TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2009 • PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY • VOLUME 64, ISSUE 29
Event of the day Put down your books and have a good time as you scribble your cares away in the Art Annex. Fabulous prizes will be awarded to the top three entries at the Scribble! coloring contest. Ages 6 and up are welcome. When: Noon to 2 p.m. Where: Art Annex, 1990 SW Fifth Ave.
WWW.DAILYVANGUARD.COM • FREE
INSIDE OPINION
Halloween’s over, bah humbug! A bit of history on why Halloween is better than any other holiday PAGE 3
Disability Resource Center settles into new home DRC now located on first floor of SMSU, provides variety of accommodations Maeve Connor Vanguard staff
The Disability Resource Center moved to room 116 of Smith Memorial Student Union at the beginning of fall term to be more accessible. Staff is now settling in and deciding what to do with the $2,300 ASPSU gave them. Cathy Symes, a graduate rehabilitation counseling student and ASPSU
NEWS Lady in Lincoln green Portland State professor attends national Robin Hood conference PAGE 4 The Daily Cut Your world in brief PAGE 5
ARTS
Another freakin’ vampire Trek in the Park gets creepy and old school with vampires PAGE 6 Climbing the Sierras in their footsteps Historical and biographical book links past to present PAGE 6
Aaron Leopold/Portland State Vanguard
Left to right: Cathy Symes, Polly Livingston and Darcy Cramer.
Report offers voter insight, suggestions for next election Vanguard staff
SPORTS
Clean sweep Portland State defeats Montana and Montana State in straight sets PAGE 10
dent life, Livingston said. They accomplish this by offering a wide range of services and accommodations, based on the individual needs of each student. The DRC recognizes seven types of disabilities: visually impaired or blind, hard of hearing or deaf, learning disorders or attention deficit/ hyperactivity disorders, orthopedic disabilities, psychological disorders, speech impairment and medical impairments. According to Livingston, when economic times are bad, more students are registered with the DRC with psychological disabilities. Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders and learning disorders are otherwise the most common disabilities. “Disability is defined pretty broadly, but we do require documentation,” said Darcy Cramer, accommodations coordinator at the DRC. It is the student’s responsibility to obtain documentation from a qualified professional. After a student has provided documentation, they can register with the DRC and be eligible for accommodations and services. The goal of the DRC is not to give special
DRC continued on page five
New analysis of 2009 ASPSU elections released Erica DeCouteau
Strong roots St. Frankie Lee uses the past as their toolbox for a new generation of storytelling PAGE 8
senator, made getting the DRC moved to a more accessible location her main campaign last school year. Not only was it difficult for many students with disabilities to access the DRC on the fourth floor of SMSU, Symes was also concerned about safety and whether disabled students would be able to evacuate the center if necessary. Polly Livingston, director of the DRC, shared her concern. “[The first floor] is so excellent for access. I worried about getting people out safely,” Livingston said. Symes was also granted funds by ASPSU to do two safety trainings. One session happened last school year, but the second event never happened and on Oct. 29, the $2,300 that was earmarked for that training was given directly to the DRC. This money is for anything the DRC needs, Symes said, as the DRC is working with a limited budget. The first items purchased will be a refrigerator and a water cooler, and the rest has not been decided. This year they have cut funding for professional development out of their budget, so directing some of the money toward that is one option. The purpose of the DRC is to make sure students with disabilities have full access to academic and stu-
Portland State graduate student Kyle Curtis released his 2009 ASPSU election analysis last month. The report largely focuses on data provided by students who responded to five optional survey questions attached to the online ballot. The elections, held in May of this year, drew only 800 students to the polls—the lowest turnout since the 1998 election, when only 421 votes were cast. In the analysis, Curtis notes that the trend of such low voter turnout indicates that ASPSU elections are a concern to only a select group of students. “The decisions of ASPSU have direct impact on each PSU student, yet an astoundingly small number of PSU students make an effort to influence the shape and character of ASPSU,” Curtis said in the report. According to the report, the
most common voter in the election was a junior in his or her first year at Portland State. The results also indicated that the longer students had been attending Portland State, the less likely they were to participate in student elections. Voter turnout is also affected by the university’s demographics. “Due to the character of Portland State University—an urban campus that is considered a ‘commuter school’ with the majority of students living off-campus—the cohesiveness gained from a strong ‘student life’ is not nearly as present as might be found at other universities,” Curtis said in the report. Complications with the online ballot on the initial day of voting were also cited as possible reasons for a markedly low final count. When the ballot went online, it was linked to an incomplete voters’ ballot that did not provide information for all of the candidates, thus causing accusations of unfair advantage for those candidates who were represented. Then-ASPSU Vice President Kyle Cady voided all votes cast halfway through that first day. “Although all those whose votes were voided had the opportunity
to vote a second time, whether this cancellation had a negative impact on the final tally was never confirmed,” Curtis said in the report. It is important to keep in mind, said Curtis, that this report is about looking critically at the elections process, not about criticizing individuals, which is just not important. What is important, he says, is increasing voter turnout. And in order to do that in future elections, it is essential to keep students involved. “Strategies should be considered to retain student voters past their initial involvement, as they now possess the experience to be a learned voter,” Curtis said in the report. ASPSU President Jonathan Sanford was elected when he, along with running mate Azadeh Chitsaz, won a majority of the 800 votes cast. He voiced both praise and concern for the results of the analysis. “[The data] is definitely something we’ll take into consideration, and we appreciate that someone took the time to do this,” Sanford said. “But the only problem is that it’s not statistically relevant because of the small number of responses.”
Aaron Leopold/Portland State Vanguard
Jonathan Sanford