Portland State Vanguard Volume 77 Issue 31

Page 1

PSU REARMS CAMPUS POLICE

ARTS

Portland Literary mic brings authors to the stage P. 6-7

OPINION

Why isn’t PSU doing the bare minimum to provide SNAP benefits?

P. 8

OPINION

PSU’s delayed rearmament announcement is a coward’s move P. 9

VOLUME 77 • ISSUE 31 • APRIL 26, 2023

OPEN OPINION PLATFORM COLUMN FOR ALL AT PSU

• STATE NAME AND AFFILIATION W/PSU

• SUBMISSIONS ARE UNPAID, NOT GUARANTEED AND CHOSEN BY THE EDITOR

• SEND THOUGHTS, STORIES AND OPINIONS TO EDITOR@PSUVANGUARD.COM

CONTENTS

STAFF

EDITORIAL

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Tanner Todd

MANAGING EDITOR

Brad Le

NEWS EDITOR

Zoë Buhrmaster

NEWS CO-EDITOR

Philippa Massey

ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR

Kat Leon

OPINION EDITOR

Nick Gatlin

PHOTO EDITOR

Alberto Alonso Pujazon Bogani

ONLINE EDITOR

Christopher Ward

COPY CHIEF

Nova Johnson

DISTRIBUTION MANAGER

Nick Gatlin

CONTRIBUTORS

Isaiah Burns

Amber Finnegan

Analisa Landeros

Milo Loza

Isabel Zerr

PRODUCTION & DESIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Whitney McPhie

DESIGNERS

Camden Benesh

Hanna Oberlander

Mia Waugh

Kelsey Zuberbuehler

Zahira Zuvuya

TECHNOLOGY & WEBSITE

TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS

Rae Fickle

George Olson

Sara Ray

Tanner Todd

ADVISING & ACCOUNTING

COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA

Reaz Mahmood

STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT

Maria Dominguez

STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR

Rae Fickle

To contact Portland State Vanguard, email editor@psuvanguard.com

MISSION STATEMENT

Vanguard’s mission is to serve the Portland State community with timely, accurate, comprehensive and critical content while upholding high journalistic standards. In the process, we aim to enrich our staff with quality, hands-on journalism education and a number of skills highly valued in today’s job market.

ABOUT Vanguard, established in 1946, is published weekly as an independent student newspaper governed by the PSU Student Media Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers and do not necessarily represent the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration. Find us in print Wednesdays and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
YOUR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR P. 3 NEWS PSU REARMS CAMPUS POLICE OFFICERS P. 4-5 ARTS & CULTURE PORTLAND LITERARY OPEN MIC SHINES SPOTLIGHT ON LOCAL WRITERS P. 6-7 OPINION WHY WON’T PSU ACCEPT FOOD STAMPS? P. 8 PSU PRESIDENT STEPHEN PERCY IS A COWARD P. 9 COMICS P. 10-11 EVENTS CALENDAR P. 12
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Arts & Culture Editor

SEND US YOUR LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

We have revived our “Letters to the Editor,” a recurring Opinion feature that publishes and spotlights voices from around PSU, as well as the larger community of Portland, Oregon. This is a section devoted to spotlighting the opinions and feelings of our readsers, rather than the writers and contributors in our newsroom, and we welcome submissions from anyone. We’re particularly interested in perspectives related to current Portland events and community issues, as well as circumstances that impact the Pacific Northwest overall. We’d also love to hear your thoughts on stories we’ve covered—if you have a strong opinion about something we’ve reported, write us! We’ll happily read your submissions.

To share your letters for publishing consideration, email your thoughts to opinion@psuvanguard. com with the heading LETTER TO THE EDITOR, followed by your subject line.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely, The Vanguard Editorial Staff

3 PSU Vanguard • APRIL 26, 2023 • psuvanguard.com
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PSU REARMS CAMPUS POLICE OFFICERS

NEW ANNOUNCEMENT REVEALS THAT OFFICERS HAVE HAD WEAPONS SINCE FEBRUARY 2023

Portland State campus police officers are now permitted to go on armed patrols, according to a campus-wide email sent out by President Stephen Percy on April 11.

The decision to allow campus police to carry arms while on patrol comes after having unarmed patrols since 2021, a decision made in response to calls for justice on behalf of Navy veteran Jason Washington, who campus officers killed in 2018.

The email notifying campus went out the week after students returned to campus for spring quarter—Chief Willie Halliburton, director of the Campus Public Safety Office, however, said officers returned to patrolling with arms on Feb. 14.

“I made the decision on February 14,” Halliburton said. “I informed the president it wasn’t a decision to go full time and permanently armed patrols from this day forward if I make another decision. On March 9, I informed the president that we need to continue in this direction.”

The Campus Public Safety Office (CPSO) has a staff of nine police officers, seven public safety officers and eight student ambassadors. University police trained in de-escalation techniques respond to emergency scenarios, including those involving violence or weapons. Public safety officers’ duty is to patrol campus and provide assistance when needed, according to the CPSO webpage. The student safety ambassador program launched in 2020, training up students to help with patrols and provide low-scale, community-oriented safety around campus, such as safety escorts.

The email on April 11 stated that “limited assistance from the Portland Police Bureau due to increased demands for officers across the city” and “an increasing number of weapons on and near campus” necessitates armed patrols. In 2020, officers encountered three instances of weapons on campus, according to Halliburton. In 2021, that number doubled to six weapons, jumping up to 13 in 2022.

Halliburton cited these weapons as including knives, a hammer, an automatic handgun, rifles and shotguns. He claimed responsibility when asked why students were not notified of the encounters.

“I think that’s my error on that end because I was wanting to not frighten a lot of our campus, let our officers have control,” Halliburton said. “But it got to a point where it had to be efficient as information had to come out and so I took the blame on that for not notifying the campus.”

Maureen Murphy is a junior who transferred to PSU from PCC last fall. She recalled feeling alarmed after reading the April 11 email and immediately looked for campus organizing around the issue.

“If that is true, I don’t think that that is sufficient reason to arm campus security officers or safety officers,” Murphy said in response to increased violence on campus. “I think the most important part is that they have proven that they should not be armed because they killed someone. I grew up in a community that had a lot of gun violence and in no way do armed police officers or security officers make me feel safer or make a situation safer.”

Murphy isn’t alone in her sentiments. A quantitative study done in 2020 by the Queer Resource Center at PSU shows

varying levels of comfortability interacting with campus officers, depending on identifying characteristics of gender.

Of the 565 students who responded, 62% of cisgender men agreed that they were comfortable talking to campus safety officers in passing, while only 42% of cisgender women agreed. Meanwhile, 75% of trans women “disagreed or strongly disagreed,” and no other gender minority had more than half of the respondents “agree or strongly agree.”

The same question posed using identifying characteristics of race illustrated a similar lack of comfortability with campus security in minority demographics. Of the 556 students who responded to this pair of questions, only 40% “agreed or strongly agreed”—63% of whom identified as white. Of those identifying as African American/Black, Native American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, 57% were in disagreement.

Murphy expressed concern around the lack of community involvement in the decision process, particularly since students, faculty and staff are among those most affected by the decision. Since the email went out she has reached out

to Disarm PSU, a campus coalition committed to reimagining campus safety and disarming campus police, to get involved in the conversation.

“There’s so many different aspects to safety and to feeling safe,” she said. “I think most of it is resolved through being creative as a community and amongst ourselves and talking with each other.”

The University Public Safety Oversight Committee (UPSOC) is made up of students, faculty and staff charged with overseeing campus public safety by the PSU Board of Trustees, who made the decision to arm officers on campus in 2014. Nonetheless, Chief Halliburton, as outlined by the CPS Policy Manual, “exercises command over all personnel in the Department,” as director of both police and public safety services on campus.

This is part of what Katie Cagle, behavioral health project assistant at PSU and a leading member of Disarm PSU, is hoping to change. She and two other faculty members attended the board of trustees meeting on April 20, where she provided public comment about the decision.

PSU Vanguard • APRIL 26, 2023 • psuvanguard.com 4 NEWS
ZOË BUHRMASTER CAMPUS PUBLIC SAFETY OFFICE. ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI/PSU VANGUARD

“Halliburton and Percy are the faces of this conversation around the unarmed patrols and then rearming the patrols,” Cagle said. “But the Board of Trustees is the only body that can actually make a difference. The fact that the chief could just unilaterally decide that he was going to change this policy… just from a process perspective, like not even considering the fact that we’re talking about deadly weapons, there’s just no other decision making process at the university that works like that.”

Cagle said that since the April 11 email, she’s talked with around 50 new faculty, students and staff who have reached out to Disarm PSU with questions and concerns about the announcement. The influx of interactions has motivated Cagle and those actively involved with Disarm PSU to begin rooting efforts in a three-prong approach—educating the campus community on the history of campus police and of Jason Washington, researching state and federal laws regarding a police force on campus and creating a space for community conversations around safety.

“The thing that’s giving me hope right now is how many students are activated,” Cagle said. “How many students do care, even before they know the story of Jason Washington, and then when they hear the specifics of his story, they have an even more clear understanding of how dangerous it is to have armed cops on campus.”

PSU isn’t the only college campus arming its patrols. On the east coast, students at George Washington University are currently protesting plans to allow campus police to carry weapons. According to the most recent Bureau of Justice Statistics Report by the U.S. for the 2011 to 2012 academic year, around 75% of campuses were using armed officers compared to 68% during the 2004 to 2005 school year.

It’s clear where college students’ concerns arise from—since 1999 there have been 377 school shootings, according to data collected by the Washington Post

“When I think of how I feel on campus and what makes me feel unsafe, the things I think about almost every day are like mass shootings,” Murphy said. “I think about it every time I’m on campus, and it’s been proven that security officers don’t play a role in addressing

that issue. I think that as a student at PSU, I feel like I’ve received no communication or very little communication on what PSU is doing to address that specific issue.”

Campus Public Safety has a link to Active Threat Information on their website, which shows an active shooter safety video produced by the City of Houston, along with a list of what to do in an active threat situation at PSU. A web page, however, isn’t enough.

To create a greater sense of security on campus, organizations including the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators cite listening to the community and building relationships between students and officers as major components of rethinking models of campus security.

Chief Halliburton set up “Coffee with the Chief,” originally on Monday mornings at 10 a.m. at Smith Memorial Student Union in the dining area next to the food court. The slot is moving to Wednesdays at noon after Cagle voiced concern that the original timetable is during an academic block when many students have class.

“What I’m hoping to accomplish by having this dialogue is to receive input from our community about how we can improve,” Halliburton said. “Right now to disarm is not an option as far as what the level [of safety concern] is. But other ways that we can improve, how can we partner with our campus and what can we do with improving our service?”

Percy stated that moving forward, he and Halliburton will be meeting monthly with UPSOC to review campus safety conditions and discuss the path forward.

“The other day, we were locked out of a classroom and security officers open the door and they were armed,” Murphy said. “And I was just like, why, why do you need a gun to unlock a classroom?”

For those concerned with campus safety, reach out to info@pdx.edu or contact CPSO at cpso@pdx.edu. To get in touch with Disarm PSU, connect on Instagram @disarmpsunow.

The CPSO office number for emergencies is 503-725-591. For non-emergency related issues, contact 503-725-4407.

PSU Vanguard • APRIL 26, 2023 • psuvanguard.com NEWS 5
CAMPUS PUBLIC SAFETY VEHICLES PARKED ON SW BROADWAY. ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI/PSU VANGUARD
What are your thoughts on PSU security’s rearmament? Scan the QR code to visit our community polling page.
CAMPUS PUBLIC SAFETY VEHICLES PARKED ON SW BROADWAY. ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI/PSU VANGUARD

PORTLAND LITERARY OPEN MIC SHINES SPOTLIGHT ON LOCAL WRITERS

A COMMUNITY SPACE FOR WRITERS TO SHARE THEIR WORK

Looking for a safe space to share your writing publicly? Or somewhere to be with other creative people? Portland Lit Mic gives seasoned and aspiring writers of all genres the opportunity to share their work, an event met with outstanding community engagement.

When Portland State students and Portland Lit Mic co-hosts Jordan Marzka and Grace Lawrence took the stage to welcome the audience to the event’s first anniversary on April 14, Rose City Book Pub approached the point of standing-room-only. You could tell right away how the crowd which gathered there once a month had become familial, growing with each session hosted.

Some of the evening’s readers were regulars or returning to Lit Mic. “We used to have to beg people to put their names on the sign-up list, and Jordan would spend the first half of the night making jokes about it,” Lawrence said. “Now for the past few months, we’ve barely had the list out for five minutes before it fills up and have consistently had to use a waitlist for backups. It’s amazing that there’s such a desire to read and that people especially want to read at our event. It feels nice to make that space for people, and clearly, it’s a need!”

The pub felt welcoming and cozy. Stationed in a back corner of nearly floor-to-ceiling

bookshelves were fabric-covered chairs, groups of smaller diner-style tables, benches and booths bunched together and sofas in front of the stage. Patrons leaned against the bar with their drinks and squeezed together on the couches for a front-row view.

Amid the readings, attendees could peruse the pub’s shelves, which were filled with books, magazines, chapbooks, locally-crafted jewelry, postcards, art prints and more.

“Rose City Book Pub has been the most wonderful setting for Portland Lit Mic, most importantly because the owner and our now dear friend Elise has created a space that fosters community and inspires,” Lawrence said. “Within its walls—overflowing with books, handcrafted art and family-style benches—you are bound to find your people, as so many of our readers have.”

The idea for creating the event came to fruition after Marzka and Lawrence attended a virtual poetry open mic together. “We agreed that our writing felt out of place within the ‘traditional’ poetry open mic, which the dominant genre is slam poetry,” Lawrence said. “We wanted a place where we could read whatever we had written, whether fiction, nonfiction or poetry. Instead of searching the Portland literary scene for that place, we decided to create it ourselves.”

They’ve been welcomed by the local writing community with open arms. “[It’s] still a little unreal to us,” Lawrence said. “We used to joke about what we would do if no one showed up to the event, but every month the support has been so overwhelming. Our event is the way it is because of the buy-in from the community, and you can see how their enthusiasm and care for each other shapes what we do.”

The Lit Mic started with a briefing from the hosts on house rules and proper audience etiquette for readings. One of the most nervewracking aspects of sharing work in a public setting is the presence of a live audience responding to your words in real-time and in front of you, the creator.

The hosts acknowledged this anxiety and the bravery it takes to participate in a live reading. Next, Marzka asked the audience to maintain a leveled response to each performance, giving each reader an even volume of applause and cheers.

Portland Lit Mic observes a five-minute limit for each reader. However, they can share as many individual works as they wish within the time allotted. Sign-ups operated on a firstcome, first-served basis, opening at 6:30 p.m. with the show beginning at 7 p.m.

While some events include themes for writers to factor into the work they choose to share, Portland Lit Mic is open to any subject, literary genre and writing format. Their flyers promote the event as “utterly themeless.”

“We decided to continue with a no-theme format to encourage our readers to embrace the motto that started [the] Lit Mic: ‘You wrote it, you read it,’” Lawrence said.

Attendee and writer Danielle Alexander shared a few nonfiction essays and a poem at the recent anniversary reading. Yet another attendee, Skelly Harrington, read the first chapter of a book in the dark fantasy horror trilogy they will be releasing this year.

“The way Lit Mic invites a variety of literary styles also invites diversity of people and content,” Harrington said. “Open mics with a more narrow focus can run the risk of homogenization. When you go to Lit Mic, you’re going to hear people do things that you can’t do and tell stories that aren’t yours to tell, and that’s good for us as artists and as people.”

Intermission was called halfway through the readings. Because of how solitary writing can be, Marzka encouraged people to use the break as a chance to socialize, meet and get to know the people around them—a moment readers took advantage of.

PSU Vanguard • APRIL 26, 2023 • psuvanguard.com 6 ARTS & CULTURE
ANALISA LANDEROS JORDAN MARZKA (LEFT) AND GRACE LAWRENCE MODERATE WRITING CHALLENGES DURING THE INTERMISSION OF PORTLAND LIT MIC AT ROSE CITY BOOK PUB ON APR. 14. ANALISA LANDEROS/PSU VANGUARD

Alexander’s appearance at the Lit Mic for its anniversary was her third. “Each time [I come to Portland Lit Mic], I am delighted by the environment and community that is created,” Alexander said. “After the first Lit Mic, I actually met three other writers who I’m now in a regular workshopping group with.”

Intermission was also an extension of the night’s activities. The Lit Mic’s anniversary promised and delivered writing challenges for attendees, allowing anyone not signed up for the reading to join in on the fun. Patrons submitted their responses to a flash-fiction prompt with a prize given for the audience’s favorite. Awards also went to the winners of a fast-paced haiku competition, with volunteers being split into teams and squaring off against each other.

“We spend a lot of time asking ourselves what we think the community wants next,” Marzka said. “Grace is a master at Instagram polls and keeps our guests centered in planning conversations. We pride ourselves on keeping the energy upbeat and entertaining over the course of the night, so most of the work we do is just in showing people that it’s okay to have fun and relax. I think this is especially important for the people who come to Lit Mic and have never read their work out loud before. We like to get up there and show them that yeah, we’re all having fun and that they’re going to have fun too.”

Moving forward, Marzka and Lawrence are grateful for the community response and its support in the event over the past year, and they plan to host more Lit Mics and maintain an environment for writers to socialize and share their work.

“I think we’ve both learned that breaking into the literary arts community is so much easier than we thought it would be,” Lawrence said. “There was a lot of fear that we’d never find a way to get out there and build that community, but I think everyone else is just like us, searching for a way to connect to the writers in their city. When you put that energy out into the world, people can’t help but give it back, and suddenly you have this community that all cares about one another.”

PSU Vanguard • APRIL 26, 2023 • psuvanguard.com ARTS & CULTURE 7
JORDAN MARZKA READS AN ORIGINAL PIECE AT THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF PORTLAND LIT MIC AT ROSE CITY BOOK PUB ON APR. 14. ANALISA LANDEROS/PSU VANGUARD GRACE LAWRENCE GREETS THE AUDIENCE AT THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF PORTLAND LIT MIC AT ROSE CITY BOOK PUB ON APR. 14. ANALISA LANDEROS/PSU VANGUARD JORDAN MARZKA MODERATES WRITING CHALLENGES DURING THE INTERMISSION OF PORTLAND LIT MIC AT ROSE CITY BOOK PUB ON APR. 14. ANALISA LANDEROS/PSU VANGUARD

WHY WON’T PSU ACCEPT FOOD STAMPS?

STUDENTS ARE HUNGRY, SO WHY CAN’T THEY USE SNAP ON CAMPUS?

A walk through the ground floor of the Smith Memorial Student Union can really work up an appetite: scents of sesame seed and toasted bread waft out from Bowery Bagels, and the sizzling of burgers on the grill and fries cooking in oil can be heard from the cafeteria. A half dozen menus offer a variety of foods to choose from that accommodate diverse diets. Located in the center is also a small convenience store, University Market, which stocks several shelves and a surprising number of coolers that present a selection outrivaling many of the convenience stores in the rest of the city, offering an array of items that range from health foods to comfort treats.

Given the scene, it’s hard to imagine that close to half of Portland State students are going hungry at a given time. One reason why could be that PSU doesn’t accept food stamps at any facilities that serve food on campus, despite the apparent ease of doing so. Given the issue of rampant food insecurity among students, this should be a priority of the administration.

Portland State Vanguard has reported on the issue of food insecurity before . To summarize, a report from late 2020 by the PSU Homelessness Research & Action Collaborative investigated food insecurity among PSU students. This report called upon a survey administered in the fall of 2019, which discovered that 47 of the participants “experienced food insecurity in the 30 days prior to completing the survey.” In addition, it was reported that 44.6% “experienced housing insecurity in the 12 months prior to completing the survey.” These numbers worsened during the pandemic.

Needless to say, this is disheartening.

The campus community has taken some steps to lower this number. The PSU Food Pantry offers free groceries to anyone with a PSU ID. They feed many students and deserve credit for it. According to the facility’s general manager, Trenna Wilson, the pantry recently shattered its previous record by serving 10% of the student body.

However, the Food Pantry has its limits. “A lot of what we offer isn’t ready to eat,” Wilson said in regards to much of the pantry’s inventory being made up of canned foods and unprocessed ingredients. The pantry is an excellent method of combating food insecurity, but it is just one part of what needs to be a larger effort made by the university. “I think it’s really critical… that students have a lot of options,” Wilson said.

Currently, there are no PSU facilities that accept Oregon’s Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card for food benefits.

Victor’s Dining Center, the Smith dining hall, Case Study, Peet’s, Bowery Bagels… none of them. Even University Market, which seems to be the ideal candidate, does not accept EBT. This is particularly embarrassing, considering the Plaid Pantry,

Mac’s Mini Mart and Chevron convenience stores on campus all accept EBT. EBT is the system that allows for the transfer of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, commonly referred to as food stamps. SNAP is a form of welfare that allotts a specific amount of money to qualified individuals that can be used to purchase food. In Oregon, SNAP can only be used to buy food that isn’t hot. This means most restaurants won’t accept EBT, as most of their food is heated up. However, grocery stores will almost always accept it, as a majority of the food sold there is maintained at room temperature or colder.

There are a few requirements a retailer must meet if they wish to accept EBT, but these criteria are not steep. An establishment essentially just needs to keep sufficient inventory of at least three different items from each of the staple food categories—i.e. fruits and vegetables, dairy products, meat/poultry/fish, breads/ cereal—or make more than 50% of its sales from selling staple foods.

In other words, if Starbucks can meet the minimum qualifications for EBT, then PSU can too.

A stroll through University Market reveals a plethora of options belonging to each of the staple food categories, which just further raises the question… why isn’t PSU accepting EBT? If so many students are going hungry, and the university seems to have the capacity to help fix the problem, then why aren’t they taking every step they can to do so?

Oregon State University remodeled its campus grocery store to accept EBT… in early 2016. In over 7 years, why hasn’t PSU done the same? PSU seems to lack a comprehensive plan to lessen the amount of food insecurity on campus, leaving major blindspots such as this.

The good news is that there are people working to make it happen. The manager of University Market has been trying to make the grocery store into a facility that accepts the transfer of SNAP benefits. This is a slow process that involves negotiating with the university.

It’s ironic that posters can be found in campus dorms advising students to apply for SNAP benefits if they’re struggling, yet those same students will be turned down from using them to purchase food at any campus facility. Hopefully there will come a day soon when SNAP plays a more comprehensive role in university life, as there are many people on campus who are attempting to mitigate the food insecurity crisis the best they can.

PSU Vanguard • APRIL 26, 2023 • psuvanguard.com 8 OPINION
ISAIAH BURNS SMITH'S KITCHEN, ONE OF MANY PSU FACILITIES THAT DOESN'T ACCEPT EBT. ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI/PSU VANGUARD PICTURED: SMITH’S KITCHEN. ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI/PSU VANGUARD PICTURED: SMITH’S KITCHEN. ALBERTO ALONSO PUJAZON BOGANI/PSU VANGUARD

PSU PRESIDENT STEPHEN PERCY IS A COWARD

IF THE ADMINISTRATION IS CHANGING CPSO POLICY, THEY SHOULD TELL US TO OUR FACE

Portland State President Stephen Percy and Campus Public Safety Office Chief Willie Halliburton are changing university policy to put guns back in the hands of campus police. They don’t want you to know that.

On April 11, Percy sent out an email to the campus community with the subject “An important campus safety update for 2023 Spring Term.” What vague and nonspecific phrasing, you might have said when this email entered your inbox. I can probably skip over that! I certainly did the first time I saw it, and I can guess that was the intended effect.

However, hidden within this fairly inconspicuous email is the explosive admission that campus police will begin patrolling with guns again, not even two years after Percy and Halliburton first made the decision to disarm CPSO.

The full impact of this decision is beyond the scope of this article, and requires more research and time to fully analyze—something we plan to do. Here, I want to address the obfuscation of responsibility and lack of transparency from the administration around this decision. The PSU community deserves more respect from their leaders.

Percy’s email announcing the change is riddled with passive voice and evasive phrasing, such as “These factors have necessitated a change in practice on the part of campus police officers,” and “In order to protect our campus, our nine sworn officers are having to go on most patrols carrying arms.” These phrases conveniently leave out the power relationships underlying these decisions. “Necessitated a change” according to whom? “Officers are having to go on most patrols carrying arms”— says who? Who made these decisions?

This communication is so devoid of meaningful content it can barely be called one. The most important part, i.e. the fact that CPSO officers are re-arming—the whole reason for sending the email in the first place, in fact—is buried at the end of the

fifth paragraph, after a cavalcade of cover-your-ass pablum that ultimately amounts to nothing.

The cowardice of this communication is clearest when comparing how Percy addresses the initial CPSO disarmament to how he talks about the recent about-face. “Following the tragic shooting of Jason Washington by campus police officers in 2018 and the racial justice protests of 2020, Chief Halliburton and I committed to begin campus safety anew, putting the policies and personnel in place to begin routine unarmed patrols

by sworn officers on our campus in September, 2021,” Percy wrote. Notice how clear and concise the language is here, the specificity with which he describes the decision.

Now compare that to how he wrote about his and Halliburton’s decision to rearm CPSO. “Our officers are encountering an increasing number of weapons on and near campus,” he wrote, “and they are receiving limited assistance from the Portland Police Bureau due to increased demands for officers across the city.” Because of this, “our nine sworn officers are having to go on most patrols carrying arms.”

What a shameful refusal of responsibility.

Disarming CPSO in 2021 was a PR coup for the university, for Percy and for CPSO, so it makes sense that he’d want to take the credit. Here, however, he presents his administration’s policy backtrack as if it were a force of nature—“our officers” now “have” to patrol with guns because of “an increasing number of weapons.” Don’t blame me, Percy is saying—I just work here.

Percy and Halliburton cannot take credit for their successes and then deflect responsibility for their failures. CPSO “officers” did not make the decision to re-arm patrols—Percy and Halliburton did.

Further, Percy claims that his announcement is “part of an ongoing conversation and effort to rethink how we do campus safety at Portland State.” Conversation? As a student, I don’t recall being asked about this decision. I don’t remember a public comment period, or any opportunity for the PSU community to offer their input. Who is having this conversation? Whose voices actually matter?

Percy and CPSO have made the decision to re-arm CPSO officers unilaterally, and they should have the respect for the campus community to say so, not hide behind PR language. With an issue as important as this, it’s not only cowardly for the administration to obscure responsibility in this way, it’s inexcusable.

PSU Vanguard • APRIL 26, 2023 • psuvanguard.com OPINION 9
NICK GATLIN ZAHIRA ZUVUYA
PSU Vanguard • APRIL 26, 2023 • psuvanguard.com 10 COMICS
CAMDEN BENESH
PSU Vanguard • APRIL 26, 2023 • psuvanguard.com COMICS
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5 P.M.

FREE

LEARN HOW TO WEAVE PAPER INTO BEAUTIFUL PATTERNS AND CREATE YOUR OWN ART PIECE

GATHERING OF THE GUILDS OREGON CONVENTION CENTER

10 A.M.

FREE

A SHOWCASE OF ART AND FUNCTIONAL PRODUCTS BY SIX GUILDS

PORTLAND PINBRAWL GROUND KONTROL

10 A.M.

$40

THE BIGGEST AND BEST PINBALL TOURNAMENT IN THE PACIFIC NW WITH OVER 100 MACHINES AND PRIZES

PAINTING WITH A TWIST BOTTLE & BOTTEGA

2 P.M.

$42

A FUN AND RELAXING PAINTING CLASS WITH STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

PAINT NITE

BETHANY PUBLIC HOUSE

7 P.M.

$35

PAINT A ROMANTIC SCENE WITH INSTRUCTION FROM AN ARTIST

BOARDWALK AT SUNSET BOTTLE & BOTTEGA

6 P.M.

$44

LEARN TO PAINT A COASTAL SUNSET WITH INSTRUCTION FROM AN ARTIST

RUTHIE FOSTER ALBERTA ROSE THEATRE

8 P.M.

$35+

GRAMMY-NOMINATED SINGER AND SONGWRITER THAT MIXES GOSPEL, BLUES, JAZZ, FOLK AND SOUL

LEWIS CAPALDI MODA CENTER

8 P.M.

$38+

SCOTTISH SINGER-SONGWRITER AND MUSICIAN WITH SOULFUL POP MUSIC

THE HOLD STEADY REVOLUTION HALL

1 P.M.

$26+

A ROCK BAND WITH WITTY LYRICS AND ENERGETIC LIVE SHOWS INFLUENCED BY CLASSIC ROCK AND PUNK

MUSIC OF STEEL & MAJESTY

ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

2 P.M.

$25+

A CONCERT FEATURING THE STEEL PAN, OREGON SYMPHONY AND WORKS BY BEETHOVEN AND BRAHMS

KARAOKE FROM HELL

DANTE’S

9 P.M.

FREE

SING SONGS OF YOUR CHOICE WITH A LIVE ROCK BAND

WATSKY ROSELAND THEATRE

8 P.M.

$25+

A HIP-HOP ARTIST, AUTHOR, ACTOR AND POET

VERSELANDIA! 2023

ARLENE SCHNITZER CONCERT HALL

7 P.M.

$10+

PORTLAND’S YOUTH POETS COMPETE IN A SLAM CHAMPIONSHIP AND CELEBRATE THEIR VOICES

IMPULSE: SWEET 16 OREGON CHILDREN’S THEATRE STUDIO

7:30 P.M.

$12+

PORTLAND’S AWARD-WINNING TEEN IMPROV GROUP CREATE HILARIOUS SCENES AND GAMES

BACK TO THE FUTURE HOLLYWOOD THEATRE

3 P.M.

$7

A TEEN TRAVELS TO THE PAST AND MUST FIX HIS PARENTS’ RELATIONSHIP TO SAVE HIMSELF

AFTER HOURS & TMNT

5TH AVENUE CINEMA

3 P.M.

STUDENTS: FREE

GENERAL: $7

DOUBLE FEATURE AT OUR MOVIE THEATER ON CAMPUS AT PSU

COMEDY OPEN MIC

CHEERFUL TORTOISE

9 P.M.

FREE

COMEDY OPEN MIC WITH FIVE-MINUTE SETS AND A FEATURE ACT THAT SIGNS THE STOOL

COME FROM AWAY KELLER AUDITORIUM

7:30 P.M.

$40+

A MUSICAL ABOUT THE SMALL TOWN THAT WELCOMED THE WORLD

MAINTENANCE FAIR

OREGON CONVENTION CENTER

8 A.M.

$125+

NETWORK WITH INDUSTRY

PROFESSIONALS AND LEARN ABOUT THE LATEST PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN MAINTENANCE

PORTLAND NIGHT MARKET

100 SE ALDER STREET

4 P.M.

FREE

PORTLAND’S UNIQUE BLEND OF FOOD, CULTURE, MUSIC, DRINKS AND RETAIL IN ONE MARKET

SOUNDS OF RECOVERY

ALANO CLUB OF PORTLAND

7 P.M.

FREE

A SHOWCASE OF ARTISTS IN RECOVERY EXPRESSING THEIR CREATIVITY THROUGH MUSIC, POETRY, DANCE AND MORE

EDUCATOR WORKSHOP

PORTLAND ART MUSEUM

10 A.M.

FREE

A CONVERSATION AROUND ART AND COLLEAGUES. GAIN INSPIRATION FOR TEACHING

MONDAY BIRD SONG WALKS WHITAKER PONDS NATURE PARK

7:30 A.M.

FREE

LEARN TO IDENTIFY BIRDS BY THEIR SONGS

GRANT LINDSLEY & SCOTT KORB POWELL’S BOOKS

7 P.M.

FREE

A DISCUSSION ABOUT LINDSLEY’S DEBUT NOVEL, MEDIOCRE MONK

PSU Vanguard • APRIL 26, 2023 • psuvanguard.com 12 EVENTS
WED APR. 26 THURS APR. 27 FRI APR. 28 SAT APR. 29 SUN APR. 30 MON MAY 1 TUES MAY 2
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