Portland State Vanguard, Vol. 73, Issue 12

PORTLAND STATE VANGUARD

VOLUME VOLUME 73 72 •• ISSUE ISSUE 12 35••JANUARY AUGUST 28, 15, 2018 2019

ARTS & CULTURE ‘TEENAGE DICK’ ISN’T WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE • OPINION THE RICH KEEP GETTING RICHER • COVER PSU AMID LOOMING BUDGET CUTS

CONTENTS COVER BY ROBBY DAY NEWS RESEARCH MISCONDUCT PROMPT DISCIPLINARY REVIEW

MAYOR WHEELER, PRESIDENT SHOURESHI BREAK GROUND ON NEW $104 MILLION BUILDING

P. 4

EL-SISI DENIES PRESENCE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

P. 11

UNITED STATES INTENSIFIES BOMBING IN SYRIA

P. 11

P. 5

COVER LESS MONEY, MORE PROBLEMS

OPINION THE GOLDEN PARACHUTE OF CORPORATE AMERICA

P. 12

P. 8–9

HARMING SURVIVORS, SAVING DOLLARS

P. 13

INTERNATIONAL THIS WEEK AROUND THE WORLD

P. 6–7

ARTS & CULTURE KICKING ASS AND TAKING THE STAGE

P. 14

SUDANESE CALLING FOR FOOD AND FREEDOM

P. 10

EVIL TEENAGER RUNS FOR PRESIDENT

P. 15

BOLSONARO AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

P. 10

EVENTS CALENDAR

P. 16

STAFF EDIT ORI A L EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Nada Sewidan MANAGING EDITOR Marta Yousif NEWS EDITORS Chris May Anamika Vaughan INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Lukas Amsden ARTS & CULTURE EDITOR Cervanté Pope OPINION EDITOR Taylar Rivers

ONLINE EDITOR Sangi Lama COPY CHIEF Hannah Welbourn COPY EDITORS A.M. LaVey Ryan O’Connell Contributors Sabrina Achar-Winkels Madison Cecil Sophie Concannon Ryan O’Connell Emily Price Juliana Robidoux Delaney White

PHO T O & MULTIMEDI A PHOTO EDITOR Bo Koering MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Emma Josephson PRODUC TION & DE SIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Savannah Quarum

DIS T RIBU TION & M A R K E TING DISTRIBUTION & MARKETING MANAGER Chris May T ECHNOL OGY & W EB SIT E STUDENT MEDIA TECHNOLOGY ADVISOR Corrine Nightingale

LEAD DESIGNER Colin Davis

TECHNOLOGY ASSISTANTS Damaris Dusciuc Long V. Nguyen Annie Ton

DESIGNERS Robby Day Lisa Dorn Danielle Emeka Keyali Smith

A DV ISING & ACCOUN TING COORDINATOR OF STUDENT MEDIA Reaz Mahmood

STUDENT MEDIA ACCOUNTANT Sheri Pitcher To contact Portland State Vanguard, email info @psuvanguard.com MIS SION S TAT EMEN T 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.

A BOU T 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 every Tuesday and online 24/7 at psuvanguard.com Follow us on Facebook and Twitter @psuvanguard for multimedia content and breaking news.

NEWS

CRIME BLOTTER JAN. 7–Jan. 12 ANAMIKA VAUGHAN

JAN. 9–11 SOPHIE CONCANNON

JAN. 9: BILL INTRODUCED TO REGULATE MARIJUANA SIMILAR TO ALCOHOL Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D–Oregon, introduced a bill Wednesday to regulate the distribution of marijuana similarly to alcohol at the federal level. H.R.420 proposes taking marijuana off the federally controlled substances list and “establishing a nationally regulated industry” overseen by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, according to Associated Press. Blumenauer has been a proponent of looser restrictions for marijuana and has criticized the current federal classification as a Schedule 1 drug for “creating health and safety challenges” among the people of the United States.

JAN. 10: TRUMP THREATENS STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARATION AS SHUTDOWN PROGRESSES President Donald Trump has declared he will not end the government shutdown, currently keeping over 800,000 federal workers unpaid unless Congress approves $5.7 billion for a border wall. He has threatened to declare a state of emergency to bypass Congressional approval. The legality of the move has been questioned by many lawmakers, including members of Trump’s own party coming out in opposition. Declaring a national emergency would enable Trump to take funds from disaster-relief programs to begin planning and construction on the southern border. Many of these relief programs are actively working to restore areas damaged by flood and fire, such as Southern California and Puerto Rico, the latter still suffering from the effects of Hurricane Maria in 2017.

JAN. 9: STUDENT ACTIVISTS INSPIRE CHANGE IN GUN LEGISLATION Senate Bill 501, a bill focused on gun control, was introduced

by Sen. Rob Wagner, D–Oregon, and Rep. Andrea Salinas, D– Oregon, in the Oregon Legislature. The bill would require permits and background checks for all current or prospective gun owners, limit ammunition purchases and raise the minimum purchasing age of firearms from 18 to 21. The inspiration behind the bill came from a meeting between Salinas and Wagner with over 300 Oregon students following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in 2018, according to The Oregonian.

JAN. 11: SANDY HOOK FAMILIES MOVE FORWARD IN LAWSUIT AGAINST INFOWARS, ALEX JONES

JAN. 7 Vehicle Hit and Run

At approximately 5:19 p.m., a student reported another car had hit the driver’s side of their car while it was parked in Parking Structure 1. The incident occurred between 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.

JAN. 8 Seized Property

At around 8 p.m. outside Smith Memorial Student Union, CPSO detained a non-student on suspicion of possessing a stolen bicycle after a report was made of a male cutting a bicycle lock. The detainee was also in possession of a hacksaw and wire cutters, which were seized along with the bicycle.

Trespass Warning

At 2:10 p.m., CPSO was dispatched to Smith Memorial Student Union after employees of Chartwell had detained two shoplifters. The shoplifters were issued PSU exclusions and released.

JAN. 9 Vehicle Break-in At approximately 12:30 p.m., a student reported a vehicle break-in and stolen property, including a credit card, from the lower level of Blumel Hall. The student also reported fraudulent activity on the credit card stolen from the scene.

JAN. 10 Vehicle Break-in Four vehicle break-ins were reported to CPSO by students from Parking Structure 3, which had occurred between Jan. 8 and Jan. 10. Property was reported to be stolen in only one of the four incidents.

Trespass Warning

At 6:40 p.m., CPSO responded to calls about a non-student yelling at staff and having an open container of alcohol in the Millar Library. The non-student was issued a PSU exclusion.

JAN. 11 Agency Assist

At around 2 P.M., CSPO assisted Portland Police Bureau in finding and arresting a wanted person in the lower level Blumel parking structure. The person was found in a stolen vehicle and is a suspect in several vehicle break-ins on Portland State campus.

Theft

A student reported to CPSO at approximately 4 p.m. the theft of a bag containing art supplies and an art portfolio from Shattuck Hall.

JAN. 12 Vehicle Break-In

At approximately 9:30 A.M., CPSO responded to a report from non-student about a vehicle break-in in the parking lot of University Place Hotel. Several items were reported stolen.

Vehicle Break-In

At approximately 1:17 p.m., a non-student reported a vehicle break-in and several stolen items from their vehicle which was parked in Parking Structure 3.

A Connecticut judge ruled the families of the victims killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting of 2012 could review Infowars’ financial documents and internal marketing, according to The Hill. In the years following the shooting, Jones regularly advanced the conspiracy theory that the Sandy Hook shooting was staged and alleged the families were “paid actors who faked their relatives’ deaths.” The judge has scheduled a hearing next week to decide whether Jones can be deposed.

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NEWS

RESEARCH MISCONDUCT FINDINGS FOR HOAX ARTICLES PROMPT DISCIPLINARY REVIEW CHRIS MAY Ten days after the Wall Street Journal released a report on hoax articles submitted by Portland State Philosophy Professor Peter Boghossian and his colleagues, the university formally initiated a committee to investigate whether Boghossian had engaged in research misconduct.

The result of that investigation found at least one article constitutes “an unambiguous example of research data fabrication… [and] a clear violation of the policies of your employer,” according to letters from Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Mark McLellan.

Boghossian has come under fire after he and his colleagues—mathematician James A. Lindsay and Areo magazine Editor Helen Pluckrose—attempted to expose bias in certain scholarly fields broadly described by the authors as cultural and identity studies.

In a YouTube video “PSU Accuses Peter Boghossian of Ethical Misconduct,” published on Jan. 5, Boghossian read an Oct. 12 letter from PSU’s Institutional Review Board notifying him of its decision to review at least one hoax article. He also discussed the implications of the reviewal with his colleagues. “I think they will do anything and everything in their power to get me out, and I think this is the first shot in that,” Boghossian said in the video.

It is currently unclear what form disciplinary action will take. The video also refers to “a further charge relating to falsification of data” currently under review.

“You don’t pull someone before the IRB to slap their wrists,” Boghossian said in the video. “It doesn’t happen.”

According to Pluckrose, Research misconduct prompts is currently restricted from performing any human-subjects research until he has completed an appropriate training protocol administered by the assistant vice president for Research Administration.

Associate Vice President for University Communications Chris Broderick said over email that IRB reviews and accompanying letters are confidential, noting “Peter Boghossian has released some of that on his own.”

Boghossian did not respond to comment and interview requests as of press time.

He had previously described the hoax articles as “reflexive ethnography,” and the question at hand was whether these articles constituted actual research, which includes specific procedures for prior approval, particularly when research involves human subjects.

“Research misconduct is very narrowly defined as either fabrication (making up

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data or results and reporting them), falsification (manipulating research materials, equipment or processes or changing or omitting data or results) or plagiarism (appropriating the ideas or words of others without attribution),” read a statement released by Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Mark McLellan.

McLellan stated in a Nov. 27 letter to Boghossian, “The Committee unanimously agreed that the ‘dog park’ article represents an unambiguous example of research data fabrication.”

The dog park article referred to one of the 20 articles Boghossian submitted, titled “Expression of Concern: Human Reactions to Rape Culture and Queer Performativity at Urban Dog Parks in Portland, Oregon.”

Boghossian had been asked to turn over all research materials related to the article as part of the IRB’s review process. The article was originally published in the journal Gender, Place, and Culture, which later retracted the article after failing to confirm the author’s identity.

Seven of the 20 articles submitted were accepted by academic journals, with six

CIMEDACA YTIRGETNI

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being rejected and an additional seven still in the peer review process before the project was discovered.

Pluckrose referred to a letter sent to Boghossian on Dec. 14 in which PSU notified Boghossian that his hoax articles met the federal definition for academic research, which include standards and protocols for prior review that must be followed, especially in cases of research involving human subjects.

Those standards were not met, according to a follow-up letter on Dec. 21 in which McLellan informed Boghossian, “Your efforts to conduct human subjects research at PSU without a submitted nor approved protocol is a clear violation of the policies of your employer.”

The committee’s findings have been escalated to PSU President Rahmat Shoureshi and Provost Susan Jeffords. According to the university’s policy on research misconduct, there is a 30-day period for Boghossian to request a review by the university president of the committee’s findings.

Reached over email, American Association of University Professors

Executive Director Phil Lesch confirmed the university is required to provide the AAUP with copies of any complaints from the president that could lead to disciplinary action against a professor more severe than a verbal reprimand.

“PSU-AAUP has not received any such complaints regarding Peter Boghossian,” Lesch said.

Boghossian has appealed to his significant online following to submit letters to McLellan on his behalf and has posted several responses from academics, students and other individuals.

High-profile supporters of Boghossian include Professor of Psychology at Harvard University Steven Pinker, Oxford University Professor Emeritus Richard Dawkins and Alan Sokal, author of a 1966 hoax article that has been referenced as an inspiration for the articles submitted by Boghossian and others.

According to a report in The Washington Times, in a Dec. 14 letter to McLellan, Sokal concluded Boghossian “should face no disciplinary action whatsoever for his project.”

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

DANIELLE EMEKA

NEWS

MAYOR WHEELER, PRESIDENT SHOURESHI BREAK GROUND ON NEW $104 MILLION BUILDING JULIANNA ROBIDOUX Clad in a hardhat and wielding a shovel, Mayor Ted Wheeler led the charge on Jan. 11 during a groundbreaking ceremony at the corner of 4th and Montgomery streets for a long-anticipated $104 million, seven-story addition to the Portland State campus.

Wheeler was joined by PSU President Rahmat Shoureshi, Portland Community College President Mark Mitsui and Oregon Health & Science University President Danny Jacobs, as well as members of the PSU community—including representatives from the College of Education, which will have classrooms located in the new building. There will also be five or six retail spaces available on the ground floor with vendors yet to be decided.

With the ground ceremoniously broken, President Shoureshi began the press conference with an optimistic outlook for the new building and all involved.

“We are more than just financial partners in this project,” Shoureshi said. “We are part-

LEFT TO RIGHT: PCC PRESIDENT MARK MUTSUI, PSU PRESIDENT RAHMAT SHOURESHI, OHSU PRESIDENT DANNY JACOBS, PORTLAND MAYOR TED WHEELER, AND PHILANTHROPIST CHRISTINE VERNIER, BREAKING GROUND DURING THE CEREMONY FRIDAY, JAN. 12. BO KOERING/PSU VANGUARD ners in growing a healthy, educated and sustainable Oregon.”

Wheeler emphasized the importance of partnership in the operation of the building.

“This is unlike any other partnership I have been engaged in or the city of Portland has been engaged in,” Wheeler said.

He outlined three main goals for the joint project: providing more professional development for students, boosting local economic growth and creating more public/private partnerships.

“If we create more pathways to education and job training, that opens up more economic opportunities for the people who live in our community—including those populations who have historically not benefited from those kinds of opportunities, [such as] people of color, low-income folks and others who have not been full beneficiaries in the expansion of our economy,” Wheeler said.

He thanked those involved in the planning and building process, including Prosper

Portland, an economic and urban development agency for the city of Portland.

“It’s through Prosper Portland that the city of Portland has engaged in this project. We’ve invested in this project, and what we did was we conveyed the land to PSU that will house this project...each of us will co-own space in the facility,” Wheeler said. “That makes it unique as well.”

“It’s a collaborative opportunity with us, OHSU, PCC and the city,” said Kirk Kelly, chief information officer at PSU. “There will be multiple services offered out of the building, and we’ll also have our College of Education, and our joint School of Public Health with OHSU.” According to Dan Zalkow, associate vice president for planning, construction & real estate at PSU, the project is right on schedule.

“We feel good about the schedule at this time,” Zalkow said. “It’s really important these organizations work really well together—our future depends on it. This project

is a good representation of that collaboration.

It was a parking lot up until a month ago, but it’s nice to see something that’s more suited to this environment.”

Susan Shortridge, executive assistant to the dean of the College of Education, participated in the design and planning committee over the last two years.

“It’s been fun and challenging and teambuilding, and really an exciting adventure to get us to this point, so we’re really thrilled to have the groundbreaking today and to start to see the physical result,” Shortridge said.

Susan Gust, an architect working on the project, said she is looking forward to seeing the building come to fruition after so much planning.

“It’s not an easy task to have four stakeholders and to plan a cohesive and really amazing building,” Gust said. “I’ve spent every day of my life on this project for over a year, so I’m really happy that construction is beginning soon.”

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INTERNATIONAL

THIS WEEK

11

around the

WORLD Jan. 6–Jan. 13

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INTERNATIONAL 1

Jan. 6

SAUDI ARABIA

In an effort to protect women’s rights, a new law effective as of Jan. 6 will allow women to be informed by Saudi courts of their divorce through text message, as reported by The Telegraph. Previous to the new law, men could file for divorce without informing their wives, a practice known as secret divorce. While the law has been praised as “a step aimed at protecting the rights of female clients,” by the Saudi Ministry of Justice via Al Jazeera, critics argue the new law does nothing in ensuring alimony or custody of children.

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Jan. 8

TORNILLO, TEXAS, UNITED STATES

The Baptist Child & Family Services detention center in Tornillo will close by the end of January. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services confirmed Jan. 8 via VICE after CEO Kevin Dinnin refused to accept any additional minors. The detention center, built to hold only 400, was over capacity at 2,800

by December. Dinnin sent a letter to HHS on Dec. 17, stating, “We as an organization finally drew the line. You can’t keep taking children in and not releasing them.” While the HHS denies they were closing the facility as a punitive measure, the agency moved to close their operations shortly after Dinnin’s letter.

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Jan. 8

BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, a radio telescope located in British Columbia, has detected a “mysterious repeating radio signal from distant space,” the Huffington Post reports. The fast radio burst repeated a signal six times in what is only the second FRB to be recorded. “Until now, there was only one known repeating FRB,” said a member of CHIME Ingrid Stairs through Science Daily. “With more repeaters and more sources available for study, we may be able to understand these cosmic puzzles—where they’re from and what causes them.” The discovery was announced on Jan. 8 in the scientific journal Nature.

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Jan. 8

MANILA, PHILIPPINES

During a speech to local officials, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte suggested kidnapping and torturing auditors within his administration, claiming they “always make things difficult,” as reported by Al Jazeera. The Commission on Audit is tasked with closely tracking government expenditures and has previously questioned the president’s financial decisions.

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Jan. 9

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EGYPT

Ahmed Douma, a leading activist in the 2011 Egyptian Revolution denouncing former President Hosni Mubarak, was sentenced in a retrial to 15 years jail time and a fine of $335,000, Middle East Eye reports. Douma was originally sentenced in 2015 to 25 years in prison. However, in 2017 the courts overturned the ruling, calling for a retrial. Douma was one of three founding members of the April 6 Youth Movement, an activist group which denounced the rule of Mubarak as well as the Muslim Brotherhood and the current military rule.

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Jan. 9–11

BANGKOK, THAILAND; CANADA

Saudi teenager Rahaf Mohammed al-Qunun arrived in Canada under asylum granted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Jan. 11 after fleeing her abusive family, as reported by Al Jazeera. Al-Qunun, who claims she feared for her life, boarded herself inside an airport hotel in Thailand’s capital after her passport was apprehend by authorities on Jan. 5, Sky News reports. Her father and brother arrived in the country in an attempt to see her on Jan. 8, and on Jan. 9 she was granted refugee status by the UN High Commissioner.

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Jan. 10

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán gave his support during a press conference for the formation of a right-wing, anti-immigrant alliance in European Parliamentary elections scheduled for May, Deutsche Welle reports. Orbán denounced French President Emmanuel Macron and German politicians, while praising right-wing Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini for preventing immigration into Italy, which includes denial of entry to asylum seekers stranded in the Mediterranean Sea. Orbán said recently in an interview, “We don’t see these people as Muslim refugees. We see them as Muslim invaders,” referring to the influx of refugees from Muslim-majority countries.

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Jan. 10

Despite the continued economic fallout in Venezuela and what was widely regarded as a sham election by the international community, President Nicolás Maduro was sworn in for another six-year term. According to The Economist, the ceremony would normally be conducted before the National Assembly, however due to the rift between Maduro and the opposition-controlled Assembly surrounding the elections, Maduro was sworn in front of the Supreme Court instead.

SRI LANKA

Major General Shavendra Silva was appointed to Sri Lanka’s second highest military rank

by President Maithripala Sirisena, despite allegations by the UN of being a war criminal during the country’s 37-year civil war. Al Jazeera reports Silva is accused by the UN of commanding a division which intentionally conducted attacks against hospitals, food distribution centers and Internally Displaced Person camps. A statement released by the International Truth & Justice Project claimed these attacks resulted in “tens of thousands of civilian deaths in a matter of months.”

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Jan. 10

CAIRO, EGYPT

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a keynote speech at the American University in Cairo calling for increased military efforts to combat Iranian forces in Syria as part of the Trump administration’s Middle East vision. However, he also ensured the U.S. was keeping with its plan of withdrawing troops from Syria. “In falsely seeing ourselves as a force for what ails the Middle East, we were timid about asserting ourselves when the times—and our partners—demanded it,” he said as quoted by NPR while referring to policies under former President Barack Obama.

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Jan. 12–13

PARIS, FRANCE

Hundreds of rescue workers responded to a gas explosion at a central Parisian bakery on Jan. 12 which left dozens injured and at least four killed, Deutsche Welle reports. Two firefighters and a tourist visiting from Spain were originally among those killed by the explosion, but a fourth victim was found Jan. 13 as more than 30 firefighters searched for others who may have been injured or killed. The blast destroyed the building housing the bakery while damaging 12 others and leaving dozens of people temporarily without homes.

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VENEZUELA

Jan. 10

Ongoing

SERBIA

Protests continue across Serbia for the sixth consecutive week as demonstrators denounce President Aleksandar Vucic. Deutsche Welle reported around 40,000 people protested in the most recent demonstrations on Jan. 12, calling for journalistic freedom and governmental transparency. Protesters carried a banner showing a shirt stained with blood as a reference to the November assault of Borko Stefanovic, leader of the leftist party Levica Srbije, which, while the case remains unsolved, is largely believed to be the work of the Vucic Serbian Progressive Party.

The popular slogan “one in five million” (#1od5miliona) was adopted after Vucic said he would continue to denounce protesters “even if there were five million people in the street.”

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COVER

le s s money, m WHO’S INVOLVED?

ADMINISTRATION President Rahmat Shoureshi joined with all other state university presidents, warning of cuts to student services and academic programs if they don’t get more resources.

In addition, delays to renovations are all but assured due to delays in funding for capital projects. PSU is seeking additional investment from the state, but is challenged to increase “student success” and reduce debt. Any tuition increases over five percent are subject to review and rejection by the state.

LEGISLATORS State lawmakers have massive public pension hole in every budget for the foreseeable future, making it even more difficult than usual to give everyone what they want. A member of the legislature’s Student Success Committee defined “student success” as making it through the system, and graduating on time with minimal debt.

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PSU BRACES FOR Students and faculty in the midst of looming cuts as state legislators and Portland State administrators struggle to balance competing funding priorities.

PSU’s top governmental affairs executive outlined a scenario for the university’s Board of Trustees that will result in extensive cuts to student and academic services unless the university can take advantage of a $1.9 billion tax program package proposed by Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, which is currently unfunded.

Associate Vice President of Government Relations Kevin Neely described a $20 million cut to higher education funding across all of Oregon’s public universities, which would translate to a $1.5 million reduction in 2019 for the engineering college at PSU, over $1 million in lost scholarship funds for athletics and graduate admissions and almost certain delays to renovations.

The largest impact for students is the $3.5 million reduction in PSU’s general operating account, which could lead to double-digit tuition increases.

If lawmakers are able to fund Brown’s investment package and PSU gets on board with a new revenue model that shares higher education funding across all public universities in Oregon, approximately $120 million additional revenue PSU receives would only go to maintaining current levels of affordability and services, according to Neely.

The university’s standard for affordability means tuition increases below five percent. Increases over that amount trigger review from Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission.

HECC rejected a nine percent tuition increase by PSU’s Board of Trustees in 2017. The board reduced the increase to 5.45 percent after a last-minute effort by the governor’s office secured an additional $70 million for higher education.

Until recently, there was no official criteria for approving or re-

jecting tuition increases of more than five percent.

Last December, HECC proposed new criteria that “Barring extraordinary circumstances...shall constitute the only criteria the Commission will employ during the tuition review process.”

Last year, student pressure on the administration squeezed an extra one percent reduction in tuition increases by forcing administrators to draw on PSU’s rainy day fund. This year, some student government representatives are pursuing more ambitious strategies.

Associated Students of Portland State Legislative Affairs Director Camilo Assad said when approached

by Neely about organizing student lobbying efforts in the capitol, they refused unless the administration made a commitment to not only refrain from raising tuition, but also to pursue an eventual fiscal model that eliminates it entirely.

Whether ASPSU will maintain that strategy remains to be seen, however.

“We are still discussing as an organization what it would mean to refuse to lobby the state legislature, as there are many other issues we want our representatives to work on,” said ASPSU president Luis Balderas Villagrana. “Our goal as ASPSU will always be no tuition increases and moving toward zero tuition.”

Students aren’t the only ones feeling the pressure of looming budget shortfalls.

In her monthly report to the faculty senate, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Susan Jeffords expressed a budget outlook that was less than optimistic.

“There is...mixed information,” Jeffords said. “Not mixed in the sense that it could be wildly optimistic and wildly negative—it is mixed about the degree of negativity.”

One of Jeffords’ priorities when starting at PSU last August was a reorganization of the Office of Academic Affairs to include administrative positions for faculty members. That reorganization has been

COVER

more problems FACULTY

R BUDGET BATTLES postponed as the university gears up for conversations about funding priorities.

“As we’re going forward with a budget conversation that is not positive, it seems not responsible for me to create new administrative positions,” Jeffords said.

Amid ongoing hiring freezes for several schools and colleges, at least one faculty senator has questioned instances where administrators retain their higher salaries when they transition to a faculty position.

Faculty positions are typically paid less than those of administrators.

“Paying full salaries to administrators after they return to schools and colleges reduces funds available for other faculty lines and increases salary inequities that PSU has sought to reduce in recent AAUP-PSU contracts,” read a statement submitted to the faculty senate.

At a City Club Friday Forum meeting on Jan. 11, Oregon’s legislative leaders discussed their legislative priorities, which included education, but it’s only one piece of the overall budget puzzle, with higher education funding being a further subset of education priorities.

“Our number one job is passing a budget,” said Jennifer Williamson, the majority leader in Oregon’s House of Representatives. “A budget in my mind is a moral document. It tells us what we value and where we spend our money.”

In addition to funding institutions of higher education, legislators are also tasked with allocating Oregon’s nearly $11 billion in tax revenue using the budget proposed by the governor’s office as a starting point for their own budget deliberations.

The proposal lawmakers were given included $1.9 billion in additional tax programs, which includes additional revenue for Oregon’s universities.

The catch is none of the programs included in the investment package currently have sources of funding.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick hinted at where some of this money may come from. “Our senate chairman anticipates something along the lines of an increase in

business taxes, hopefully as fair and as broad-based as possible,” Burdick said. Perhaps combined with a reduction in personal income tax rates.

Burdick pointed out that since the passage of Measure 5 in 1990, the ratio of tax money coming in for corporations has fallen significantly compared to revenue from individuals.

“Business did not support Measure 5, so don’t blame them,” Burdick added. “We did it to ourselves.”

Another issue includes the approximately $23.5 billion in unfunded obligations to retired public employees through the Public Employees Retirement System, which lawmakers from both parties have struggled to get under control for years.

“PERS casts its shadow over everything financial in the legislature,” said Carl Wilson, the Republican Senate Minority leader in the upcoming legislative session. Wilson is also on the Student Success committee, which spent nine months traveling the state talking to stakeholders including children and their parents, retired teachers, current teachers, school board members and members of the public.

“It’s very very difficult to consider monetary requests, and especially the large ones, when you realize over 30 percent of that request will probably wind up going to try to satisfy the gaping hole which is PERS.” In addition to the $120 million in the governor’s investment package, the university is seeking an additional $60 million in investment.

“That number really comes from the HECC’s analysis of our budget,” Neely said. “If the HECC thinks that’s good then we can stand behind it.”

Those additional funds would be focused on debt reduction and student success, Neely said.

“Right now we just define [student success] as getting a kid through school,” Wilson said. “Initially it is getting them through the system.”

Several schools and colleges are already facing hiring freezes.

Academic services and administrative priorities have been postponed in the face of imminent conversations about funding priorities, while questions about salary inequities have been raised by at least one faculty senator.

GOVERNOR’S OFFICE

Brown’s office released a budget proposal giving no additional funds for higher education over the next two years, which translates to $20 million cut across the state, and at least $6 million cut for PSU. There is an alternative proposal for more higher education funding, but lawmakers would need to find an extra $1.9 billion somewhere.

STUDENTS ASPSU is considering refusal to lobby state lawmakers for additional funding without commitment from administration to no tuition increases and eventually tuition-free education. The student government’s Legislative Affairs Committee released 10-point program for PSU students, including call for abolition of tuition and education as a social right.

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INTERNATIONAL

BOLSONARO AGAINST INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

SUDANESE CALLING FOR FOOD AND FREEDOM SUDAN PROTESTS AGAINST PRESIDENT BASHIR SABRINA ACHCAR-WINKELS

MADISON CECIL Following his inauguration on Jan. 1, the new Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro assigned the task of certifying indigenous lands as protected areas to the Ministry of Agriculture, which originally fell within the jurisdiction of the National Indian Foundation.

Bolsonaro’s executive order gives the government body responsibility of “identification, delimitation, demarcation and registration of lands traditionally occupied by indigenous people.”

The Ministry of Agriculture has a legislative history of expanding and commercializing previously protected environmental areas. The authority to certify these lands once belonged to the National Indian Foundation, which protects the rights of indigenous communities throughout Brazil.

Bolsonaro justified his executive order in a tweet on Jan. 2. “Fewer than a million people live in those isolated areas of Brazil, and they are exploited and manipulated by nongovernmental organizations,” he stated. “Together we’re going to integrate those citizens and take care of all Brazilians.”

According to CNBC, Brazil has a population of about 900,000 indigenous people. These people make up less than one percent of the country’s population, and live on over 250 million acres of protected land. During his campaign, Bolsonaro promised, “If I become president, there will not be one centimeter more of indigenous land.”

A majority of the indigenous lands now overseen by the Brazilian Ministry of Agriculture are located in the eastern section of the Amazon rainforest. Commercialization or appropriation of land would provide resources and boost the country’s economy, but could also lead to negative environmental and sociological effects.

“We don’t want to be wiped out by this government’s actions.

Our lands play a vital role in maintaining biodiversity,” the Aruak, Baniwa and Apurinã tribes wrote in a letter addressed to the president. “We are people, human beings, we have blood like you do, Mr. President, we’re born, we grow…and then we die on our sacred land, like any person on Earth. We’re ready for dialogue, but we’re also ready to defend ourselves.”

Survival International—a nonprofit organization that works with tribal people around the world to improve living conditions—is currently advocating for the protection of indigenous lands in Brazil. This organization has worked closely with the Guajajara tribe, which protects what remains of the eastern Amazon rainforest they live in. Some statements have estimated up to 80 members of the Guajajara tribe have been killed since 2000.

“The Bolsonaro government is giving the butcher an opportunity to be more violent with those who, throughout history, were its main victims,” stated Marina Silva, Brazil’s former environmental minister and presidential candidate, in a tweet in response to the executive order.”

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PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 15, 2019 • psuvanguard.com

The people of Atbara, Sudan took to the streets on Dec. 19 to protest the tripling of bread prices as a result of losing government bread subsidies in 2018. The most recent protests called for the dismissal of Sudan President Omar alBashir instead of demanding the renewal of bread subsidies.

As NPR reports, the protests are the result of skyrocketing prices. Sudan has seen a 70 percent increase in inflation since the secession of oil-rich South Sudan in 2011.

“Freedom, peace, justice and the downfall of the regime” was chanted throughout the streets of Sudan, according to The Washington Post.

“It’s not about economics,” a protester named Wael told NPR. “They [al-Bashir’s government] are not going to improve the country. I am 25 years old. I cannot see my future

Security forces have exercised excessive force against peaceful protestors, using tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition. Local journalists put the death toll much higher. According to The New York Times, up to 28 have died in clashes, while Human Rights Watch currently estimates the death toll at 40.

The Sudanese Professional Association, an organization behind the Dec. 25 and Jan. 9 rallies, submitted a memorandum to the Parliament to “demand the regime give up the political and executive power to the Sudanese people who flooded the cities with their sole demand to end the regime’s 30 years of dictatorship.” However, the Sudanese government denounced the legitimacy of the association. “We rejected the memorandum because the Sudanese Professionals Association is not a

LEFT TO RIGHT, ONE SUDANESE POUND, 50 PIASTRES, 20 PIASTRES, 10 PIASTRES, 5 PIASTRES AND ONE PIASTRES. CURRENTLY, ONE SUDANESE POUND IS EQUVILALENT TO $0.021 U.S. COURTESY OF WIKIMEDIA COMMONS here inside this country.”

The Sudanese government officially declared a state of emergency with curfews enforced in the capital Khartoum, Port Sudan, Atbara and Omdurman where demonstrations were held. The government has silenced national papers and shut down universities and schools as means to deter further protests. Authorities have arrested over 800 demonstrators and 14 leaders of the opposition group, National Consensus Forces. 19 demonstrators have died—according to an estimate by the UN—as a result of clashes between protestors and Sudan’s security forces since they began on Dec. 19.

legitimate legal body whose origin is not known,” said Interior Minister Ahmed Bilal.

In response to the Sudanese protests, President al-Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Crimes Court, promised economic measures including continued subsidies on basic food items and an increase in wages. The president blamed the protests on infiltrators looking for a way to exploit the economic hardships faced in Sudan.

“The regime is panicking,” said Hafiz Ismail Mohamed, an activist with nongovernmental organization Justice Africa to The New York Times. “I have never seen them panicking like this.”

INTERNATIONAL

EL-SISI DENIES PRESENCE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS LUKAS AMSDEN

IN 2015, PEOPLE GATHERED IN LONDON TO PROTEST THE VISIT OF EGYPTIAN PRESIDENT ABDEL FATAH EL-SISI, IN LIGHT OF HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE ALLEGATIONS IN EGYPT. COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS

UNITED STATES INTENSIFIES BOMBING IN SYRIA

CBS aired a 60 Minutes segment on Sunday, Jan. 6 featuring an interview with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi despite backlash from the Egyptian government. In the interview, President el-Sisi denied the presence of political prisoners in Egypt.

“I said there are no political prisoners in Egypt,” el-Sisi said. “Whenever there is a minority trying to impose their extremist ideology we have to intervene regardless of their numbers.”

El-Sisi’s statement is at odds with Human Rights Watch, which estimates the number of political prisoners in Egypt to be around 60,000.

“President Al-Sisi’s misinformation is laughable, fools no one and is a poor attempt to conceal serious abuses under his authority, including possible crimes against humanity,” stated Michael Page, deputy Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, according to the organization’s website. “Several of his answers even contradicted the government’s own official statements.”

Shortly after the interview took place, the Egyptian ambassador told the 60 Minutes team they could not air the interview as reported by CBS News.

Second only to Israel, Egypt receives nearly $1.5 billion in aid from the United States annually. Interviewer Scott Pelley questioned whether the American people should continue funding a government that may be a repressive dictatorship.

“They’re investing in security and stability in the region. The United States is in charge of security worldwide,” el-Sisi countered.

The Egyptian president has been criticized internationally for extreme measures including the persecution of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition party and the massacre at Rabaa square, where over 800 opposition protesters were killed.

Amnesty International reports Egyptian authorities employ solitary confinement as a means of torturing political prisoners.

They have documented 36 cases of prisoners being held in prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement, six of them are unlawfully isolated from the outside world since 2013, according to the organization’s website.

to how long the U.S. air attacks will continue.

In the past month, the U.S. campaign bombed villages in and around Al Kashmah, targeting civilian areas such as internet cafes, which operate as essential forms of communication for the ISIL fighters. The U.S. military has admitted to killing 1,139 civilians in Iraq and Syria since the beginning of the campaign in 2014 against ISIL. Monitoring groups such as Airwars contest the U.S. death toll with an estimated 7,308 and 11,629 civilians killed. “[U.S. military] like to disrupt and mess everything up,” an ISIL fighter said in an interview with Al Jazeera. “They bombed the places where they sell gasoline for the motor,

or they sell cooking oil or where they filter the water—they bomb all these places. Not just the net, they bomb everything just to make your life horrible.”

A three-day ceasefire has been negotiated between ISIL and the Kurds, a significant onthe-ground ally to the U.S., in order to provide food and humanitarian aid. An ISIL fighter familiar with the talks leaked the ceasefire may extend to six months, which would serve to bolster the Kurdish forces against a potential two-front attack by the Turkish army.

The U.S. continues plans to drop bombs on Deir ez-Zor despite the disengagement of the Kurds against ISIL fighters.

EMILY PRICE Despite President Donald Trump’s announcement of a full withdrawal from Syria by mid-January, the United States has intensified bomb campaigns in the eastern territories held by Iraq and Levant forces.

The most violent attacks occurred this past week—the bombing of civilian village Al Kashmah—forcing families to flee south. It is estimated 50,000–60,000 people and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant fighters still remain in the area, according to an anonymous civilian activist. “The civilians in these areas have no place to go or hide from the U.S. bombardment of their villages,” the activist said.

Dense rural areas such as the villages in Deir ez-Zor carry a high risk for civilians as

remaining ISIL fighters flee the cities from Kurdish-led forces.

The Yarmouk Hospital—said to be the last remaining public health facility to treat civilians in the area—was bombed without warning by U.S. forces in violation of international humanitarian law. “The U.S. could not attack the hospital without warning it first and without giving the hospital a reasonable amount of time to either stop ISIS from using it or to evacuate civilian personnel and wounded [people],” said Kevin Jon Heller, a professor of International Law at Australia University and University of Amsterdam.

President Trump declined a timeline for retracting troops, and it remains unclear as

RUINS OF THE 2018 AMERICAN-LED BOMBING OF DAMASCUS AND HOMS. THE U.S. HAS INTENSIFIED ITS BOMBING CAMPAIGN IN AREAS OF THE COUNTRY STILL HELD BY ISIL. COURTESY OF CREATIVE COMMONS

PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 15, 2019 • psuvanguard.com

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OPINION

THE GOLDEN PARACHUTE IN CORPORATE AMERICA

CORPORATE EXECUTIVES ARE DOING THE BARE MINIMUM WHILE GAINING THE MOST TAYLAR RIVERS When corporations fall apart, usually the employees suffer too. In the case of high-ranking executives, when their companies start to crumble they get rich...well, richer.

The seemingly fall from grace that corporate executives experience as they exit their respective companies are cushioned by a shiny, golden parachute. This parachute consists of significant financial benefits to an employee—usually higher level—upon termination. As defined by Investopedia, these financial benefits may include but are not limited to cash, stock options and generous severance pay.

Corporate America reigns to be a seemingly elite society where anything goes. Where money is involved, problems tend to follow. Those who are employed by corporations are responsible for working and making the best decisions to benefit the company. Despite this, the ethics begin to get a little cloudy when a monetary incentive leads one to act out of personal interest.

The lucrative setup currently in place really offers a disincentive for officials to do their best for an organization. On the off chance a president or chief financial officer gets a payout—which is frequently significantly more than their standard compensation and reward—it can be progressively productive for them to perform inadequately and get terminated than to succeed, according to a study conducted by Associated Press.

It’s not that severance packages being allocated to employees is unusual, because in the business world it is common practice.

The problem lies not in the mere existence of guaranteeing your employees financial security but the difference in the discrepancy between the payouts of mid-level employees and high ranking executives.

The dollar amount of the average employee is usually based on the time they have put into the company.

According to a study led by Bloomberg, the payouts of CEO’s ranged from $55 million to $358 million. There is virtually no comparison to the average level employees’ payout, which amounts to not even a quarter of their severance.

The bar is relatively high for these employees in comparison to the executives who are guaranteed high sums of money regardless of their performance.

Creating this unfair environment disputes the notion money is the reward for hard work.

Not only are these executives with golden parachutes making it harder to invest in companies and reap benefits as a shareholder, but they are further stretching the wealth gap. While the average man is being told pull himself up by the bootstraps and work harder, the wealthy are fired and given large sums of money for not working hard.

A study done by graduates of Harvard Law School, “Golden Parachutes and the Wealth of Shareholders,” shows “companies that adopted golden parachutes have lower (risk-adjusted) stock returns relative to those that didn’t—both during the two-year period surrounding the adoption and in the next several years.”

What all of that means is the average day investor is suffering and being subjected to faulty stock options as a result of hefty golden parachutes.

The capitalist society we live in is framed around financial motivation.

We work to get money. In this case, the golden parachute that is guaranteed to executives is going against that entire framework.

LISA DORN

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PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 15, 2019 • psuvanguard.com

OPINION

HARMING SURVIVORS, SAVING DOLLARS

TITLE IX CHANGES PUT MONEY AHEAD OF STUDENTS DELANEY WHITE It’s no secret Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos hasn’t been the loudest advocate for students. In fact, she’s barely been an advocate at all. In her latest initiative—a reworking of how universities can implement a revised Title IX rule—DeVos places herself deeper in universities’ pockets and out of touch with student needs.

ROBBY DAY

Title IX, implemented in 1972, is used to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity and sexual orientation in federally funded education programs.

Typically associated with athletic teams and departments, the Title IX office on college campuses has the responsibility of investigating and prosecuting sexual assault

allegations. The rewording and addition of new regulations directly address how much leeway a school has in actually carrying out this responsibility.

Repealing Obama-era language, DeVos has mandated there must be “clear and convincing evidence” of a sexual crime that is “so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive” that it denies a person access to an education.

The new regulations reflect the stance the Trump administration has taken on regarding sexual assault and the #MeToo movement: Men are being targeted by lying women.

By rewriting what Title IX considers sexual assault and harassment, survivors are even more discouraged to report the crime committed. They are left feeling like their experience doesn’t measure up to the standards set—or even worse, they aren’t deemed within the realm of an investigation after reporting. Fear of revictimization by the system is already valid—now it becomes even more of a reality.

Advocate group End Rape on Campus has spoken out against the changes in their “Dear Betsy” campaign. The group stated they “would have massive implications for campus safety, and would be devastating for survivors.” Nocontact orders would have to be mutually agreed upon, and nothing could be implemented that would burden or seem to punish those accused.

In an even more bizarre turn of events, a court in Georgia ruled rape as a one-time event by a stranger may not have to be investigated because it is not “pervasive.”

Looking beyond the criminals who would go free, the real beneficiaries here are the high-profile colleges who lobbied for these changes.

Universities would only have to investigate accusations that are reported directly to designated administrators who are typically out of reach. Only this handful of staff members would have actual knowledge of a report being made, and beyond them, the school isn’t liable or mandated to investigate. The institution can only be held accountable if they are being “deliberately indifferent,” which would only be invoked if the designated administrators had the knowledge and did nothing about it.

The idea is for sexual assault to be difficult to report, hard to investigate and near impossible to prosecute.

Right now, these changes are going through a public opinion period. Once that passes, though, they will have the effect of law without having ever been approved by Congress.

It seems ridiculous any university would support policy changes that are obviously harmful to their student body, but it seems money is the best motivator. Schools would save between $286 to $367 million over the next decade once these changes are cemented, according to the Department of Education.

The changes to Title IX seems like a high price to pay with 34 percent of sexual assault victims dropping out of school, according to a study conducted by the University of Texas at Arlington.

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ARTS & CULTURE CERVANTÉ POPE Needless to say, girls, women and femmes typically get the shit end of the societal stick. That’s something Madison Sturdevant simply couldn’t deal with anymore, particularly in the realm of music, so she decided to do something about it—and that’s how Girl Fest came into play.

“I was blogging for a couple of local music publications and it drove me crazy how 90 percent of the submissions we received were from male artists,” Sturdevant said. “Where were the women at? I knew our music community was diverse, but I wasn’t seeing it!”

Many other young women around Portland weren’t seeing that diversity either. As the director and founder of Girl Fest— Portland’s sole yearly showcase supporting only female or female-identifying artists—Sturdevant saw a hole that needed filling, and that’s exactly what she did. Successfully.

Started in 2014, Girl Fest has steadily built over the years in its level of support, liveliness and overall growth. However, all of that hasn’t come without a bit of backlash to Sturdevant’s needed efforts.

“I still receive Facebook messages every year from people who are upset by some element of the event, whether it’s men who feel excluded or women who think the word ‘girl’ is offensive,” Sturdevant said. “But, you know what? I know what Girl Fest stands for and Girl Fest receives so much more love than hate, so I don’t let any of it get under my skin.”

Sturdevant is right—the amount of love felt in the room at this year’s festival on Jan. 10 was teeming. Holocene was essentially packed to the brim with enthusiasts flocking in to support the six artists on the bill for that night. Sturdevant has always kept the lineups for Girl Fest pretty diverse when it comes to genre styles, which definitely helps in filling a venue up.

DJ Kween Kay$h and WHATEVERYN took their turns on the lower level of Holocene as people dropped it low to the spun tunes. Intimate and emotional performances from Cry Babe and Scooty pulled the older crowd away from the bar momentarily to enjoy, but the high-intensity vivacity of KayelaJ’s and Dirty Princess’ performances kept them locked near the stage for the entirety of the sets.

Keeping Girl Fest all-ages is as important to Sturdevant as booking a variety of music styles. She’s felt very fortunate in being able to do both, especially with booking artists she considers some of her favorites.

“I feel so lucky that I’ve gotten to book most of the artists I’ve wanted to over the years,” Sturdevant said, listing Coco Columbia, Haley Heynderickx, Blossom, the Last Artful Dodgr, Karma Rivera and Paris Alexa among some of her highlights.

In the future, she’d love to see Blimes Brixton and Candace on a Girl Fest bill for their “bad-assery.” Though she finds the process of trying to top the previous year’s lineup panic-inducing, the scouring for good, original sounding artists she does throughout the year ultimately pays off in impressing her and the festival’s crowd.

“Every year, Portland blows me away with its talented, hardworking women,” Sturdevant said. “I’m also watching who’s presenting themselves with the most authenticity and who’s helping other women on their way up. Those are the kinds of artists I want to spotlight.”

The sense of community Girl Fest provides is undeniable. Any woman who has worked in a male-dominated field knows that comradery and understanding are paramount, and Sturdevant is adamant about her festival continuing to provide that.

“I want to keep supporting the women in this community and keep growing,” she said. It’s been a long road traveled, but Sturdevant is proud of the work she and Portland as a whole have done in growing support for female artists and creatives.

“Back in 2014, I really had to dig to find artists for the lineup, but now we’ve got a plethora of talented women making waves.”

She won’t go into detail, but she’s got a lot more in store for Girl Fest in the coming months. No matter what’s exactly in the cards, it’s sure to encourage female artistry and promote positivity during a time when it’s needed most.

“I know the current political climate often makes it feel like all things are terrible, but the ugliness of the past couple of years has only fired us all up to fight harder,” she said. “Women are killing it.”

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PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 15, 2019 • psuvanguard.com

KICKING ASS AND TAKING THE STAGE GIRL FEST IS ALL ABOUT GIVING ZERO FUCKS ABOUT MALE-DOMINATION IN MUSIC

CESKA CHEETAH OF DIRTY PRINCESS PERFORMS AT GIRL FEST 2019. CERVANTÉ POPE/ PSU VANGUARD

ARTS & CULTURE

EVIL TEENAGER RUNS FOR PRESIDENT

ARTISTS REP BRINGS MIKE LEW’S ‘TEENAGE DICK’ TO THE STAGE

LEFT TO RIGHT, ALEX RAMIREZ DE CRUZ, AND CHRISTOPHER IMBROSCIANO PERFORM THEIR ROLES IN ‘TEENAGE DICK.’ COURTESY OF DAVID KINDER

RYAN O’CONNELL Mike Lew’s Teenage Dick at Artists Repertory Theatre, directed by Josh Hecht, adapts Shakespeare’s Tragedy of King Richard III to the drama-prone environs of a present day high school. 17-year-old Richard Gloucester, played with grit, humor and incredible energy by Christopher Imbrosciano, schemes with sinister sneakiness to unseat quarterback and class president Eddie Ivy and steal his girlfriend.

Imbrosciano brings wide experience and believable teenage energy to his role. He has performed off-Broadway at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and in London’s West End, among other venues. Like Richard, Imbrosciano has cerebral palsy, a neurological disorder that affects a person’s motor skills, balance and muscular strength.

Teenage Richard’s disability does not come close to the exaggerated condition of Shakespeare’s Richard. But then again, neither did the historical English king. When the remains of King Richard III were discovered in 2012, the real man did not match Shakespeare’s villain. Severe scoliosis curved his spine, but it didn’t give him a hump on his back nor did it even prevent him from riding into battle.

Shakespeare’s Richard, on the other hand, claims to be so malformed that dogs bark at him. His own love interest calls him a “dreadful minister of hell.” As human beings will do, Richard turns his pain to malevolence: “I am determined to prove a villain/And hate the idle pleasures of these days.”

While Shakespeare connected his hunchbacked villain’s physical malady to his evil nature, Lew dissociates young Richard’s disability from his immoral actions. “Under Elizabethan conventions,” Lew stated in an interview with

the Playwrights Foundation, “Richard is evil because he’s disabled. Today, we tend to think of the disabled as sainted just because they’re disabled. Both of these constructs are traps.”

Teenage Dick leads audiences away from this trap toward a truth: A person with a disability can be any kind of person.

Lew has received a PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award among other honors and is a Mellon Foundation National Playwright Resident at Ma-Yi Theater in New York. Teenage Dick was a New York Times Critic’s Pick during its original production off-Broadway last year.

The idea for Teenage Dick was conceived by Gregg Mozgala, an actor with cerebral palsy and director of The Apothetae, a theater company examining what it calls the Disabled Experience. Mozgala commissioned Lew to write the play.

Tess Raunig makes their professional debut as Richard’s best friend, Buck. Like Imbrosciano, Raunig has a disability similar to their character’s, which aligns with the playwright’s intention to cast disabled actors in these parts. Raunig’s expressive use of their wheelchair makes Buck real—and funny.

In the play’s best bit of physical comedy, Buck tears up an enemy’s campaign poster and runs over it repeatedly with both wheels. This brand of comic relief brought bursts of laughter throughout the play. However, the audience seemed less comfortable laughing in moments of dark humor obtained at the expense of either disabled character—probably the well-intentioned reaction of a sensitive audience.

Kailey Rhodes, who plays Anne Margaret, returns to Artists Rep for her third production after most recently appearing in

An Octoroon. Queen of the school Anne Margaret could not exist without Rhodes’ physical skill honed as a dance teacher at Northwest Academy.

Anne’s complicated nature belies the stereotype she is supposed to fit into. She may be the most popular girl at Roseland High and may have dated the quarterback, but she longs to escape her small town. Anne pops out of her two-dimensional stock character mold when she retreats from trauma by dancing alone every day, falls for the misfit Richard and finally declares her independence as a female character no longer bound to the arm of a leading man. No spoilers, but this declaration involves a bucket of blood.

The rest of the cast charms even in their less complicated roles. Ayanna Berkshire, a resident artist in her fourth season with Artists Rep, plays the whimsical, naive English teacher Elizabeth York. Nick Ferrucci, who recently appeared in Third Rail Repertory’s John, pulls off the slouching varsity douchebag Eddie with great comedic instinct. Alex Ramirez de Cruz, returning to Artists Rep after last season’s An Octoroon, also works on devised theatre with String House. She plays the near-stock, bible-thumping Clarissa for more laughs in a funny, melancholic and sometimes creepy production that ultimately accomplishes its mission.

Teenage Dick appears through Feb. 3, including both weekend and weekday shows, at Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison Street. For more information or to purchase tickets go to artistsrep.org

PSU Vanguard • JANUARY 15, 2019 • psuvanguard.com

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Cervanté Pope

JAN 15–JAN 21 ART TUES JAN 15

“CHASING SOPHIA” BY MILES CLEVELAND GOODWIN FROELICK GALLERY 10 A.M–4 P.M. • ENTRY FEE INCLUDED WITH GALLERY ADMISSION These dark, emotive and reflective pieces by Goodwin are only on display until Jan. 19, so it’s best to see their expressiveness while you can.

MUSIC JACOB BANKS, JAMIE N. COMMONS WONDER BALLROOM 8:30 P.M. • $22 Nigeria-born and England-bred, Jacob Banks’ sonic scope blends richly developed African beats with finely crafted 808 and synth play for an all-around interesting and enjoyable sound.

FILM & THEATRE

COMMUNITY

IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK CINEMA 21 THROUGH JAN. 17: DAILY 4:00, 6:45, 9:15 P.M. PLUS SAT–SUN 1:15 P.M. $10 ($9 WITH STUDENT ID) The director of Moonlight tells a tale of a lovelorn Harlem couple torn apart by a crime one of them didn’t commit.

WOMEN AND TRANS BIKE NIGHT BIKE FARM 5–8 P.M. • FREE This safe event for women and trans riders to bond with each other happens every first and third Tuesday of the month, so mark your calendars.

SURFER ROSIE, CAY IS OKAY, WAYSIDE GHOST MISSISSIPPI STUDIOS 8 P.M. • $6-8 • 21+ Grunge meets moody pop with Surfer Rosie’s indelible sounds.

SHOPLIFTERS LIVING ROOM THEATER 11:50 A.M., 2:00, 4:40, 7:15, 9:50 P.M. • $11 ($8 WITH STUDENT ID) A family of shoplifters adopts a little girl they found in the freezing cold and navigate how to incorporate this new being into their present life.

STREET FIGHTER V TOURNAMENT BLACK WATER 7–11 P.M. • $10 Street Fighter champions unite!

A $10 registration fee grants you a chance to battle it out for a cash prize.

KRISTINA COLLANTES, LEONARDO SANTAMARIA, SHOKO ISHIDA NUCLEUS PORTLAND 12–5 P.M. • FREE Dreamy and lost faces are the running theme of this three-person art exhibit on display until Jan. 30.

TORO Y MOI DJ SET 45 EAST 9 P.M. • $20 • 21+ Toro Y Moi’s catchy, indie beats have delighted many for over a decade now. That catchiness is sure to translate over to whatever he spins tonight.

DRAG DANGERZONE: A DRAG OPEN MIC CRUSH 9 P.M. • $7 • 21+ The first of the year, this Drag Dangerzone’s theme is art. Join host Valerie DeVille in taking in all the amazing performances.

ROSE CITY CLASSIC DOG SHOW PORTLAND EXPO CENTER 7:30 A.M., RUNS UNTIL JAN. 20 • $10–30 Start your day the puppy way by checking out some doggos in this historic dog show.

“VISUAL NARRATIVE: PRINTS THAT TELL A STORY” MULTNOMAH ARTS CENTER 9 A.M–9:30 P.M. • FREE This group show displays various mediums of art from 30 of its 60 members, pieced together to tell a visual story.

SCHOOL OF ROCK: A TRIBUTE TO THE HISTORY OF PORTLAND HOLOCENE 6 P.M. • $12–15 Portland has produced some pretty influential art (hello, Elliott Smith), so the students of the School of Rock will pay tribute to them in this benefit show for the PROWUS music scholarship fund.

THE CAT RETURNS OMSI EMPIRICAL THEATER 7:30 P.M. • $7 It’s kind of like Alice in Wonderland with more cats. Kind of.

GLOW SKATE OAKS AMUSEMENT PARK 7 P.M. • $8 ADMISSION, $2–5 SKATE RENTAL Roller skating is actually really fun.

It’s more fun with free glow sticks, so come rave skate every third Friday of the month until May.

SAT JAN 19

CLAIMING VOICE: EMERGING ARTIST GROUP EXHIBITION PACIFIC NORTHWEST COLLEGE OF ART GALLERY 157 11 A.M.–5 P.M., RUNS UNTIL JAN. 26 • FREE Curated by Sara Siestreem, this group exhibition features mixed media sculpture, painting and printmaking from Kathi Miller, Mark Dunst and others.

SONGS FROM UNDER THE FLOORBOARD: 300TH ANNIVERSARY SHOW BLACK WATER 8 P.M. • $10 • 21+ Dave Cantrell’s beloved post-punk radio show has reached its 300th episode, and Arctic Flowers, We Are Like The Spider and Vice Device are taking the stage to celebrate it.

“MINORITY RETORT” SIREN THEATER 8 P.M. • $10 This month’s showcase of comedians of color features San Francisco-based funny woman Karinda Dobbins.

#METOO SPEAK OUT AND WOMEN’S MARCH TERRY SCHRUNK PLAZA 10 A.M. • FREE Attendees have the opportunity to grab the mic and speak out about their experiences with sexual assault, gender oppression and discrimination.

SUN JAN 20

“SOFT CURSES” STEPHANIE CHEFAS PROJECTS TUE–FRI NOON–6 P.M. • FREE Local artist Anya Roberts-Toney has debuted a new collection of pieces that creatively dissect feminine power and strength. The exhibit is on display until Jan. 31.

PICKATHON 21ST YEAR KICKOFF PARTY REVOLUTION HALL 7 P.M. • FREE WITH RSVP Now that Pickathon is old enough to legally drink, let’s see who’s playing the festival this year. The lineup will be announced at this free party.

LIMELIGHT FIFTH AVENUE CINEMA 3 P.M. • RSVP VIA FACEBOOK The center of this Charlie Chaplin film is definitely the clown ballet.

STUDENT MARCH AGAINST TRUMP SHEMANSKI PARK 12 P.M. • FREE Join fellow students in marching against the tragedy of a cheeto we have to call our president.

“SUN BREATHING” UPFOR GALLERY WED–SAT 11 A.M.–6 P.M.• FREE These works by Rebecca Reeves are influenced by climate change.

METAL MONDAY HOLOCENE 9 P.M. • $5–8 • 21+ Headbang at Holocene for their Metal Monday nights! This one features tech-death act Earth Eater.

THE PASSENGER WHITSELL AUDITORIUM 7 P.M. • $8-10 Jack Nicholson stars in this Michelangelo Antonioni film about a war correspondent who gets caught up in a deadly mix-up in southern Europe.

FRONT PORCH SESSIONS THE SECRET SOCIETY 8 P.M. • $10 Hosted by Chris Williams, this storytelling event is all about community members sharing the stories of their lives.

WED JAN 16

“HOOPS” NATIONALE WED–MON NOON–5 P.M. • FREE Fashion designer and artist Kate Towers brings her two worlds with a variety of stylish yet functional indoor basketball hoops. Guests have until Jan. 22 to shoot in the hoops, but there is no dunking allowed.

THU JAN 17 FRI JAN 18 MON JAN 21