-an hot dogs bedded in home-made organic buns with a choice of vegan mayonnaises.
“My wife, a lot of the time, is like, ‘You have to understand, people are kind of afraid of you,’” Zayda said. “‘You can look big and mean.’”
Zayda, who is playful and chatty with customers, looks
CiCada zayda dresses a vegan hotdog. All of Zayda’s products are vegan.
Tandem treatsanything but big and mean as he tells a customer to hold out a finger to try homemade almond-based cheese sauce.
“I don’t think I’ve ever tasted anything like this,” the customer said, to which Zayda responded by pump-ing his hands in the air.
Zayda is happy he left Akron behind. “You always have to front in Akron,” he said. “Mad dog, yeah. You have to mad dog people. You can’t be nice in Akron.”
One of those small Ameri-can towns with little else for young people to do but party and run from the cops, Ak-ron is a place where people get stuck, he said.
“I have a friend that was al-ways like, ‘You gotta get out of Akron,’” Zayda recalled. “Then one day I was sit-ting in Akron’s town square when this old guy came up and told me, ‘I always want-ed to leave Akron, too, but I never did.’ I thought: This is going to be me if I don’t get out of here.”
A friend of animals who hopes to someday open an animal sanctuary, Zayda throws bits of bread to the Park Blocks pigeons.
“I want people to tell their children to stop chasing the pigeons,” he said. He thinks it scares them, and that pigeons
have feelings, too.“My dream is that, one day,
if I get robbed, the pigeons [because I’ve befriended them] will come to my aid,” he said.
Zayda tries to befriend all the creatures in the Park Blocks. “Did you know crows bury things? I never knew that. Oh, and pigeons don’t like blue corn chips,” he said.
Handing a customer a chili dog, Zayda pulls change for a $10 bill from his pocket, where he admits he also sometimes keeps a lucky 20-sided die.
“It’s the stupidest thing. I’m thinking that when I car-
ry it around all day I’m put-ting my good luck into it and then when I play [Dungeons and Dragons] that luck will come out.”
Like many Portlanders, Zayda and Rocks dream of living off the grid and build-ing their own cob house. Like many Portlanders, their busi-ness endeavor is an homage to DIY culture.
For months they pushed their handmade cart over the Hawthorne Bridge, Rocks pulling it on the tandem while Zayda pushed from behind.
Having worked his share of mindless jobs, and having
turned down an offer to man-age Portland’s only vegan strip club, Zayda feels, finally, that the cart business is a fit.
He certainly appears to be in his natural element, chat-ting up customers and making jokes with people who come over and give him half-hugs like old friends.
“[Rocks and I] are good people that love animals, and, I don’t know, we just want the world to be a bet-ter place, and want people to drive less.”
Handing a customer a chili dog, he says, joking, “OK, that’ll be 40 bucks, please.”
CASSAnDRA mOORe/VAnguARD STAFF
Students strolling through the Park Blocks at half past noon on any given Wednes-day will likely be surprised by an unfamiliar sight— and sound.
It’s soulful and well-craft-ed, and listeners are lured closer to hear them sing.
Portland State’s only a cap-pella group, The Green Note, performs every week to gain recognition.
Senior theater major Devin Wieser, internal manager for The Green Note, described a cappella as music without instruments—everything is done using just voices.
“We have a beat boxer that holds the beats to all of the songs,” Wieser said. “It’s very percussive…you have to sound like an instrument.”
Formerly an all-female group, The Green Note be-came coed three years ago when the group’s current music director, Ian Adams-Dirks, joined the team.
“When I joined, there were about nine girls and I was their beat boxer,” Adams-Dirks said. “[T]hen we add-ed dudes the next year.”
Elisabeth Scott, the group’s
singing out, looking for the spotlight
external manager, said the group has an ambitious vision.
“We wanted to be a com-petitive coed, a ‘Why do it if you don’t want to be the best?’ kind of group,” Scott said.
Scott, Wieser and Adams-Dirks joined at the same time, and have spent the last year and a half working to-ward that vision.
Now, they’re simply work-ing toward getting noticed by performing in the Park Blocks.
“We’re all students here, so we just make sure people know who we are,” Wieser said.
Performing in such a pub-lic place has helped recruit new members.
“That’s part of our weekly performances,” said sopho-more Alexa Mansur, who joined after seeing the group perform. “It is to get our name out there and to make a name for ourselves, but also to see if people are interested and come to auditions.”
Sophomore Chris Stumpf also joined The Green Note af-ter seeing the group perform.
“I cut back on my music because I wanted to focus on my communication degree,”
Stumpf said. “[T]hen I just saw them performing, then all of those feelings and ev-erything I just loved about music, I saw in them and thought, ‘I need that and want that.’”
Aside from their weekly Park Blocks performances, The Green Note also sched-ules free on-campus concerts for PSU students.
They hope to land pay-ing gigs for holiday parties and produce their own CD. The goal is to raise $5,000 through paid performances
and assistance from PSU’s Student Activities and Lead-ership Programs.
Because the group is new, they receive the lowest amount of funding available from SALP.
“We currently have $3,000 a year,” Scott said. “When you’re trying to record an al-bum, it’s going to cost $8,000 or $10,000.”
Scott and the rest of The Green Note intend to help record the CD, a process that requires members to re-cord individual parts, load
recordings onto a terabyte hard drive, and then mix each one into eight songs for all 16 members.
Competitions, uniforms and T-shirts were cited as other general expenses for The Green Note and, should the group hold a concert off campus, they’d be burdened with the cost of the space.
“Our biggest challenge this year isn’t going to be be-ing financially independent from SALP, but raising far more money than SALP can give us,” Scott said.
The Green Note inspires and entertains with vocal talents
Justin Bueley works the crowd with The green note a capella group behind him. The singing ensemble performs in the PSu Park Blocks every Wednesday.
AuSTin mAggS/VAnguARD STAFF
AUSTIN MAGGSVanguard Staff
news • TuEsday, JanuaRy 17, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3 news • TuEsday, JanuaRy 24, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3 news • TuEsday, JanuaRy 17, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3 news • TuEsday, May 1, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3 news • TuEsday, JanuaRy 17, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3 news • TuEsday, JanuaRy 24, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3 news • TuEsday, JanuaRy 17, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3 news • ThuRsday, OcT. 18, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3
TEch
wasTe:Terra Blight
highlights the effects
of e-waste in ghana. PSu’s enviromental
Club helped organize a recent
screening of the film.
ClEAN AIR from page 1
no plans for designated smoking area on campus at this time.
The existing smoking shel-ter between SMSU and Neu-berger Hall will be removed and replaced with bicycle parking.
Largely unknown to the students and public, the uni-versity implemented a cam-pus-wide no-smoking policy that banned smoking within 25 feet of most buildings’ doors and windows.
“PSU’s smoking policy since 2007 has never been followed the way it was implemented. Now we are focusing on enforcing the policy,” Accetta said.
Enforcement is only one facet of the corridor. It is designed to create an environment free of exhaust from idling vehicles, gas-powered leaf blowers, pressure washers and small utility vehicles. Smoking, however, is clearly the issue of highest concern.
Survey data was used to gauge community sentiment about the issue.
An extensive survey went out to all students, faculty and staff in 2007, when dialogue for the Healthy Campus Initiative began. Another went out early this year, created by Gwyn Ashcom, health educator at PSU’s Center for Student Health and Counseling. Its purpose was to see how the community felt about smoking on campus and in the Park Blocks.
Of the 4,005 respondents, 66.98 percent were nonsmok-ers, 17.01 percent were current smokers and 16.01 percent were former smokers.
Of students surveyed, 57 percent strongly agreed to a smoke-free campus, while 62 percent agreed to a smoke-free Park Blocks. There has been a 7 percent increase of favor for a smoke-free campus in the four years since the 2007 survey was issued. Further-more, the response rate almost doubled, from 2,100 in 2007 to 4,005 this year.
“This survey guided the work and considerations for the smoking policy at PSU. The research helped me to make an informed assessment and recommendation for PSU, with information straight from the community,” Ashcom said. “I’m optimistic about this be-cause the majority of people who answered the survey felt that PSU and the Park Blocks should be smoke-free.”
Starting in January, there will be signs and posters in and around the corridor area. At first, enforcement will be through education cam-paigns on the new policy. PSU Transportation and Parking Services will enforce policies regarding vehicles idling around SMSU.
The Dialogue Dome, lo-cated in the Southwest cor-ner of SMSU, is a busy place for smokers to gather. It was originally built by graduate
student Heidi Moore, and in-tended as a covered place for students to chat, but it has become almost exclusively a place for smokers.
“It’s taking away from the other people who would want to use that space who don’t smoke,” Accetta said. “We have had people complain about the smoke as they walk through these areas to take their kids to day care.”
Will Laubernds, an ex-smoker and former PSU student, has been a major contributing force to the corridor, with his background in public health.
When speaking with Accetta during the early stages of designing the corridor, they came to the conclusion that the corridor represents more than just a smoking ban. It comes down to a broader model of “clean air” in general, and providing protection and safety from air pollutants and secondhand smoke for anyone on campus.
“Everyone sees this as a smoking ban, but it’s more than that. Our goal is not to target any certain group and say what is bad and what you should not be doing,” Laubernds said. “Rather, this is about offering and creating a greater sustainable solution to improve the lives and well-being of people on campus.”
For more information about the corridor, visit pdx.edu/healthycampus/clean-air.
COuRTeSY OF JellYFiSh SmACK PRODuCTiOnS
Global problem, local solutionDiscarded electronics a growing modern problemANDREW MORSEVanguard Staff
the shaded area from lincoln hall to Shattuck hall is the new Clean Air Corridor. The smoke-free zone goes into effect Jan. 1 and will include a ban on idling vechicles, leaf blowers and small utility vehicles.
the dialogue dome is a popular smoking spot near the corner of the Smith memorial Student union.
Have you ever surfed the Internet, planning your dream vacation? You may not ever reach your destination, but there’s a good chance your computer or iPad will.
Last week, Portland State’s Campus Sustainability Office and the Environmental Club presented a screening of the new documentary Terra Blight, a film that explores the negative health and environmental effects of discarded electronics.
Filmmakers Isaac Brown and Ana Habib, joined by Liane Kocka, a representative from local nonprofit Free Geek, were at the screening to answer questions from moviegoers after the film.
The problem of electronic waste—often called e-waste—is out of sight and mind for many Americans. Bombarded with a constant flow of new devices, it’s easy to toss an old monitor or laptop in the trash without considering where that material will go.
The volume of waste is in-creasing at an alarming rate.
“These things are be-coming antiquated faster,” Brown said.
Kocka echoed those sentiments, warning that the total amount of e-waste will double by the year 2015.
Peter Daeges, an economics major and coordinator of the Environmental Club, helped organize the film screening. He hoped to raise awareness among students about ways that they can get involved.
With previous experience recycling electronics at work and through Free Geek, Daeges said, “I wanted to make it apparent to people that this needs to become normal.”
Even if the effort is made to recycle an old device, there
is no guarantee that it won’t eventually land at a dump site in a developing nation overseas.
Areas most plagued by e-waste are those with a large second-hand market for electronics. The film’s main area of focus is Ghana, but the filmmakers also mentioned China, Vietnam and India as problem areas.
Terra Blight depicts a common scenario: Overseas companies buy up computers from recyclers in the United States with the intent of selling them locally. The computers aren’t always tested by the recyclers beforehand to see if they work, and some models are obsolete and unsalvageable.
Once the unusable devices are shipped abroad it’s entirely up to the new owners to dispose of them. That’s when American electronics begin to pile up in foreign landfills.
It’s not just an issue of space and material waste; a number of chemicals from electronics seep into local groundwater.
Government institutions are one of the biggest sources of e-waste in the U.S. Ordinary consumers also contribute, with smaller electronics being an underappreciated factor.
Efforts to combat the problem at a global level have involved domestic recycling projects and legislation such as the Basel Convention, making it illegal to ship used electronics overseas.
Other ideas have been proposed, such as take-back laws, which would hold manufacturers responsible for disposing of products once their working life is up. The hope is that this would lead to more environmentally friendly designs to begin with.
Some have even suggested compostable parts for devices like cell phones.
Awareness is increasing, companies are getting more involved,” Habib said. She places her hope in the con-sciousness of consumers to make responsible choices about electronics.
Daeges pointed out that the EC’s Green Space, next to Food For Thought Cafe in the Smith Memorial Student Union basement, has bins for recycling batteries and small electronics.
Students can also propose ideas and projects for the EC at any time, or just stop by the Green Space and strike up a conversation.
Similarly, the Institute for Sustainable Solutions pro-vides funding for student-led sustainability projects.
Called the Solutions Gen-erator, their program “is specifically hoping to fund a project that improves bat-tery and e-waste recycling at Portland State,” Laura Gleim, communications coordinator for the ISS, said in an email.
The ISS is holding an information session Oct. 18 from 6–7:30 p.m. Ideas for this or any sustainability-related campus project are being accepted until Oct. 22.
In regard to the issue of electronics, Daeges is not a fan of using the term e-waste. “It’s seen as waste when it’s not,” he said.
Daeges thinks the problem is a lack of understanding and effort being made to recycle and reuse electronics.
Locally, Oregon has a program called Oregon E-Cycles, run through the De-partment of Environmental Quality. It accepts computers and monitors, but currently not peripherals such as key boards and mice.
Free Geek is an official Oregon E-Cycles collection site. The nonprofit stresses reusing computers before recycling them.
They have donated over 10,000 refurbished comput-ers within the local commu-nity and have kept over 3,500 tons of electronic waste out of landfills by responsible recycling.
Free Geek is always accepting donations and volunteers.
KAYlA nguYen/VAnguARD STAFF
COuRTeSY OF PDx.eDu
CLEAN AIR CORRIDOR
4 vanGuaRd • ThuRsday, OcT. 18, 2012 • news
DEbATE from page 1
Tension rose with criticism of 911 dispatch system
fresh ProduCe at the Portland Farmers market can be purchased with food benefits.
CORinnA SCOTT/VAnguARD STAFF
KIllIfISh from page 1
Killifish: a potential biomedical treasure trovemetabolic dormancy,” Riggs said. By exposing killifish embryos to anoxia at differ-ent developmental stages, Riggs can examine the DNA and RNA (ribonucleic acid) of the embryo and see if there’s a change in the microRNA over time.
“The embryo has all these genes, and they aren’t all necessarily expressed,” Jason Podrabsky, Riggs’ advisor, said. “We’re interested in that nexus between the gene expression program that’s critical and essential for development, and how that gets altered by the environment.”
This reversible control of its metabolism is what makes the killifish unique among vertebrates and a potential biomedical treasure trove.
Podrabsky’s biology lab is currently the world resource for captive annual killifish. Podrabsky personally col-lected a large population of killifish in Venezuela, and
maintains more than 60 breed-ing pairs that produce the em-bryos his students study.
His research on killifish began with an interest in how the environment affects development. While Riggs studies how killifish embryos can go dormant, Podrabsky and his other students study additional tolerances.
For example, killifish embryos can withstand being placed in liquid with a pH level of 2, the acidic equivalent of lemon juice. They can withstand high ultraviolet radiation and salinity twice that of seawater, and they can survive without water entirely by forming a “biological glass” around themselves to keep water inside their eggs.
“They become like little marbles,” Podrabsky said. “They even clink.”
Called cross-tolerance, it is possible that the killifish embryo’s resistance to life without oxygen has similar genetic mechanisms that allow
it to thrive under additional adverse conditions.
“Tolerance to one thing ends up making you tolerant to another,” said Josiah Wagner, another graduate student studying the killifish and its grab bag of survival traits.
Podrabsky calls the kil-lifish embryos “vertebrate extremophiles,” and believes that their developmental processes in the face of such severe environmental condi-tions could provide insights into how animals—includ-ing humans—might similarly alter development.
“All vertebrates share the same basic developmental mechanisms, so if we can understand how to alter development in a fish, it’s very likely we can apply that in some way to humans,” Podrabsky said.
Given that environmental conditions can affect developmental progression, the killifish embryos are an anomaly. Their developmental environment should kill them; instead they have established ways to thrive.
“The argument would be that evolution has already solved all of these problems. Maybe not for our lineage, but it has for this fish,” Podrabsky said. “If we can figure out how evolution solved it, then maybe we can mimic that in humans to alter people’s survival times and reduce damages.”
Though a practical appli-cation for humans is a long way off, Riggs’ research has garnered plenty of at-tention: She received a pre-doctoral fellowship from the National Science Foun-dation. This highly presti-gious award will give Riggs three years of funding, al-lowing her to continue her research as she pursues her doctorate.
“Claire is so intelligent, and is really dedicated to using science for the betterment of the human condition; that’s what’s always driving her forward,” Podrabsky said.
While the answers to surviving anoxia may come from an embryo smaller than a pea, it is clear Riggs is onto something big.
within city council, and the contrast in development of Portland’s west side and east side.
“I do think we have issues of inequity in access to decision making, to sharing of power, to influence around the city,” Nolan said.
Both candidates were quick to spotlight their commitment to engaging Portlanders.
Fritz noted her creation of the Office of Equity and Human Rights, her attendance at 1,000 neighborhood events and her responsiveness to citizen emails and phone calls.
Nolan spent long hours going door to door and talking with everyday citizens, she said.
The candidates discussed fluoride in city drinking water and expressed contrasting opinions.
“While I think it’s important to listen to the voters, I think there are times when leadership says it’s time to bring this issue up again,” Nolan said, noting that the fluoride issue was last brought up in 1980. She also cited women’s suffrage in Oregon, which made seven attempts before women got the right to vote.
In a change of tack, however, Nolan called out Fritz and city officials for passing the fluoridation measure. “I do think the city conducted an inauthentic process in making this decision,” she said.
Psu hosts food Justice symposium Portland State recognizes national Food DayGWEN ShAWVanguard Staff
In honor of Food Day, Port-land State will host a Food Jus-tice Symposium on Monday, Oct. 24.
The symposium—put on by PSU’s Food Action Collective, PSU faculty and various community partners—will be held at the Native American Student and Community Center on campus, 4–7 p.m., and is open to all.
Food Day is a nation -wide celebration highlighting healthy, affordable and sustainable food. This is the first time PSU will participate with an event.
“The goal is to highlight the inner connections of our food systems,” said Carolyn White,
a graduate student studying research policy in the public administration program and one of the event’s organizers.
The symposium will consist of a welcome and an overview, followed by an hour of panel discussion.
After the panel discussion, there will be a facilitated ques-tion-and-answer period with the panelists and audience, leading up to a community dinner and networking time.
Confirmed panelists are Martin Donohoe, a PSU professor of community health and senior physician at Kaiser Permanente; Sharon Thornberry of the Oregon Food Bank; and Jaime Arredondo, board member and treasurer of Capaces Leadership Institute.
Food and drink will be provided by Nawitka Catering, a nonprofit community organization that, according to its website, provides work experience, training and employment for the local Native American community.
White explained that the
event is a way for people to become aware and learn more about the food available to them.
“Hopefully people will leave with a better idea of what food justice is,” she said.
The NASCC is located at 710 SW Jackson St.
adult killifish live in desert ponds and puddles that form after heavy rainfall. Jason Podrabsky studies their tolerences; his biology lab is a world resource for captive Killifish.
COuRTeSY OF JASOn PODRABSKY
When Fritz was asked to respond, she reiterated her commitment to hearing people out before taking action, noting that Nolan had given her support to the city council’s decision to fluoridate the water in the manner in which they did.
“Since it [fluoridation] had been defeated three times at the polls, it should go to the vote,” Fritz said. “I was not able to get a single member of the council to agree to that, so we had a public hearing and I listened.”
While Fritz agreed with the council and Nolan about fluoridating the water, she tried to contrast herself and her opponent by saying, “I listened first.”
The discourse got heated when Nolan brought up the city’s controversial 911 dispatch system and expressed concerns, citing supporting articles in Willamette Week and the Portland Tribune. Fritz fired back, saying the articles were outdated.
The debate ended on a lighter note, with the moderator posing questions like, “Where is your favorite place to eat breakfast in Portland?” and “What is your favorite Portland park?”
Afterward, students and community members milled about, shaking hands with the candidates and conversing with them.
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news • TuEsday, JanuaRy 17, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3 news • TuEsday, JanuaRy 24, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3 news • TuEsday, JanuaRy 17, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3 news • TuEsday, May 1, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3 news • TuEsday, JanuaRy 17, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3 news • TuEsday, JanuaRy 24, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3 news • TuEsday, JanuaRy 17, 2012 • vanGuaRd 3 news • ThuRsday, OcT. 18, 2012 • vanGuaRd 5
GWEN ShAWVanguard Staff
Stefan Talke came to Portland two years ago to work with David Jay, a Portland State professor in the Maseeh Col-lege of Engineering and Com-puter Science. Talke is now a senior research associate, and will be teaching one class per term.
Talke’s current class is “In-troduction to Fluid Dynamics.”
“It’s not an easy course, because fluids is not easy,” Talke said.
Through his class, he’s hop-ing to convey to students that the topic is something they have to work on for a while. He admitted that even he is still learning new things about fluids all the time.
Aside from teaching, Talke is working on a number of re-search programs at PSU. The project with Jay is one that looks at the long term changes to tidal dynamics, or look-ing at how the tides in rivers change over time.
“It’s been observed that tidal
GWEN ShAWVanguard Staff
“So much as [Portland State] is the land of untraditional students, I’m the untraditional new faculty person, because I haven’t been in academia for 15 years,” Charles Klein, the new applied medical anthropolo-gist at PSU, said.
Since getting his doctorate from the University of Michi-gan in 1996, Klein has worked at a number of places around the globe, as well as in a num-ber of different areas: the pri-vate sector, the public sector and, now, the world of higher education.
This term, Klein is teaching “Social Theory” and “Peoples and Culture of Latin America.” In the past, a lot of his work in-volved research in Brazil.
Klein’s work includes com-munity-based organizations, nongovernmental organizations,
New faculty profile: Charles KleinAIDS activist organizations, women’s feminist groups, sex-worker organizations and violence and sexuality.
“I’m interested in this ques-tion of nongovernmental organizations, or community-based organizations, and the state and who does what,” Klein said. “Especially in a place like Brazil, that’s not one of these hot economies—and though income inequali-ties are still really shocking, they are diminishing.”
As a new person in town, Klein said that he’s very much looking forward to finding the organizations all around Port-land that fit his interests, and getting himself involved.
Something Klein has no-ticed is a wide range of stu-dents at PSU. One student might be straight out of high school and the next is coming back to school after a number of years.
“I like that,” Klein said. “And I like the fact that
new faculty profile: stefan Talke
properties are not constant, and in the eastern Pacific—our part of the world—the tidal range and the properties of the tides have been increas-ing over the past century or so,” Talke said. “[I]t’s not re-ally known why, so there’s this mystery we’re trying to solve.”
Though there are many ways Talke and Jay are look-ing at this mystery, one thing they’re doing is looking for lost data.
“It turns out that there’s a lost generation of data from the 19th century that’s not on any website—it’s been forgotten,
more or less,” Talke said.But he went on to explain
that, though the information is not available online, it can be found in old archives.
Talke and a student re-searcher recently went to Astoria, Ore., where they found original tide data from 1853–76. These archives con-tained hundreds of what can basically be called scrolls.
Each scroll is about 60 to 70 feet long and has a pencil trace of the tide over a one month period. This was done for about 25 years.
Talke took photographs of these scrolls, and is now working to digitize them and find uses for the data they contain.
“The hope is that once we have that, we’ll be able to say something about the evolution of tidal properties in the Co-lumbia River and the Pacific Ocean,” Talke said.
stefan talke is a new professor at the maseeh College of engineering.
KAYlA nguYen/VAnguARD STAFF
Charles klein is the newest applied medical anthropologist at PSu.
people want it to be practical and want to know how it can be applied to their lives and to the community.”
Klein encourages all stu-dents to be open-minded in their classes, and to say some-thing. “If it’s not making sense to you—if it’s not relevant or pertinent to you—speak,” Klein said. “Because if I don’t
hear it, then I don’t know.”Outside of academics, Klein
is excited to be in Portland and have the opportunity to see what the city offers. He enjoys the outdoors and loves every-thing about snow.
Living in Northeast Port-land, Klein joins the hundreds of other PSU commuters and rides his bike to campus.
Brings experiences in Brazil to PSU
“Where did you buy your textbooks and how much did they cost?”
Senior economics major Kyle Trisler, 24, purchased his books through different sources, including Craigslist and the Portland State Bookstore. “I bought my Spanish text-book in the bookstore and spent $140 on that. I bought my calculus textbook on Craigslist for 40 bucks, which was $100 off. And I haven’t purchased my textbooks for my con-flict resolution class because they’re all on course reserve, so I spend my time in the library studying those,” he said.
Liberal arts major Jake Hardman, 23, purchased most of his books through the Portland State Bookstore, with the exception of one book he bought at Powell’s. “For the most part, I got them at the PSU bookstore, and I spent $110,” he said. “I got one book at Powell’s for about $5, so I spent $115 altogether.”
Junior international studies major Hayley Moore, 20, pur-chased her books through Amazon.com, Alibris.com and the Portland State Bookstore. “I went on Amazon, mostly, and Alibris.com, and I spent about $200,” Moore said. “I had to get a couple from the PSU bookstore that were $30 and $50, so probably a total of $350.”
Sophomore political science major Chris Dollar, 22, pur-chased two textbooks through the Portland State Book-store—one of which was much more expensive than the other. “I bought my textbooks at the PSU bookstore,” he said. “I spent about $225 on one book, and I bought an-other book for my French text for about $30.”
Every week, the Vanguard interviews members of the Portland State community in the Park blocks and asks them a timely question.
This week’s question:Fluid dynamics and beyond
KAYlA nguYen/VAnguARD STAFF
All PhOTOS AuSTin mAggS/VAnguARD STAFF
EditOr: lOuiE Opatz [email protected] 503-725-5694
EditOr: lOuiE Opatz [email protected] 503-725-5694ARTS & CUlTURE
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EditOr: lOuiE Opatz [email protected] 503-725-5694
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ARTS & CUlTURE6 vanGuaRd • TuEsday, OcTObER 25, 2011 • OPiniOn6 vanGuaRd • TuEsday, JanuaRy 10, 2012 • OPiniOn6 vanGuaRd • TuEsday, OcTObER 25, 2011 • OPiniOn6 vanGuaRd • ThuRsday, JanuaRy 26, 2012 • aRTs & culTuRE6 vanGuaRd • TuEsday, OcTObER 25, 2011 • OPiniOn6 vanGuaRd • TuEsday, JanuaRy 10, 2012 • OPiniOn6 vanGuaRd • TuEsday, OcTObER 25, 2011 • OPiniOn6 vanGuaRd • ThuRsday, FEbRuaRy 2, 2012 • aRTs & culTuRE6 vanGuaRd • TuEsday, OcTObER 25, 2011 • OPiniOn6 vanGuaRd • TuEsday, JanuaRy 10, 2012 • OPiniOn6 vanGuaRd • TuEsday, OcTObER 25, 2011 • OPiniOn6 vanGuaRd • ThuRsday, JanuaRy 26, 2012 • aRTs & culTuRE6 vanGuaRd • TuEsday, OcTObER 25, 2011 • OPiniOn6 vanGuaRd • TuEsday, JanuaRy 10, 2012 • OPiniOn6 vanGuaRd • TuEsday, OcTObER 25, 2011 • OPiniOn6 vanGuaRd • ThuRsday, OcT. 18, 2012 • aRTs & culTuRE
center for public humanities holds lunch and lectureRObIN CROWEllVanguard Staff
“The last 100 years have brought dramatic changes to Britain,” said Tracy J. Prince, scholar-in-residence for the Portland Center for Public Humanities. These changes are revealed in her upcoming lecture, which will touch on issues raised in her book Culture Wars in British Literature: Multiculturalism and National Identity.
Prince’s lecture is part of the center’s Fac-ulty Lunch and Lecture series, which PCPH Director Marie Lo said provides “opportuni-ties for faculty to share their work with the rest of the PSU community.
“This series, in particular, enables faculty to present recently published work or works in progress,” Lo said. “Having an audience and interlocutors can help faculty refine their projects and create cross-fertilizing possibili-ties. This is one of the great things about the series.”
In Culture Wars, Prince analyzes how British literature reflects evolving ideas of “Britishness” and what it means to be Brit-ish, and how literary anthologies do not re-flect these changes.
“Many decades of debates over multicultur-alism, political correctness and what it means to be British have contributed to changed ideas of Britishness,” Prince said. “Thus the teaching of 20th and 21st century British lit-erature tends to remain focused mostly on Anglo-English writers.”
Prince first became interested in this dis-course while studying at the University of Oxford in the early ’90s. During her studies and time teaching, she analyzed American literature through the lens of race, gender and class, and she wanted to look at British literature in a similar fashion. Through these studies, she found few writers of color or
writers from countries like Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland represented in British bookstores.
With these exclusions drawn, Prince re-flects on current times.
“These days, non-Anglo-English writers are much better represented in British book-stores than in the early ’90s,” Prince said, “yet British literature anthologies remain focused on a mostly Anglo-English perspective.”
Culture Wars takes textual evidence from a handful of works to argue these exclusions.
Instead of going deeply analytical, Prince finds that narrowly focusing on a few works without diving in too deeply is most effective.
“The literature ranges from Rudyard Kipling at the beginning of the 20th century to Zadie Smith [in the 21st],” Prince said. “In-stead of deep textual analyses of a few books, I use a huge number of quotes about what it means to be British from British novels and poetry, author interviews, news stories and literary criticism. My book is a cultural study of how the British literary canon is taking
shape in the last 100 years—who is included and who is excluded and why.”
Though seemingly focused on British litera-ture alone, the lecture will appeal to a variety of PSU departments, according to Prince. First, the English department will find interest in the fact that the lecture relies heavily on the British literary canon. Second, strong cultural studies overtones will appeal to both the history and sociology departments. Third, the Black Stud-ies department will find racial constructions interesting as detailed in the chapter “The Dif-ficulty Defining Black British.”
There is also a chapter entitled “British Jewish Writers,” which will appeal to PSU’s Judaic studies department, and the women’s studies department will be interested in top-ics of gender and information regarding the Booker Prize, Prince said.
In addition to detailed studies of British literature and British cultural issues, Prince has also worked extensively in countries such as Turkey, Australia, Canada and the United States studying social equity issues.
“I enjoy fully immersing myself into differ-ent cultures to observe and feel cultural dif-ferences,” Prince said. “During my two years in Turkey, I fell in love with the warmth of the people, the gorgeous architecture and design that are legacies of the Ottoman Empire.”
Prince has also worked more locally, specifi-cally with Oregon Humanities, a nonprofit or-ganization that works to connect Oregonians in an effort to promote the humanities through programs and publications throughout the state; Prince is able to spread her scholarship across Oregon through the organization.
“As one of the featured speakers with [Or-egon Humanities’] Conversation Project, I travel throughout the state teaching and having a conversation about Oregon’s Native American art and history,” Prince said.
British culture wars
the Portland Center for Public humanities presents faculty lunch and lecture series: A lecture by Tracy J. Prince Friday, Oct. 19, noon neuberger hall, room 407 Free and open to the public
healing feathers fights suicide in new way MElINDA GUIllÉN Vanguard Staff
Portland ranked number 12 in a 2011 article list-ing the top 15 suicidal cities in the United States, according to businessinsider.com. The Healing Feathers Suicide Prevention Awareness Project has made it its mission to lower these numbers.
“I know we have one student here that told us there were about two or three suicide completions in her old school, which doesn’t speak well for us as society as a whole,” said Dean Azule, coordina-tor of both Native American Student Support Ser-vices and the Healing Feathers project.
The program, however, has taken a different spin on the subject. Azule and members empha-size the gift of life and the joy that comes with be-ing alive.
“In our Indian culture, you have to have bal-ance; it can’t be all just mental,” Azule said. “Even with all the hurt in the world you have to have some humor—it can’t be all serious.”
For this reason, on Oct. 24 Healing Feathers will hold its annual Fun Walk, in which any student or member of the public can join in an informa-tive open house and then a short walk with a $5 lunch afterward. There are two possible routes, both of which begin at the Native American Stu-dent and Community Center. The first includes a
trip to the waterfront that circles back through the Park Blocks. The second includes a trip to Oregon Health and Science University, where walkers will receive a brief lecture from qualified specialists.
“Anybody that wants to get out for a breath of fresh air should come out; anybody that wants to, basically, just do this in memory of somebody, or anybody that just wants to get out there and get their adrenaline going,” Azule said. “Come out with what you have left in life, come out and share that—it’s open to anybody and everybody.”
Katie Gargan, a senior majoring in social sci-ence and minoring in Indigenous Nations Stud-ies, believes in the importance of the program and the Fun Walk.
“I think it’s really important for people to know that we’re around as a tool,” Gargan said. “The goal is to help keep students stay active both mentally and physically. The idea of doing the Fun Walk—it kind of takes up both aspects at the same time.”
Healing Feathers began through a grant awarded for suicide prevention seven years ago. It focuses on outreach among youth and utilizes paid students to help in those endeavors. The Fun Walk spawned from a similar walk Azule had witnessed and has been a tradition for six years. Participation in Healing Feathers, according to Azule, hits close to home not only for him but for the students involved, as well.
“I think in Healing Feathers, a majority of our students have been participating with it because
they have been touched by suicide either per-sonally or they were survivors or knew people,” Azule said. “Their families have been suicide sur-vivors: a sister, a cousin, a relative, a parent who has committed suicide. I think that’s one of the driving forces of why students have become in-volved, so in that respect there is a personal spot in there.”
Layla Woelfle, a sophomore double majoring in social science and art history and minoring in Na-tive American Studies, explained the role Healing Feathers has played among PSU students.
“I think that one of the things that’s really tough for kids is that they’re leaving home for the first time and this is a new experi-ence—you’re meeting new people, and you’ve got this whole big thing in front of you and if things don’t happen the way you envision them in your head, sometimes things can go badly,” Woelfle said. “I think Healing Feathers specifi-cally helps being able to handle those pressures. With all the societal and school pressures this really is a safe place.”
Throughout the event, Healing Fathers hopes to share cultural aspects with the public, includ-ing community and food.
“Part of our Indian culture is: Whenever you invite people to your house, historically they did not have a lot to offer, but one thing
that you did try to do you is you made sure that people were fed,” Azule said. “When we have our workshops we provide food. It’s just that balance. We’re going to be helping you at Heal-ing Feathers to get this mental, emotional and physical balance.”
Healing Feathers plans to hold many aware-ness events throughout the year, including Zum-ba classes in November, hosted dinners, guest speakers and a relational abuse prevention work-shop on Valentine’s Day.
“I hope people gain more awareness about the Healing Feathers and even find out that Healing Feathers exists,” Azule said. “I hope people take the time for inquiry—if they are there, if they’re aware of somebody in need of help—they can ask how they can contact us.”
the healing feathers suicide Prevention awareness Project presents fun Walk Wednesday, Oct. 24 10:30 a.m.–noon Begin at PSu native American Student and Community Center 710 SW Jackson St. Free for all $5 lunch, proceeds of which go to providing food to local families
Walk of life
sCholar-in- residenCeTracy J. Prince with her book Culture Wars in British literature.
mileS SAnguineTTi/VAnguARD STAFF
CORinnA SCOTT/VAnguARD STAFF
aRTs & culTuRE • ThuRsday, OcT. 18, 2012 • vanGuaRd 7
the projects festival blends comics and experimental art
TRISTAN COOPERVanguard Staff
A comics festival usually conjures up the same image from person to person: one imagines a wide-open floor with many tables full of shops selling geeky knickknacks and apparel, comic writers and
artists signing their work from a chair and more than a few comics enthusiasts squeezed into ill-fitting superhero garb.
The Projects, held this weekend at the Independent Publishing Resource Center, is a different kind of comics event. This free show is modeled more on the European style of comics festivals than on
homemade Green Lantern outfits.
Jason Leivian, who owns and operates Floating World Comics in Old Town, is organizing the event with Dunja Jankovic and Lisa Mangum, two comics program teachers at the IPRC. Leivian talked
about the event while manning the cash register at the front counter of his store, in between helping customers bringing up the newest issues of The Mighty Thor and Punk Rock Jesus.
“In Europe, it’s not about selling stuff,” Leivian said. “No one is sitting behind tables, you know, just selling comics. The focus is more about meeting other artists, making art together, collaborating. It ends
up like a huge party—an art party, basically.”
The Projects initially began with the support of a successful Kickstarter campaign, which raised over $8,500 from online donors who wanted to see a new kind of comics show in Portland. Since then, the
fest has garnered local sponsors like Sizzle Pie, Ninkasi Brewing Company and Blossoming Lotus. In addition, the IPRC itself has donated its venue for the full three days of the event.
Instead of a show floor lined with tables of artists selling their wares, The Projects aims to create an open space for creators and attendees to interact directly. A large part of the Kickstarter funds went to plane
tickets for European artists like Igor Hofbauer, who plans to make a large outline of a mural on the back wall of the IPRC and encourage participants to paint by numbers.
This sort of spontaneous, freewheeling environment is what The Projects seeks to replicate from the Eu-ropean comics festivals. Jankovic in particular has experience in this arena, having organized the Skver
Festival in Croatia. Mangum also spent time in Serbia engaged in graduate research on contemporary comics and underground art.
“[European festivals] are so drastically different from our comics festivals,” Mangum said. “It resembles more of a music festival in America, where people get together, they perform, they hang out—it’s sort of a
party atmosphere. That’s how comics festivals are in Europe.”
Each day of The Projects is split between interactive activities and workshops during the day and panels, screenings and live events in the evening. On Friday night, Floating World Comics is hosting a book sign-
ing with Jonny Negron and Sammy Harkham, two cartoonists who have books coming out in October on PictureBox. The Hollywood Theatre is hosting a special screening by art collective Pink Flojd on Saturday
night, to be followed by performances from local bands Nice Nice and Regular Music.
The closing party, curated by local TV show Experimental Half-Hour, will take place at Holocene on Sunday, with guests Atole, Goodnight Billygoat, Apartment Fox and Wild Thing. Though the rest of The Projects is
free to the public, the shows at the Hollywood Theatre and Holocene will both have a $7 cover charge, and the Holocene event will be open only to those 21 and older.
The broad range of events casts a wide net; the organizers hope this will dissolve the divide between comics and other forms of art.
“We’re trying to open up the comics scene to other artistic scenes (and introduce international artists to local artists), and invite artists from other art fields to take a closer look at everything comics as a medium can of-
fer,” Jankovic said in an email.
Some local experimental artists have been more open to the idea than others. Sean Christensen is one of the founders of Gridlords, a monthly comics performance and reading series that started this year in Portland. He
encourages his rotating panelists to come up with unique or unusual ideas for their Gridlords sets, but he has run into some trouble when trying to get non-comics artists to participate.
“Some of the persons who I have contacted to do performances, who are strictly conceptual or performance artists and don’t have anything to do with comics, are immediately pretty not receptive to do a presentation alongside com-
ics,” Christensen said. “Comics are frustratingly, kind of controversially, not necessarily considered art, still.”
The Projects-specific Gridlords panel takes place on Saturday evening, and despite Christensen’s problems in the past, the lineup is suitably diverse. Plans include creator readings, short films and even a dance interpretation of a comic.
“I want the comics artists to do something more multidimensional, sort of, and then I would like more concep-tual performance artists to do something that’s specifically linear, that you could relate to that in some way,”
Christensen said. “Getting them to like hang out together and do the same event, it’s a little difficult. But it seems like it’s coming together, so that’s good.”
Portland is known for one of the biggest comics communities in the country. Publishers Oni Press, Top Shelf Pro-ductions and Dark Horse Comics all reside in the Portland area. Several superhero comics creators have also found a home in this part of the Northwest, including Marvel alumni Jeff Parker, Matt Fraction and Brian Michael Bendis, who teaches a comics writing class at Portland State. The relatively low cost of living and a less dense population has contributed to Portland’s appeal to artists, comics and otherwise.
“To get a foothold in the art world in [Paris or New York] is a herculean task,” Mangum said. “You come to a place like Portland and there’s space, it’s affordable, and there’s room to do something.”
Though the vast array of events might seem strange or intimidating to someone not familiar with the com-ics or experimental art worlds, the organizers of The Projects are emphasizing an open atmosphere.
“We want total strangers to come out to this,” Mangum said. “It would be awesome if PSU students came. We absolutely don’t want this to be an insular activity, it’s not for any clique or group of people. We want kids, we want anybody to come out here and play and meet people and discover stuff.”
The IPRC is located on the corner of Southeast Division Street and 10th Avenue. The festival begins Friday with an opening reception at 8 p.m. and ends Sunday evening. For more information, visit theprojectspdx.tumblr.com.
Euro-style art party
COuRTeSY OF igOR hOFBAueR
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a creamy, healthy seasonal snackKAT AUDICKVanguard Staff
Unusually light in weight with a body like a bulbous, purple alien baby, the eggplant is a de-liciously misunderstood vegetable. Some are perplexed by its preparation; the eggplant’s spongy qualities and interesting texture make it prime for culinary confusion. But with this sim-ple recipe, you can deconstruct the eggplant and transform it into a savory, Greek-inspired dish.
When preparing the eggplant, don’t be afraid of charring the purple skin. If cooked properly, your eggplant should emerge from broiling mostly blackened. Be sure to wear proper oven mitts, or molten eggplant flesh could scorch you while you’re scooping it out. While you’re scooping, try to simultaneously mix the egg-plant with lemon juice: The acidity will keep it from discoloring.
More mature eggplants can get a tad bitter, so don’t hesitate to balance that out by sweetening with a dash of sugar. The texture of the dip is all up to you. Leave it thick and chunky or toss the final product in a blender or food processor for a smooth, silky finish. This recipe also works well as a topping for baked chicken breasts. It
Ingredients1 medium sized eggplant (approx. 1 lb) 2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice1/4 cup and 2 tbsp olive oil, divided1/2 cup feta cheese crumbles1/2 red bell pepper, diced1/2 red onion, diced1 jalapeno, seeded and minced2 cloves garlic2 tbsp fresh basil, julienned1 tbsp fresh flat leafed parsley, chopped1/4 tsp salt1/4 tsp paprikaAdditional salt and pepper to tastedash of sugar (optional)parsley leaves (garnish)
ChiPs and diP: Be the health nut at your next tailgate with this eggplant dip.
KARl KuChS/VAnguARD STAFF
Grab a chip for eggplant dip
also tastes great spread inside a pita with some mixed greens for a quick Greek wrap.
DirectionsPosition oven rack 6–8 inches from broiler
and preheat. Rinse eggplant and pierce with
fork several places all over the skin to vent steam. Cover a rimmed baking pan with tinfoil and place eggplant in center under broiler.
Using metal kitchen tongs, turn the eggplant approximately every 5 minutes as the skin becomes charred; entire eggplant should be
blackened in 15–20 minutes. Remove eggplant and let cool until ready to handle.
In a frying pan, sauté bell pepper, onion, jala-peno and garlic with 2 tablespoons olive oil for 3–5 minutes, until tender. Put lemon juice into a medium nonmetallic bowl. Cut eggplant in half and carefully scoop innards into bowl and toss with lemon juice. Add 1/4 cup olive oil and stir until well incorporated.
Mix in feta, bell pepper, onion, garlic, jala-peno, basil, parsley, salt and paprika. Add salt, pepper or sugar to personal taste and garnish with parsley.
TAMARA AlAzRIVanguard Staff
Last weekend, in a smoke-filled warehouse just off Interstate Avenue, Portland-based shoe company Solestruck teamed up with Ladygunn Magazine to ring in the one-year anniversary of its flagship store in Portland.
This one-night, fashion-filled bash felt like a modern interpretation of Studio 54 and was the perfect ending to a three-day celebration dubbed Deja Vu. Consisting of a blowout shoe sale, an art exhibit, a fashion show and live mu-sic, Deja Vu was topped off with champagne and must-see designer clothing.
A glamorous crowd clothed in swanky attire gathered to celebrate the event. Plushy drag queens wore heavy makeup and metallic fin-gernails and dressed in elaborate costumes of leopard-printed ball gowns—a perfect mixture of naughty and nice.
Music played throughout the evening as designers prepped in a frenzy backstage. The event showcased a stream of designers includ-ing Brady Lange, Hello Eliza, Degan and New Zealand’s Stolen Girlfriends Club. Music in-cluded DJ Tah Rei, White Rainbow and Yacht.
Taking center stage on the first floor, models stood stoic as tombstones on white platform boxes lined up, one after another, under the beam of gel lights. Hello Eliza’s fun and retro vintage line was one of the first showcased: models were scantily dressed, baring their legs in spandex boy shorts, graphic tees, beanies and sunglasses.
It was all casually sublime. Bold colors seemed to be the hot trend: fitted gold minis, neon green and fluorescent pink platforms were last night’s “it” items.
Contemporary women’s label Esque by Leslie Pennel followed Hello Eliza, with each model deliberately swaying through the crowd to take her spot on stage. Esque incorporated overtly glamorous garments, including a mo-cha leather peplum bodice and cool driving gloves. Showcasing lots of bold prints, vertical and horizontal stripes and chic pencil skirts, it was a mix of modernism and prettiness.
Models wore side-parted braids with floral decorations of green leaves and red roses.
Brooklyn designer Lindsay Degen stood backstage and discussed her latest clothing line and how she has managed to stay in the game for three consecutive years. At just 24 years old, Degen has shown at New York Fashion Week and currently collaborates with stores like Sole-struck, International Playground and Vfiles. She designs mainly women’s wear, and her lat-est collection is craft-inspired knit wear.
“It’s fitted knitted,” Degen said. “I had this woman approach me once at a show saying my designs looked totally crafty. I was completely offended but felt motivated to go totally mental with that and create an overtly crafty knit col-lection. It’s a giant explosion of craftiness.”
With that motivation she has managed to take artful, homemade garments and turn them into cool, urban street wear. Degen is inspired by to-day’s New York hip-hop movement: You can ex-pect to see a multicolored range of psychedelic Converse platforms in her current collection.
In her previous collections, Degen’s designed glitter Popsicle sticks mixed with macaroni necklaces, and is inspired by the do-it-yourself movement that has boomed in the fashion in-dustry over the last couple of years.
On the second floor, an exclusive gallery dis-played unique jewelry by Chris Habana, Nettie Kent and Bjorg. Their work was arranged in tiny glass boxes that hung from ropes attached to the ceiling, taking originality to a whole new level. With a minimal gothic appeal, New
York designer Habana’s collection featured silver and gold metal necklaces with geometric shapes, clean lines and simple chains.
Norwegian-based designer Bjorg managed to make the simple appear elegant. White man-nequin hands displayed a set of spine cuffs, gold opal and seductive finger rings and a dagger neck-lace that looked to be inspired by old Hollywood. Bjorg’s designs are timeless and have graced the pages of Vogue Italia, Vogue Paris and Marie Claire.
Having been on the scene for more than a decade, Solestruck shows no signs of slowing down. Collaborating with designers including Black Milk, Jeffrey Campbell, Dr. Martens, Sam Edelman and Senso keeps Solestruck relevant while also attracting a loyal following around the world.
A night of platforms, pumps and posesportland’s own Solestruck celebrates its first anniversary
stoiC in stilettos: eight incredibly tall women refuse to smile despite the world being a pretty great place, all things considered.
KARl KuChS/VAnguARD STAFF
OPiniOn • ThuRsday, OcT. 18, 2012 • vanGuaRd 11
OPINION EditOr: mErEdith mEiEr [email protected] 503-725-5692
That’s What’s the matter
Kevin Rackham
everywhere and here
Eva-Jeanette Rawlins
Making room for
classPSU classrooms in need
of major updates
Recently the Vanguard ran a piece on the new classroom in the
School of Business Adminis-tration, and it made me jeal-ous because, for the most part, Portland State’s classrooms are terrible. The business school has its own operating funds, but I wish the rest of the university would follow suit and bring its classrooms into the 21st century.
The desks are a big a part of the problem.
I feel like desks have gotten smaller and smaller every year since elementary school. I remember, as a kid, being able to spread out papers and books all over my desk. In mid-dle school they got a little smaller, and I started having to pile things on top of each other. In high school, I was down to generally having to have one item on my desk at a time.
Now I’m lucky if I can fit anything on my desk.
My laptop is carefully bal-anced to prevent it from tip-ping off the side; I rarely can have a textbook fully open, and getting stuck with
the weird left-handed desk means taking notes is an uphill battle. Obviously this is a prime example of a first-world problem, but I hate how disorganized these tiny desks make me feel.
Having space for my stuff helps me stay focused be-cause I’m not worrying about switching between having my laptop on the desk and having the textbook in front of me.
The seats, however, are as bad as or worse than the desks.
I’ve said it before: I fully expect these seats to be the cause of my future chronic
back pain. I can’t compre-hend why students have to sit 2–3 hours in hard wooden seats, besides the fact that they’re cheap. They’re un-comfortable and loud and not particularly conducive to learning.
More classroom mainte-nance would be great, too.
i just tweeted…
to say i love youCelebrities stoop to new
social media lows
We all know that Twitter is a mar-keter’s dream.
Who would have known a few years back that in 2012 a celeb-rity’s public relations strategy would entail typing a sentence about where they just picked their nose, and as a result gain a couple hundred new fans.
They now gauge their pop-ularity almost entirely by the twittering of their tweeting followers, and they’d be twits not to.
The money is literally at their fingertips.
Recently, though, it’s been getting ridiculous, even by Twitter standards. Forget sim-ply using the social medium to get your name out there—that’s old news. Now it’s all about tarnishing someone else’s name or, even better, do-ing damage control and trying to clean up your own.
Celebrities are now tak-ing to Twitter in droves to apologize for cheating on their significant others, the most recent example being Jason Aldean—and who could for-get the Stewart/Pattinson phenomenon? Has it really come to this? That the act of asking for forgiveness is now achieved by typing “:(”?
First of all, it’s insulting that they even think I care, but
that argument holds little cre-dence, because the fact is that millions do care.
The lives of countless “Team Edward” fans hung in the balance upon Stewart’s ad-mission of her “momentary indiscretion,” and within min-utes—literally—the Twitter-sphere roared with homicidal reactions.
It seems as though we have heralded a whole new era of cyber-confessing, and there’s little doubt that we will live in a future of tweeted declara-tions of iniquity.
Aldean obviously thought it effective. After being pho-tographed in a compromis-ing position with former American Idol contestant Brittany Kerr—let’s just say
Last spring, my first class of the morning was held in a moldy classroom in the basement of Neuberger Hall. I spent most of that term sneezing.
There are also a lot of class-rooms in Cramer Hall with water damage. I don’t think all of our classrooms need to be modeled after the busi-ness school’s learning studio or anything, but it’d be nice if they looked like they’ve been updated since 1970.
By comparison, all of the classrooms I’m in this term are really nice: cushioned seats, tables instead of desks, or at least desks that are wide enough to fit things on them. They’re laid out in half circles, which makes discus-sion-based classes go a lot more smoothly.
Uniform resources in the classroom is a must-have: All classrooms should have a whiteboard, a computer, a projector and a doc cam. The university has done a fairly good job with that; as a mat-ter of fact, tech problems are usually the fault of the user rather than the technology (for the most part).
And where, you might ask, should the university get all this money to remodel class-rooms? Well, like I’ve said before, I’d much rather have new classrooms and desks than new athletic centers and student unions.
PSU spends a ton of money on new buildings, on sustain-able this and sustainable that, but our classrooms are so outdated. It makes a lot more
sense to me to improve the things that get the most use by s t u d e n t s , and those are definitely the classrooms.
I’m not saying PSU’s c l a s s r o o m s
have made me incapable of learning, or that it’s a ma-jor crisis. But we could have much nicer classrooms, and I do think it would make a posi-tive impact on education.
We should always improve where we can, and our class-rooms should be at the top of the list.
he wasn’t gazing into her eyes—the married coun-try music star knew exactly what he needed to do to make things right: Tweet.
“The truth is that I screwed up,” were his meaningful words. “I had too much to drink, let the party get out of hand and acted inappropriately.”
Too bad he didn’t think there was anything inappropri-ate about his apology. Perfect country song lyrics, though.
It’s really disturbing that somebody’s first instinct after having been caught cheating is to let fans know how their marriage is going by writing a well-crafted sentence in a 140 characters or less.
Spending less time on the Internet and more with the person you claim to have dev-astated might be the smarter move. But it seems it’s more important to control the dam-age to your reputation.
Unless you’re Nicki Minaj, that is. As they say, “any press is good press,” and boy, is American Idol lucky they’ve got someone so willing to oblige.
Twitter is very handy for mudslinging—now, along with apologies, we can enjoy well-articulated celebrity fights.
Minaj’s most recent tirade against cohost Mariah Carey explained: “I don’t call tmz n Barbara Walters cuz I stand on my own two feet…God is good…I guess it hurts 2 have the producers tell u to ur face that nicki is the best judge…Awww, poor u.”
Nothing like wielding the Lord’s name mid-insult to drive your point home.
When celebrities have noth-ing better to do than provide us with typed play-by-plays on their relationships or engage in real or not-so-real cyber-fights, it makes me wonder where social media is head-ed and if relating with each other—humanly, that is—will become a thing of the past.
If marketing yourself has reached such depths that it now means humiliating your significant other with a pa-thetic string of apologies or embarrassing yourself with grammatically inferior char-acter assassination, then it’s official: The value of hu-man beings is fast being replaced by bluebird signs, not heartbeats.
PSU spends a ton of money on new buildings, on sustainable this and sustainable that, but our classrooms are so outdated. It makes a lot more sense to me to improve the things that get the most use by students, and those are definitely the classrooms.
CORinnA SCOTT/VAnguARD STAFF mileS SAnguineTTi/VAnguARD STAFF
forget simply using the social medium to get your name out there—that’s old news. Now it’s all about tarnishing someone else’s name or, even better, doing damage control and trying to clean up your own.
12 vanGuaRd • ThuRsday, OcT. 18, 2012 • OPiniOn
The emphatic Observer
Rabia newton
Sans the Salt
alyck horton
Pay up, Oregon
Battling climate change in our own backyards
Two local teens have filed suit against the state for failing to ad-
equately battle climate change. Olivia Chernaik (12 years
old) and Kelsey Juliana (16 years old) claim that Oregon hasn’t taken the steps neces-sary to stave off impending en-vironmental doom. They fear living in what they imagine the world will become: a veri-table wasteland.
Way to go, girls.Your actions, though po-
tentially misguided, are still inspiring and serve as a much-needed reminder of the shared responsibility we all hold as citizens to effect change. To shake things up. To battle the collective cul-tural apathy that seems to have taken hold of many, es-pecially when it comes to is-sues like climate change.
While suing the state may ultimately prove ineffectu-al—and cost Oregon a small fortune in legal defenses—these girls’ behavior demon-strates a level of awareness and agency most of us adults noticeably lack.
These days the prevailing attitude about climate change seems to be one of defeat, as if environmental catastrophe is inevitable at this point.
We’re simply waiting it out, living on borrowed time.
Climate change seems un-manageable, and for good rea-son. Not only does the human brain literally lack the capac-ity to fathom the devastating
ramifications of such an ab-stract concept, but also the task of conquering a global, envi-ronmental phenomenon this complex is enough to make any sane person feel powerless.
But we’re not powerless, as misses Chernaik and Juliana have so kindly reminded us.
Every single one of us has the ability to actualize change on a local scale. Just look at some of the amazing advances we’ve seen on our own campus.
Take Back the Tap, a stu-dent-run campaign, was responsible for installing 11 “hydration stations” around campus, each of which is es-timated to save 38,000 plas-tic bottles per year. Not too shabby, I say.
scoring highEstablishing credit is important but risky
College is an institution established with the intention of prepar-
ing bright young folks for the future. Here we not only earn our degrees but establish our-selves as productive members of society. A part of doing this lies in establishing and build-ing a good credit score.
A credit score is looked at for virtually any financial transaction in which money is being borrowed or a contract is being signed.
When you finally graduate and go to purchase your dream car, the dude from the car lot is going to run a credit check be-fore giving you a loan for that beautiful 1988 Ford Aerostar. The report he gets back will determine the down payment, interest and the amount of money he’s willing to lend you.
The fastest way to build up one aspect of a credit history is to open a credit card. This card, if you feel ready for one, should be used as a financial tool and never to just “treat yo’ self.”
I’ve used mine to spread the pain of paying a large speed-ing ticket over a few months, as well as for purchasing textbooks before being re-imbursed by student loans. These aren’t the expenditures that your parents worry about, though—it’s when your Star-bucks and $80-sweater habits get put onto the card that you need to consider cutting it.
A credit card should be thought of as a loan that has to be paid back the next month, not in several years. If you have to pay for groceries on credit, the solution isn’t to increase your limit, but to re-evaluate your finances.
If you don’t think you’ll have a steady income and know that there’s a chance you may not be able to pay even the minimum payment, don’t even consider applying for a credit card.
The Obama administra-tion recently started requir-ing credit card companies to verify student incomes before issuing credit cards, but it’s
really up to you to decide what you can afford.
It’s incredibly easy to fall into debt, and the repercus-sions of damaging your credit score can outweigh the ben-efits of your initial attempt to build a good score. There are things you should consider be-fore applying for a credit card, chiefly: Can you afford it?
The minimum payment on a typical card is around $30–50 per monthly depending on the company and your credit. This is a very digestible sum of money, but it increases as your balance increases, and if you have multiple cards it’s easy for debt to become one of your largest income-guzzlers.
While they may not directly impact your credit score, there are other factors that lenders take into consideration, espe-cially if you lack retail credit. For example, a lender may check to see if you pay your bills on time. It’s also ben-eficial to have held a job for an extended period of time; in fact, it can be almost as useful as a good score.
There are 50 million Ameri-can adults who don’t have credit history. Having credit is not a necessity—it will just make purchasing things like a house or car easier.
So before you jump on the first credit card application that graces your mailbox, know what you’re getting into, and know how to say no to that awesome $400 sweater you don’t really need.
Online commentsThe story doesn’t stop when the print hits the page. Don’t like something you read in the Vanguard? Want us to cover a story? Do you feel there’s more to be said? You have the opportunity to praise us or rip us apart here at the Vanguard. Post a comment online or write us a letter. Tell us what you think. here are some online highlights from psuvanguard.com.
“Obama’s student debt reform”
michelle mundtOct. 15i agree that student debt is the nation’s problem. let’s unite. i applaud how you say we need pro-active solutions. i applaud you showing the pro-active efforts on the government side to groom, hook, and keep student as debt servants on the leash paying forever. mmm20121015.
“Don’t take no for an answer”
elaineOct. 15i have to politely disagree entirely with the second half of your article, starting with “lara set the record straight.” i am quite sure that what i’m reading there is *either* her response *during the Q and A* to *mY* question, or are quotes that she gave you directly during a brief interview. i took notes during the talk and wrote in my blog in great detail about what i heard at the talk (published last night, before this article came out). i adore lara but this is not at all an accurate description of the talk she gave at PSu. most of the talk was an entertaining series of fascinating anecdotes about her life as a journalist, and most of it did not concern the talk she gave in Chicago or her thoughts on Afghanistan. *Those* thoughts were *only* addressed during the question and answer portion of the evening. You can read my (long-winded!) description of the evening here: laney-lanesworld.blogspot.com.
“Women in politics”
andrewOct. 15understanding that gender equality is not yet established in positions of power, i am always curious why the idea that more women occupying low-level jobs than men is seen as a negative. Success shouldn’t be measured just in terms of money and power. Sometimes it’s about simply earning a living-wage and sur-viving. in this sense, women seem to have a significant edge over men if such a statement is true. i’m sure there are plenty of unemployed men who would love to be able to have jobs which are predominately held by women. if, however, they’re being occupied by women it’s probably because we’ve reached a point where women are more qualified, or, in other words, they have the education and experience to back up their skills and talents. At some point the scales tip and i’ve read things recently which suggest that boys/men are, in fact, falling behind in education because of the emphasis placed on pushing women forward. True equality must start from the foundation not the top.
There’s PSU Recycles, our university-wide recycling program, which managed to divert 966 tons of reusable waste from landfills during the year 2011 alone.
Plus, beginning in 2004, all new constructions and ma-jor renovations on campus have been required to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design stan-dards, giving us a total of eight LEED-certified buildings.
PSU also manages to garner an impressive 28 percent of its energy from natural gas—a number that outweighs the campus’s use of coal by 3 percent.
Portland isn’t exactly los-ing the climate change battle, either. Since 1990, Portland-ers have successfully cut their per-person emissions by 26 percent. (Interestingly, during this same time period, the national average for car-bon missions actually went up by 12 percent.)
And in recent years, Mayor Sam Adams pioneered the Climate Action Plan, whose ambitious objective is to de-crease Portland’s overall car-bon emissions by 80 percent before the year 2050.
Our city offers amazing options in public transpor-tation, as well as a thriving (and somewhat infamous) bike culture. The local food scene is flourishing—a fact well established by the TV show Portlandia.
And the renewable energy sector is going strong, as evidenced by the popular-ity of programs like Clean Energy Works, an area business that will assess individual homes and help pinpoint opportunities for energy conservation.
Is any of this enough to satisfactorily combat climate change? Not even close. But by looking to what’s already been done, we help overcome that sense of powerlessness. And, we remember that we can always—and should al-ways—do more.
And when we’re feeling defeated by the seemingly inevitable specter of envi-ronmental calamity, let’s not forget Olivia and Kelsey. Be-cause they’re the ones who’ll have to live in the wasteland of our inaction.
Climate change seems unmanageable, and for good reason. Not only does the human brain literally lack the capacity to fathom the devastating ramifications of such an abstract concept, but also the task of conquering a global, environmental phenomenon this complex is enough to make any sane person feel powerless.
KAYlA nguYen/VAnguARD STAFF
ETc. • ThuRsday, OcT. 18, 2012 • vanGuaRd 13
ETC.EditOr-in-chiEf: Erick BEngEl [email protected]
503-725-5691
ETc. • ThuRsday, OcT. 18, 2012 • vanGuaRd 13
ETC.EditOr-in-chiEf: Erick BEngEl [email protected]
503-725-5691
uPcOMinG EvEnTs
ThURSDAy, OCT. 18
Psu blood drive
11 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom, room 351 1825 SW Broadway
Portland State teams up with the American Red Cross to conduct a blood drive and help save lives. Volunteers will receive a free Qdoba burrito in thanks for their dona-tion. Please make an appointment to donate by contacting Gwyn Ashcom at [email protected].
show and Tell Lecture series: amanda buck
Noon–1 p.m. Art Building, room 320 2000 SW Fifth Ave.
Amanda Buck, a designer for the Barack Obama reelection campaign, will take part in a live video chat at Portland State. FREE
Polaris dance company Presents: Tangled
7:30 p.m. Lincoln Hall 1620 SW Park Ave.
Polaris Dance Company presents Tangled, a performance that ven-tures to depict the many ways that love can be expressed and the many complex forms that love can take. For tickets and more information visit app.ticketturtle.com/index.php?show=%2830254%29.
fRIDAy, OCT. 19
Transportation seminar: urban arterials
Noon–1 p.m. Urban Center, room 204 506 SW Mill St.
Join fellow students and commu-nity members for a presentation that discusses results related to the evaluation of a new Adaptive Traffic Control System on Powell Boulevard in Southeast Portland, and the chal-lenges and opportunities associated with the evaluation of new technolo-gies and the development of compre-hensive urban arterial performance measures. FREE
Pacific island club Meeting
3 p.m. Native American Student and Community Center 710 SW Jackson St.
Every Friday, the Pacific Islander Club meets to establish connections and a sense of community, and to have some fun! Join them at the Na-tive Center.
SATURDAy, OCT. 20
daddies log Jam
11 a.m.–5 p.m. Daddies Board Shop 7126 NE Sandy Blvd.
If you are looking for snow in October, you will find it at the Daddies Log Jam! Along with this
you will also find a log jib, some tasty barbecue, live bluegrass music, beer and a pumpkin carving contest. Daddies Log Jam is free for all ages and everyone is welcome. FREE
Zombie and Monster Pub crawl
2–11:30 p.m. Start at Paddy’s Pub 65 SW Yamhill St.
Join other costumed folks for the second annual Zombie and Monster Pub Crawl! The theme for this year is “Apocalyptic Rampage,” and there will be no cover charge at any of the bars on the map so long as attendees are in costume and over the age of 21.
SUNDAy, OCT. 21
Portland crest wind symphony
3 p.m. Lincoln Hall 1620 SW Park Ave.
Music lovers will want to see the Portland Crest Wind Symphony performance at Lincoln Hall on Oct. 21. Pricing for the event is listed as: Adult $15, Senior (age 62+) $10, Student (with valid student ID) $10, Child (age 10 and under) free when accompanied by adult. Tickets are available at the door or online. Visit pcws.org/Home.html for more information.
MONDAy, OCT. 22
careers for Psychology Majors with bachelor’s degrees
4 p.m. Smith Memorial Student Union, room 294 1825 SW Broadway
The PSU Psychology Club hosts guest speakers from the Career Cen-ter to talk about the options available for those seeing a career in psycholo-gy with a four-year degree. Whether you plan on graduate school or not, this is a good way to gather the infor-mation you may need to get a job in the future and to ask any questions you may have. Healthy snacks and beverages will be provided. FREE
TUESDAy, OCT. 23
Film screening: words of witness
7 p.m. Portland Art Museum, Whitsell Auditorium 1219 SW Park Ave.
“Defying cultural norms and family expectations, 22-year-old Heba Afify takes to the streets to report on an Egypt in turmoil using tweets, texts and Facebook posts. Every time Heba heads out to cover the his-torical events shaping her country’s future, her mother is compelled to remind her, ‘I know you are a journalist, but you’re still a girl!’” – Northwest Film Center website. For more information and to purchase tickets visit nwfc.spotlightboxoffice.com/purchase/step4?ticketID=3039.
WEDNESDAy, OCT. 24
healing Feathers Fun walk and lunch
10:30 a.m.–noon Native American Student and Community Center 710 SW Jackson St.
Join Healing Feathers for a walk around campus to promote good health. After the walk concludes, lunch will be served at the Native Center for $5 a plate, proceeds of which will be donated to putting together food baskets for native fami-lies during the holiday season.
Fright Town
7–11 p.m. (or 10 p.m. on weeknights) Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum 1401 N Wheeler Ave.
A $20 entrance fee grants you access to three of Portland’s largest and scariest haunted houses, all housed inside of the Veteran’s Memorial Coliseum. For coupons and more information visit frighttown.com.
idealist Grad Fair
5–8 p.m. Peter Stott Center 930 SW Hall St.
Idealist.org and the PSU Master of International Management program will host a graduate school fair to connect prospective students with 125 graduate schools to further their social impact careers. Interested attendees are encouraged to register online at bit.ly/IdealistPortland2012.
ThURSDAy, OCT. 25
The Mystery box show
7:30 p.m. Brody Theater 16 NW Broadway
Come to the Brody Theater for a live storytelling event that features very adult themes to help the Mystery Box Show break down social stereo-types and stigmas. Attendees must be 21 or over and tickets range from $10–12.
40 years of domestic violence reform: an assessment
1–3 p.m. Women’s Resource Center Lounge Southwest 10th Avenue and Montgomery Street
The Portland State Women’s Re-source Center offers a look at the history of domestic violence activ-ism and discusses how successful various people, groups and agencies have been at promoting the decline of domestic abuse.
PSU blood drive
Bloody good Cause: Our university is proud to collaborate with the American Red Cross. help save lives by making an appointment with gwyn Ashcom at [email protected].
FREE = the event is free of charge
14 vanGuaRd • TuEsday, JanuaRy 10, 2012 • ETc.14 vanGuaRd • ThuRsday, OcT. 18, 2012 • sPORTs
SPORTS the tone for the match. The Beavers scored again on a pen-alty kick midway through the second half and held on for a 3-0 victory.
The Vikings, keenly aware of OSU’s size advantage and aggressive game plan, sought to control possession and make precise passes to relieve defensive pressure. “We knew what we were go-ing to see out here today,” head coach Jamey Berg said.
“We’ve played them in years past and they pretty much have the same approach.” The early deficit only made it more difficult for PSU to relax and settle into their game plan.
During halftime, Berg stressed adherence to the game plan and more thor-ough communication among his players. PSU’s improve-ment in the second half was apparent, but OSU warded off a series of shots on goal early in the half with strong goaltending. What momen-tum PSU had gained was more or less thwarted when OSU delivered on a penalty kick and increased the lead to three.
Berg commented that the team’s mental performance was its downfall on Saturday. “A lot of the guys, after the game, said, ‘I wasn’t really in the game. I wasn’t there mentally,’” he said. They had a clear plan and had success when they executed, but they were not consistent enough to erase the deficit.
The club will have ample time to regroup before their next home match, when they will face the University of Oregon on Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. After that they will host the University of Port-land and Portland Community College.
For more information, fans can go to psumenssoccer.wix.com/psu-soccer.
EditOr: marcO ESpaña [email protected] 503-725-4538
GINO CERRUTIVanguard Staff
“Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints?”—the rallying cry of New Orleans and Lou-isiana.
Its resonant echo in the Superdome has been a mainstay, and has become slightly deafening these past few years. It doesn’t seem to carry the same tone of con-fidence, however, that it did during the postseason years, and four out of the five teams the New Orleans Saints have faced so far this year have answered the question with a resounding, “OUR TEAM.”
Coming from three con-secutive playoff appearances and a Super Bowl win in 2009, the Saints seemed des-tined to continue with their string of dominant seasons. Then, in this year’s offsea-son, the NFL imposed some of its most severe penalties upon the Saints staff for their supposed involvement in an illegal bounty program that paid out bonuses for quality performances and inflicting injuries on other players.
These penalties included sanctions on head coach Sean Payton, general manager Mickey Loomis and defen-sive coordinator Gregg Wil-liams—all calling for their immediate suspension, with
Payton and Williams being suspended for the entire 2012 season.
It was a harrowing ex-perience for the “Who Dat Nation,” and one that con-tinues to bring shame to their beloved organization from players, coaches and other fans. As such, I hate to mention it because doing so just beats a dead horse, but it proves essential evidence in the Saints’ dreadful season so far. They are without the defensive coordinator and head coach who led them to a Super Bowl, and have not only lost the distinction of being one of the most im-posing offensive powers in the NFL but have gained the reputation of having a pen-etrable defense.
If there is one bright side to the whole “Bountygate” fiasco, it’s the continued success of veteran quar-terback Drew Brees. Even with a one-win-four-loss record, Brees has pushed New Orleans to the num-ber-one spot in passing yards average and, aside from the Carolina game, Brees has thrown a mini-mum of three touchdowns per game this season. If you need another reason Brees is the heart of New Orleans,
then you only have to look at the game two Sundays back to witness him breaking an NFL record of 48 consecu-tive games with a touchdown pass. It’s my humble opinion that true superstar athletes shine brighter when their team is in shambles, and they find innovative ways to pull everyone up to their level.Brees does just that.
Unfortunately, you can’t push a struggling team into the postseason with just one person, and I believe the Saints know it. However, I do not expect the Saints to have a 2011-Colts kind of season. They are a resilient team—each Saints loss this season has never reached below an eight-point deficit, which only proves that the Saints (and Brees’ ridiculously accurate arm) will not go down with-out a fight.
It is up to running backs Mark Ingram and Darren Sproles to make up the lack of rushing yards; it is up to the Saints defense to strengthen their hold on the opposing team’s offensive line (espe-cially their rush game); it is up to the Saints fan base to not lose resolve and support this team. Hope is truly the only thing that can save this team from crumbling.
no longer a brees
bRyAN zINSChlAGVanguard Staff
The cool rain could not stop the Beavers from getting off to a hot start in the men’s soc-cer game on Saturday. Port-land State’s early mistakes
Men’s soccer club falls
to Oregon State
Too little, too late
a men’s CluB soCCer Player from Portland State battles for possession against Oregon State. PSu fell behind early and lost the game 3–0. The Vikings play the university of Oregon on nov. 2.
were taken advantage of at Stott Field, as Oregon State University converted on their first two scoring chances, jumping ahead 2-0 and setting
mileS SAnguineTTi/VAnguARD STAFF
During halftime, berg stressed adherence to the game plan and more thorough communication among his players.
sPORTs • ThuRsday, OcT. 18, 2012 • vanGuaRd 15
Batter uP: One of Portland State’s softball players makes contact during a preseason game earlier this month. The Vikings are preparing for the first year in which softball will be part of Big Sky Conference.
MAyA SEAMANVanguard Staff
In 2010, thousands of people dashed through Portland dressed as rabbits, mad hatters and Cheshire cats. Last year, they ditched their teacups for torn pants and blood-spattered shirts and were driven through town by an endless hunger for brains.
This year, Portland will be overrun with superheroes. The ninth annual Run Like Hell cos-tumed half-marathon will pit Spiderman against Catwoman, Green Lantern against Wolver-ine, the Hulk against Thor, and Batman against no one—be-cause he’s Batman.
Run Like Hell is a Halloween-themed half-marathon, 10K and 5K, that takes place Oct. 21. It also features a half-mile route just for kids, called Run Like Heck, held on the same day. Run Like Hell will once again lead thousands of costumed runners and walkers through the city as a benefit for the ALS Association, a nonprofit orga-nization helping to fight Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Runners will meet near Pio-neer Courthouse Square, where
The Flash or Superman?Find out who’s faster at the annual Run Like Hell half marathon
the route begins. From there, Portland’s men of steel and wonder women will run faster than a speeding bullet through the city and its parks.
Half-marathon runners with be led down Naito Parkway and Barbur Boulevard, along George Hines Park, up through Terwilliger and Duniway parks, then back down toward Pioneer Square. The 10K and 5K runners will be treated to lovely views of the waterfront, fol-lowed by a zigzag dash through downtown.
Michelle Foster, a two-time Run Like Hell partici-pant, warns participants to take costumes into serious consideration.
For 2010’s Alice in Wonder-land theme, she dressed as Alice and ran alongside her boyfriend, who used large post-er board to become the three of hearts playing card. “I was wor-ried about wind resistance for him,” Foster said. “Turns out it was the drizzle I should have been worried about, with his not-so-waterproof paint.”
For 2011’s zombie theme, she dressed as an uninfected hu-man, so the zombies would
have something to chase. “Be-ing chased by a mob of zom-bies really is motivational,” Foster said.
This year, organizers hope that being a superhero for a
day will be just as motivating. And as any good city should, Portland will celebrate its superheroes’ feats with a su-per shindig. Live music, free beer and food await all par-
ticipants at the Run Like Hell afterparty.
So dig out your tights, capes and cowls, Portland—it’s time to Run Like Hell.
Registration is open un-
til the day of the race, but the price increases for day-of reg-istrants. You can register online at terrapinevents.com/run-like-hell-portland_register.htm. Start times for each race vary.
heroes: A man participates in Portland’s 2010 Run like hell half marathon dressed in a tutu. This year’s costume theme is superheroes.
COuRTeSY OF TeRRAPin eVenTS
Hard expectationsSoftball prepares for spring season and the first ever Big Sky softball championship
TRAVIS KREMERVanguard Staff
This month, Portland State’s softball team is preparing for the spring season. They’ve played four exhibition games so far and have two more to go. This is the first year that the softball team will be competing in the Big Sky
Conference, as it’s the first year the conference is sponsoring a softball championship, though this is not the first time the Vi-kings softball team has played for a championship title.
The players in this sea-son’s team are no strangers to victory, and neither is their coach. They did well in the
2011–12 season, claiming the team’s third total and second consecutive championship victory in the Pacific Coast Softball Conference. Portland State was also awarded Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Pitcher in the 2012 PCSC Championship Series.
Last year’s team even broke a five-year slump at the NCAA tournament: During the 2012 season they scored PSU’s first win in the tournament since 2006, before being knocked out of the running by Brigham Young University.
“I think getting our first win last year kind of said a lot, and proved something to the kids that are on the team. The great thing about it is we return all but three people. So they have that experience, they know what it’s like to be there and actually win a game…This last year, winning a game, will just add to our confidence and our experience level and will hope-fully carry over into this sea-son,” head coach Tobin Echo-Hawk said before fall term.
With a veteran team at her disposal, things should be looking up as she moves her team into the 2012–13 season. The Vikings softball team’s next game will be on Oct. 27, in Corvallis, against Oregon State University.
“I think that, because we have been so successful the last couple of years, we’re al-ways going to be the team to beat, and every team is go-ing to play their best against us,” Echo-Hawk said. “I think we got a good show of that last year, just with the differ-ent teams, with Weber [State University] playing really well against us as well as [the Uni-versity of] Northern Colorado, and I think it’s just going to be the same this year. We’re going to be that team, and we’ve got to make sure we step up every single game.”
ADAm WiCKhAm/VAnguARD STAFF
16 vanGuaRd • ThuRsday, OcT. 18, 2012 • sPORTs
Thursday, Oct. 18
VOllEybAll
vikings (9-1) vs.
eastern washington university (0-10)
Stott Center7 p.m.
Friday, Oct. 19
WOMEN’S SOCCER
vikings (4-1-1) vs.
idaho state (2-1-2-1)Hillsboro Stadium
1 p.m.
forecast: high of 69 degrees, showers
CROSS COUNTRy beaver classic
CorvallisTBA
forecast: high of 62 degrees, cloudy
WOMEN’S TENNISuniversity of Oregon duck
invitational(Oct. 19–21)
EugeneTBD
saturday, Oct. 20
fOOTbAll
vikings (1-2)@
california Polytechnic state university (4-0)
Alex G. Spanos Stadium6:05 p.m.
forecast: high of 76 degrees, partly cloudy
VOllEybAll
vikings (9-1) vs.
concordia university (3-9)Stott Center
7 p.m.
wednesday, Oct. 24
WOMEN’S SOCCER (non-conference game)
vikings (5-2-1) @
california state university, bakersfield (2-2-1)Bakersfield, Calif.
7 p.m
forecast: high of 81 degrees, sunny
uPcOMinG GaMEs
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
vs.
serving: Portland State’s volleyball team pulls together on the court. They are 9–1 in conference play this season.
AlEx MOOREVanguard Staff
With the season winding down, the Portland State cross country team is looking to finish strong by sending runners to the Big Sky Con-ference championship and the regional, and maybe even national, meets.
“We’re entering that cham-pionship time of year,” head coach Jonathan Marcus said. “We’re going to make some minor tweaks, really get our-selves prepared to perform at the highest level possible.”
The Vikings are coming off the Warner Pacific Open meet, in which six of the seven women on the team had season-best times. Port-land State was led by senior
Championship time
Amber Rozcicha, who finished second overall. Senior Sarah Dean was right behind her, finishing third overall. Dean finished in less than 18 minutes for the first time in her career.
“I don’t know where it came from,” Marcus said. “But she really picked a good time to let the dogs out.”
The men were led by fresh-man Neil Seibert, who fin-ished 26th overall. A lot of the men have been fighting inju-ries all season, but that didn’t stop them from finishing in the top 10 as a team. Fresh-man Jonathan Talik also had a big race, with his best time of the season.
“The men are fighting a lot of illness and health issues,”
Portland State’s cross country team prepares for season end
Marcus said. “I was really pleased with how they per-formed in spite of all the ex-cuses they could have relied on.”
The next meet is in Flag-staff, Ariz., where the alti-tude is 7,000 feet above sea level. Because the Vikings are used to running in Port-land, the effect of racing at a high altitude is tremendous. Portland State’s success will rely on execution, but it will help prepare them for the Big Sky championship.
The Vikings will compete in the Beaver Classic this Friday, in their last meet of the regular season. The con-ference meet will be held Oct. 27.
mileS SAnguineTTi/VAnguARD STAFF
ROSEMARy hANSONVanguard Staff
The Portland State women’s volleyball team had a decisive first round of Big Sky Confer-ence play. They kick off the second round this weekend with two games, the first on Thursday against the Eastern Washington Eagles and the second on Saturday against the Sacramento State Hor-nets. The Vikings suffered their first conference loss last weekend, but still sit tied at the top of the standings.
Although the Vikings, 13-8 overall and 9-1 in conference, beat both Eastern Washing-ton and Sac State in the first round of conference play, the team understands no oppo-nent should be taken lightly.
One of last weekend’s top Viking performers, outside hitter Aubrey Mitchell, said, “In our minds we treat every team the same…we have to stay disciplined and keep our identity.”
Thursday’s opponent, Dam Cup rival Eastern Washington, has yet to make their mark, suffering a 0-21 overall and 0-10 conference record. The Eagles’ season has been plagued with inju-ries, with five of their nine returning players starting the season on the injured reserve list. Although three have returned to the court, the team has had to rely on heavy subbing.
The Eagles have turned to their younger players to take charge and, most notably,
Volleyball hosts Eagles and Hornets
second round of play begins
have seen success from their middle hitters: sophomore Talia Fermantez and fresh-man Kellen Barfield.
On Saturday the Vikings take on Sacramento State. The Hornets, 7-12 overall and 3-7 in conference, grabbed their first conference road win against the Montana State University Bobcats on Saturday. The Hornets were led by outside hitter Janelle Currey, who saved six set points for the Hornets to hit a total of 20 kills for the night.
The hosting Vikings come off a split weekend with a loss to Idaho State Univer-sity and a win against Weber State University. The two teams have notably different playing styles, which forced the Vikings to fall back on their practiced technique.
“We have time now to look at Idaho State and Weber State—and, in general, look at all our first half,” head coach Michael Seemann said. “We won’t be necessarily ignor-ing and scouting the second round of playing these teams, but especially playing at home and following our first conference loss it’s imperative to keep confidence in all our systems and tweak and im-prove those.”
The Vikings will bring their talents to the Stott Center against Eastern Washington on Thursday and against Sac-ramento State on Saturday. Both games begin at 7 p.m.
A look at two of Portland State’s top runners
Amber RozcichaFrom newberg
in her last year of running for Portland State, senior Amber Rozcicha has been impressive, racking up four top-10 finishes. She finished first place at the Charles Bowles invitational, and last week she finished second in the 5K at the Warner Pacific Open with a time of 17:33:62.
Sarah DeanFrom Vida
Senior Sarah Dean cut her time down on the 5K from 18:26:13 to 17:54:21 at the Warner Pacific Open last week. This is a personal best for her.