Daily Vanguard February 10, 2010

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2010 • PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY • VOLUME 64, ISSUE 65

Event of the day Grab your coffee mug and swing by the International Student Coffee Hour for a free cup of joe and to meet students from abroad.

When: 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Where: SMSU, room 228

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INSIDE NEWS PSU Sigma Pi has eldest member in country Gertrude Rempfer is physics society’s honorary member PAGE 3

Vacant student seats on All-University Committees University affairs director aims to streamline process, invites students to serve

ARTS

Tamara K. Kennedy Vanguard staff

Peering into the mind of a murderer Olsen writes about real murder stories, as well as creating his own PAGE 4

Running a temperature Go Fever redefines Portland rock one note at a time PAGE 4

Adam Wickham/Portland State Vanguard

Committee affairs: ASPSU university affairs director Stephanie Rio Collier working to fill

Vintage for the imagination Two exhibits to remind you of a world you never knew PAGE 5

OPINION

Student against religious apparel ban Sharon E. Rhodes

Don’t give up control Portland State should not be run by public corporations PAGE 6

ASPSU continued on page two

All-University Committees.

Students in Salem to support repeal of ban on religious garb The devil is in the details University restructure protested before discussion even begins PAGE 6

The newly appointed ASPSU university affairs director Stephanie Rio Collier is ready to fill 23 vacancies on 17 All-University Committees and submit them for final approval to the ASPSU president.

The vacancies are a result of “not having the university affairs director position filled that led to issues of organizational capacity to work on all university committees,” said Ed Hallman, newly appointed ASPSU vice president.

Three committees have complete student vacancies, though 48 positions are currently filled on 28 committees with one to five student members on each, Collier said, who joined the executive staff about a week ago.

“We want to get all the positions filled across the board,” she said.

“I’m still getting to know the ropes but I’m taking on the All-University Committees as a priority.”

The most up-to-date information on vacancies comes from the end of fall term. Former ASPSU Vice President Azadeh Chitsaz and volunteer graduate student Sean Green prepared the committee data. According to Collier, Green wanted to join a committee and

become involved with the selections process. He is now a member of the organizational budget council.

Chitsaz was working to fill university committees because former university affairs director Rachel Richardson was working on the “inexpensive and subsidized housing yearly campaign,” according to Collier.

Domanic Thomas, assistant director for Student Activities and Leadership Programs, said that after working at three other universities, he has seen students struggle to keep committees positions filled.

Thomas said he feels a lack of accountability contributes to the problem, but ultimately hopes that students are made aware of the opportunities available to serve on committees. “[Committees are a] great entry point into student government or stepping stone to something that fits student interest,” Thomas said.

He said he promotes the committees because he believes student thoughts and critical analysis make a direct impact on the university, and they afford students opportunities to form partnerships and take what they learn into real-world situations.

Thomas knew a student who sat on a hiring committee, reviewed about 30 professional résumés and was involved with interviews.

Vanguard staff

Today, the Muslim Student Association will meet with Oregon lawmakers in Salem to urge them to support a bill that would repeal an 87-year-old Oregon law prohibiting public school teachers from wearing religious garb at work. “[On] Salem lobby day, we’ll visit senators to ask their support in overturning Oregon teachers’ religious-garb ban,” said Erica Charves, president of the MSA and a senior in community development.

In Salem, members of the MSA and other students will meet with House Speaker Dave Hunt, with whom they worked to draft House Bill 3686.

In 1923, Speaker of the House and prominent Ku Klux Klan

member Kaspar K. Kubli helped pass a law that banned teachers from wearing religious garb, with the aim of keeping Catholic nuns, monks and priests out of public schools, according to an Oregonian article titled “Saying goodbye to an ugly lingering prejudice,” on Nov. 29, 2009.

According to the same article, “the Oregon Legislature passed Senate Bill 786, the Oregon Workplace Religious Freedom Act, which allows all workers—except teachers—to wear religious dress under most circumstances, and observe their holy days.”

The Sikh Coalition, another sponsor of the proposed repeal, said on its Web site (www.sikhcoalition. org) that Ajeet Singh, who “served as a history teacher for the neediest students at the toughest public schools in Brooklyn, N.Y.” and whose “students broke achievement records for the annual state Photo courtesy of Vashkar Abedin/Flickr

BAN continued on page two

Banned: Teachers are currently banned from wearing religious garb in classrooms.

Vanguard 2 | News February 10, 2010

Sarah J. Christensen Editor-in-Chief Virginia Vickery News Editor Theodora Karatzas Arts & Culture Editor

NEWS ASPSU |

TRASH SORT

from page one

Creating committee continuity for next ASPSU

Richard D. Oxley Opinion Editor Robert Britt Sports Editor Shannon Vincent Production Manager Marni Cohen Photo Editor Zach Chastaine Online Editor Robert Seitzinger Copy Chief Robert Seitzinger Calendar Editor Jae Specht Advertising Manager William Prior Marketing Manager Judson Randall Adviser Ann Roman Advertising Adviser Illustrator Kira Meyrick Production Assistants Bryan Morgan, Charles Cooper Williams Writers Stacy Austin, Will Blackford, Bianca Blankenship, Corrie Charnley, Meaghan Daniels, Sarah Esterman, Amy Fylan, Natalia Grozina, Patrick Guild, Rosemary Hanson, Steve Haske, Nadya Ighani, Carrie Johnston, Tamara K. Kennedy, Anita Kinney, Gogul Krishnan, J. Logue, James MacKenzie, Daniel Ostlund, Sharon Rhodes, Wendy Shortman, Catrice Stanley, Nilesh Tendolkar, Robin Tinker, Vinh Tran, Katherine Vetrano, Allison Whited, Roger Whightman Photographers Aaron Leopold, Michael Pascual, Liana Shewey, Adam Wickham Copy Editors Noah Emmet, Amanda Gordon Advertising Sales Ana SanRoman, Wesley Van Der Veen Advertising Designer Shannon Vincent

Contact Editor-in-Chief 503-725-5691 editor@dailyvanguard.com Advertising Manager 503-725-5686 ads@dailyvanguard.com The Vanguard is chartered to publish four days a week as an independent student newspaper by the PSU Publications Board. Views and editorial content expressed herein are those of the staff, contributors and readers, and do not necessarily represent those of the PSU student body, faculty, staff or administration.

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When Thomas followed up, the student said their approach would be different when searching for jobs in the future.

Collier cites two main problems with filling university committees. She said that no central communication area exists where students can find descriptions of the committees, when committees meet, if there are vacancies, who chairs a committee or how to be appointed. She is currently compiling a database for this purpose.

The other problem with filling committees is that student government members are elected during spring term and generally start making appointments during fall term. Collier thinks it would work better if ASPSU recruitment began spring term— before committee appointments in fall term—and for the database to be kept up and handed over to the new administration.

According to Collier, ASPSU wants to encourage students to take active roles on campus.

“The All-University Committees are a key part of shared governance that allow[s] students to have a voice in regard to policies that

BAN |

affect the university,” Collier said.

She is currently following up with student senators who resigned from their positions to determine if they still serve on committees. Serving on committees was a part of the senators’ required service hours this year, she said.

“This is an important step in deciphering what is going on with All-University Committees,” Collier said.

She also intends to check with committee chairs to see if appointees have been active.

Students interested in serving on All-University Committees should contact Collier at colliers @pdx.edu with the subject line reading “All-University Committees.”

Students can also stop by the ASPSU office in SMSU, room 117, and ask to speak to Collier about All-University Committees.

Marni Cohen/Portland State Vanguard

from page one

Opponents say lifting ban leads to proselytizing examination,” could not teach in Oregon because he wears a turban, or dastaar.

Nevertheless, some object to a lift on the ban, fearing that teachers will proselytize to children or wear clothing with verbal religious messages.

For instance, the ACLU’s David Fidanque told The Oregonian that “all students and their families should feel welcome, and that’s as important, if not more important than teachers’ freedom of religious expression.”

In another Oregonian article (“Oregon teachers may get the OK to wear religious clothing in class,” Nov. 23, 2009), he said that “the ACLU fields many complaints that public schools and teachers do too much to promote Christianity, particularly in rural Oregon.”

“Lifting the ban on religious dress could lead some Christian teachers to wear Jesus T-shirts or take other steps to evangelize at school,” Fidqanque said.

Currently, the law banning teachers from wearing religious garb, OR 342.650, reads: “No teacher in any public school shall wear any religious dress while engaged in the performance of duties as a teacher.”

In addition to the law prohibiting teachers from wearing religious dress, a second law, OR 342.655, says that teachers

who violate the ban on religious dress could lose their teaching licenses. Consequently, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus and Jews in Oregon must choose between practicing their religion as they see fit and teaching.

Law 342.650 “represents constitutional exercise of legislature’s obligation to protect religious freedom of pupils,” according to the Web site www.oregonlaws.org.

“Freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one’s religion,” said President Barack Obama during a speech in Cairo. “That is why there is a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That is why the U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.”

The new law would allow public school teachers to wear hijabs, yarmulkes, turbans and crosses, but not T-shirts that say “Jesus Saves,” according to Charves.

“Current law prevents proselytizing to children and clothing with a religious message,” she said.

Charves and other proponents of the repeal maintain that religious garb, such as a hijab or yarmulke, are personal, not a form of proselytizing.

Monday afternoon, PSU Recycles! and a group of 25 students from Dr. Jeff Fletcher’s Freshman Inquiry sustainability class performed a public waste sorting in the South Park Blocks from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Students audited refuse from public trash bins in Ondine Hall and the Broadway Housing Building. The purpose of the audit was to assess the percentage of recyclable material mistakenly being sent to landfills. The sort was conducted publicly to raise awareness of the importance of

resource recovery, according to an e-mail from PSU Recycles!

The class is part of a program called a Living Learning Community. All of the students are self-selected to learn in-depth about sustainability throughout the year and the majority of them live together on the third floor of Broadway.

The results from the sort will help inform a student-designed recycling outreach campaign the class will implement as part of their curriculum, according to the e-mail.

Come write for the Vanguard news section Apply at news@dailyvanguard.com

PSU Sigma Pi has eldest member in country

Vanguard News | 3 February 10, 2010

News Editor: Virginia Vickery 503-725-5690 news@dailyvanguard.com

Gertrude Rempfer

Gertrude Rempfer is physics society’s honorary member Corie Charnley Vanguard staff

Portland State’s Sigma Pi Sigma chapter includes the nation’s most

senior member, physics professor emeritus Gertrude Rempfer. She was recognized as a Sigma Pi honorary member in December 2008, during the chapter’s induction.

Rempfer joined Sigma Pi in 1933 during her studies at the University of Washington, only 12 years after the society’s formation in 1921.

“She was one of the early pioneers

Michael Pascual/Portland State Vanguard

Sigma Pi Sigma: Micah Eastman is president of the physics honor society.

in electron microscopy, which is the field I’m involved with. It’s pretty amazing that we have someone here who studied in the 1930’s—someone who was there when new instruments were developed— and now, today, I’m using those instruments in the lab,” said PSU Sigma Pi graduate president Micah Eastman.

Rempfer joined the PSU faculty in 1959. According to the Society of Physics Students’ Radiations magazine, her research led to the development of the photoemission electron microscope.

“As a woman in science, it’s a different world than most people think. It’s still a highly malepopulated world. Just listening to [Rempfer] go through her trials and overcome all of her obstacles, it’s really inspiring in that regard,” said Sigma Pi graduate representative Rebecca Schaller.

Sigma Pi is a nationally recognized honor society within the Society of Physics Students. It currently has 14 members, according to chapter advisor Sergei Rouvimov.

It recognizes students for their academic scholarship, promotes interest in physics, and provides fellowship for students who excel in physics, Eastman said.

According to Eastman, Sigma Pi holds two meetings every other week where faculty and students give technical lectures. In addition, the society holds social events and has even judged middle school science fairs.

“Having a community is really important. When I was an undergrad I didn’t have much

Photo courtesy PSU’s Department of Physics

communication with graduate students. In Sigma Pi there’s a lot of undergraduate and graduate discussion, hands-on physics, research experience, and opportunities for scholarship,” Eastman said.

“There’s also learning outcomes.

It gives direction to undergraduate students,” said Schaller.

Rouvimov, alongside Department of Physics Chairman Eric Bodegom, played a big role in petitioning to establish a new Sigma Pi chapter on campus, according to Eastman.

“Sergei did a lot of the early footwork to get the chapter recognized,” Eastman said.

He also credited Rouvimov for revitalizing SPS at PSU, in which Sigma Pi is housed.

“As a revived chapter, they are a very enthusiastic group who has seized all aspects of what SPS represents—interaction among each other, outreach to the community, and involvement in national meetings,” said a councilor for the National Society of Physics Students.

To qualify for Sigma Pi membership, students must be in the upper one-third of their class and hold a minimum GPA of 3.5 in physics courses. The society is open to all majors, though undergraduates must have completed at least three courses in physics before being considered, Eastman said. Acceptance into the SPS is based only on an interest in physics, rather than academic achievement.

For more information on joining the PSU Sigma Pi chapter, visit sps.groups.pdx.edu.

The Kitchen Sink Traffic stop in southern Oregon nets 113 pounds of marijuana A state trooper stopped a car for several traffic violations near Klamath Falls and, when the driver consented to a search, an estimated $282,000 worth of marijuana was found. State trooper Lt. Jason Westfall arrested the driver, Ricardo Sanchez of Pasco, Wash.

—katu.com

Bookstore to reopen after flood The PSU bookstore is recovering after a malfunction of the sprinkler system sent 120,000 gallons of water into the basement.

Customers may shop on the main and second floors but the basement is still closed, and the bookstore has swimmers available to find items on the basement level.

Vanguard 4 | Arts & Culture February 10, 2010

ARTS & CULTURE Peering into the mind of a murderer

Arts Editor: Theodora Karatzas 503-725-5694 arts@dailyvanguard.com

On this day in history 1535 A total of 12 Anabaptists run naked through the streets of Amsterdam. Nudity in Amsterdam—well, that’s nothing unique.

1749 Henry Fielding publishes the 10th and final volume of his Tom Jones comic novel, subtitled “It’s Not Unusual.”

1897 The New York Times rolls out its new motto, “All the news that’s fit to print.” Conservative commentators claim it to be a liberal conspiracy.

1920 U.S. baseball institutes new rule banning any pitch that involves tampering with the ball. Pitcher Wile E. Coyote never throws his famous explodingbaseball pitch again.

1933 Hitler officially claims the end of Marxism.

Hold on—I thought Obama was a Marxist and promoted a Nazi health care plan. I am so confused!

1956 Elvis records “Heartbreak Hotel,” a sinful song meant to lead teenagers into delinquency.

1972 The BBC refuses to air “Give Ireland Back to the Irish” by controversial and groundbreaking band, Wings.

1988 In San Francisco, Calif., the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals strikes down the Army’s ban on homosexuals. Glad that issue is over.

Gregg Olsen

Olsen writes about real murder stories, as well as creating his own Wendy Shortman Vanguard staff

If you watch enough Law and Order or Dexter, you know that serial killers usually have a pattern when it comes to choosing their victims. In the novel Victim Six, however, there’s no clear method to the madness, thus making the killer even more terrifying than your average serial murderer.

“For my story I thought, well, this guy Sam is a smart serial killer,” said Gregg Olsen, author of Victim Six. “[His thinking is] if you don’t want to get caught, don’t act like a regular serial killer.”

And by now it’s clear that Olsen knows how to write a terrifying story. With eight nonfiction books under his belt and four fictional novels, Olsen has a lot of knowledge about the psychology of criminals.

This knowledge is an important element when he creates his own fictional stories.

“With fiction, I’m always inspired by a real case, one that

I’ve maybe read in the paper or something,” Olsen said. “I always look to a true story for the backbone of my stories.”

Olsen’s body of work is unique, due to the fact that most authors either write nonfiction or fiction books, not both.

“With nonfiction I get to know the people, the detectives and the victims,” Olsen said. “And with fiction, there’s no one to talk to because it isn’t real. It’s more of an internal process.”

In fact, Victim Six, which will be the first installment of Olsen’s new series, was inspired by a famous murder case that happened in Canada. In this particular case, the murderer was not just one person, but two people—a married couple that worked together.

“It was interesting to see a team of people working together,” Olsen said. “[And to] reflect on the psychology of what they did, and why they did it.”

Olsen has appeared on a variety of television and radio shows, including Good Morning America and Oxygen’s Snapped. He has also appeared in magazines and newspapers ranging from USA Today to the New York Post. He previously won the Idaho Book of the Year Award for his book

The Deep Dark and has been honored in Washington for his work on the history and culture of his home state.

Olsen has always been interested in reading and writing about the criminal mind. He enjoys shows like Law and Order and has seen virtually every episode. In addition, he has a fascination with Dexter, a show everyone seems to be talking about.

Olsen explained how he understands why people like to read about the kind of things he writes about, because he enjoys it too. “[Even] as a young person in high school, I read those serial killer books,” Olsen said. “So, writing about crime seems natural to me.”

Olsen is grateful for his loyal, constantly growing fan base. And after such a great response to the crime-fighting team in Victim Six, the new series will incorporate that same team, but different serial killers.

People seem to take to Olsen so well because he’s interested in the same things they’re interested in. He just happens to write about those things and write about them well.

“My readers are the nicest people,” Olsen said. “They’re smart people that are just fascinated in the unthinkable. Why would that little boy or girl grow up to do that?”

All photos courtesy of Howard Petrella

Reading with Gregg Olsen Murder by the Book Mystery Bookstore 3210 SE Hawthorne Blvd.

Tonight, 7 p.m.

Free

Running a temperature Go Fever redefines Portland rock one note at a time Scott Ostlund Vanguard staff

Rock ’n’ roll music is a widespread genre without a true definition. But Portland’s Go Fever is making their case with a psychedelic, alternative version of rock ’n’ roll exemplified through their many live performances in the Portland area. Go Fever, who started in 2005, includes members Tony Hilsmeier on guitar and vocals, Ian Bixby on drums and Lance Dinauer on bass and vocals.

The trio has been influenced from past and present artists and it is obvious by their music, which includes a mix of original sounds.

Vocally, Go Fever is comparable to the Portland-based Dandy Warhols, who have gone on to gain national attention. Led by Hilsmeier, the band’s low, raspy vocals bring a more definite rock sound to a group that uses much instrumental variety.

Their sound has been called a sonic cathedral propped up by welcome walls of sound and though that description may take some deciphering, songs like “What?” and “Bad Penny” make it easy to understand the band’s comfortable style.

Go Fever is playing at Berbati’s Pan tomorrow with Starry Saints, Holy Children and Mark Twain Indians.

The Starry Saints were an upand-coming band in 2009. Started

by Allen Davis and Clint Sargent, Starry Saints encompasses many genres of the indie scene. Davis

and Sargent started the band after producing albums with the band High Violets.

Also playing with Go Fever are Holy Children and Mark Twain Indians. Like Go Fever, Holy Children shares rough vocals and heavy guitars in songs such as “Bad Man Blues.” On the other hand, the three-year-old band Mark Twain Indians has brought itself into an alternative style that emphasizes their instrumental prowess.

These four bands will bring out the best of Berbati’s Pan tomorrow night as they help evolve your definition of rock ’n’ roll within the Portland music scene.

Go Fever plays four of their next five shows in Portland at venues including East End, Dante’s and Holocene. Go Fever will also play with bands 1776 and Federale in their upcoming concerts.

Go Fever Berbati’s Pan, 231 SW Ankeny St. Feb. 11, 9 p.m. $5 21+

1998 Buddy the Wonder Dog—aka, Air Bud— dies at 9 years old (49 in dog years)

All photos courtesy of Go Fever

Go Fever: Throwbacks to classic local indie rock, playing several shows soon in Portland.

Vintage for the imagination Two exhibits to remind you of a world you never knew Roger Wightman Vanguard staff

Ampersand Vintage on Northeast Alberta Street has a reputation for showcasing some of the most interesting vintage collections of visual art in Portland.

Within the past year the gallery and bookstore has hosted an eclectic mix of exhibitions, ranging from a vintage photo collection of 1930s cadavers and amateur porn to a photographic documentation of the inside of random Americans’ refrigerators.

This month is no different: Two vintage collections of once-credible publication imagery, in which the only visual similarity is that they both share this month’s theme of “pictures for the imagination.”

Before the time of photographs and easy mobility, knowledge of the world outside one’s home was limited to only the most rugged explorers and the elite who could

afford the experience. Tales of these primitive globetrotters were documented in books and from the journals found after their death.

They retold their close encounters with beasts of all shapes and sizes, describing every last detail just to prove that their mind was in proper working order and that they had not been the victim of hallucination.

It was the task of British naturalist Oliver Goldsmith to catalog these written accounts of mysterious creatures into drawn interpretations. The result was the 1774 publication of History of the Earth and Animated Nature, Goldsmith’s attempt to enlighten the Victorian-era population of the plethora of diversity within the planet’s biotic community.

The collection of drawings, taken from the first American printing of Animated Nature, would have taken the original readers’ imagination on an out-of-this-world experience, much like modern society would be enthralled by an image of a Martian or a Venusian. Goldsmith’s depictions are not particularly

accurate: He exaggerates the anthropogenic look of the chimp and the ferociousness of the big cats. But many of these creatures were new to Goldsmith as well, who used written depictions of the creatures as a basis for most of his drawings.

What’s most important about this collection is that it gives its audience a chance to reminisce, to take us back to a time when people were still excited about the discovery of a new species and with the advancement of human knowledge of the natural world.

While the creatures are nothing new, their cartoonish depictions remind us of the places yet to be discovered and the imagination that still exists within us.

Courtesy in Color will also be appearing alongside Animated Nature during this month’s theme.

In this show are eight coloring-book posters printed by the BeckleyCardy Company that preach 1929 ideals of good behavior to a presumably child audience. A no-bullshit approach to teaching

children manners is written neatly at the bottom of the page: “Never brag or boast” reports one and “Don’t wear fancy clothes to school” states another.

While none of the images have yet been colored, they remain visually interesting and if nothing else provide the means for a silent chuckle. Thinking about the commandments written and their utter simplicity makes you imagine what a 1920s childhood would have been like when a parent’s biggest fear was a child with poor table manners.

Animated Nature and Courtesy in Color Ampersand Vintage Gallery 2916 NE Alberta St. Tue through Sat, noon to 6 p.m.

Sun, noon to 5 p.m.

Runs through Feb. 21

Vanguard Arts & Culture | 5 February 10, 2010

Top 10 highestgrossing films for the weekend of Feb. 5–7 1. Dear John Weekend gross: $30,468,614 Gross to date: $30,468,614 2. Avatar

Weekend gross: $22,850,881 Gross to date: $629,344,204 3. From Paris with Love

Weekend gross: $8,158,860 Gross to date: $8,158,860 4. Edge of Darkness

Weekend gross: $6,855,371 Gross to date: $28,947,851 5. Tooth Fairy

Weekend gross: $6,629,595 Gross to date: $34,462,568 6. When in Rome

Weekend gross: $5,549,129 Gross to date: $20,944,734 7. The Book of Eli

Weekend gross: $4,717,335 Gross to date: $82,045,140 8. Crazy Heart

Weekend gross: $3,567,671 Gross to date: $11,105,401 9. Legion

Weekend gross: $3,453,651 Gross to date: $34,731,934 10. Sherlock Holmes

Weekend gross: $2,535,174 Gross to date: $201,484,470 —boxofficemojo.com

Photo courtesy of Myles/Ampersand

Vanguard 6 | Opinion February 10, 2010

Opinion Editor: Richard D. Oxley 503-725-5692 opinion@dailyvanguard.com

Public corporations?

A significant contribution to the controversy over the Frohnmayer Report is the presence of the term “public corporation.” But what does that exactly mean? And how could a public university also be a corporation?

Attachment B of the report attempts to clarify what a public corporation for higher education would be and how it would fit with Oregon’s educational system.

According to Frohnmayer, an Oregon PCHE: - Is formed to promote public welfare of the people of the state of Oregon through enhancement of excellent, efficient, accountable and accessible public higher education - Will be a governmental entity performing governmental functions and exercising governmental powers - Would be governed by a board of directors, which would contain at least two concurrent members of the State Board of Higher Education, appointed by the governor and subject to Senate confirmation—it is also cited that similar to the Oregon Health and Science University model, a PCHE board could include a student - Would have assets held in a trust for the People with the Board of Directors acting as trustees—the trust is created for the public purposes of the PCHE - Would have the powers to carry out its public purposes such as the ability to issue revenue bonds to the extent of the PCHE’s assets and income - Would be subject to the Secretary of State’s constitutional authority as “auditor of public accounts.”

Frohnmayer explains this is for the PCHE to be held accountable by external controls for the stewardship of the public resources that it is responsible for.

Letters to the editor are gladly accepted and should be no longer than 300 words in length. Submissions may be edited for brevity and vulgarity.

E-mail letters to opinion@ dailyvanguard.com.

OPINION University restructure protested before discussion even begins Patrick Guild

The devil is in the details

Vanguard staff

ASPSU has launched a campaign to inform students of the dangers of former University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer’s suggestion to change the top three Oregon public universities to public corporations. Shouldn’t the students inform our representatives of our attitudes toward restructuring instead of being preached to?

ASPSU’s “Corporate Restructuring Factsheet,” posted on their Web site beneath a picture of Pauly Shore in a toga, is indeed full of facts—facts pulled straight from both the Frohnmayer Report and Portland State President Wim Wiewel’s white paper, and twisted to create mass hysteria. The rest of the “factsheet” is pure, uninformed, poorly written opinion.

One section urges students to spread the word to friends and professors because, “Most students and faculty are not aware of the restructuring plan and without that knowledge they can not be actively respond [sic] to the restructuring proposal.” At least they Googled another term for “plan.” I find it difficult to believe that anyone is left in the dark after the recent media blitz, especially faculty. ASPSU insults the entire student body and faculty with its demeaning rhetoric and conceit.

Not agreeing with every detail in Frohnmayer’s proposal, I am still not so blind that I don’t see the importance of the

conversation the report has started.

The Frohnmayer Report is simply a recommendation. Some ideas are very good, while others serve as a launch point for discussion.

The same goes for the principals addressed in Wiewel’s white paper. A white paper by its very definition is a preparation tool designed to provide a framework for future discussion and future lawmaking. Nothing is set in stone, contrary to what protestors on campus would have you believe.

I had an opportunity to sit down with Wiewel and his staff to discuss the restructuring and PSU’s future.

The factsheet the president provided served to highlight a growing problem with funding for public universities. In the past 20 years, state funding for PSU has decreased from 48 percent of total revenue to 16 percent. And that money isn’t free either. It comes with strict rules governing tuition rates and faculty pay among other things.

Don’t give up control Portland State should not be run by public corporations Will Blackford Vanguard staff

Former University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer proposed that Oregon’s four-year universities should be governed by public corporations to preserve the economic future of Oregon’s higher education.

This is not the right way to go to preserve our educational system.

In a paper released last November, Frohnmayer made suggestions to change the way that Portland State does business—by handing it over to corporations and moving away from the politics of the Oregon Legislature. If you’re anything like me, your ears perked up and the hair on your neck bristled as soon as you

heard the words “university” and “corporation” in the same sentence.

Though he almost certainly means well, Frohnmayer’s suggestions for restructuring the university system seem misguided. We obviously have a funding problem: Funds for higher education have fallen steadily in Oregon over the last 20 years. This problem, however, cannot be fixed by simply being ignored.

The problem is that state legislatures, for some reason, have undervalued the importance of providing more of the budget to higher education. Frohnmayer notes in his report that only oneseventh of PSU’s funding comes from the state. Compare that with community colleges’ 59 percent, and a clear source problem begins to emerge.

To Frohnmayer, it therefore follows that the budget and funding would be handed over to a public corporation. Some

“The key issue is funding,” Wiewel said. He hopes that his white paper will prompt a discussion that ultimately leads to change since, “keeping things as they are is wrong.”

ASPSU and other detractors of the public corporation model point to Oregon Health and Science University as a model of a failed public university turned public corporation. OHSU was featured prominently in Frohnmayer’s Report as a success story. Since switching to a public corporation in 1995, OHSU has increased federal and private grants, cured a form of leukemia and used the bond market to fund its growth. ASPSU correctly points out that it also has the highest tuition rate of any public medical school in the country, leaving most graduates heavily in debt. This is exactly the role student representatives should play in the discussion. Rather than inciting demonstrations and closemindedness, they should participate

in a mature discussion as advocates for individual students’ benefits.

I also spoke with Di Saunders, director of communications for the Oregon University System. She reiterated that the Frohnmayer Report is about talking and “spurring serious dialogue.” OUS Chancellor George Pernsteiner asked Frohnmayer to look at what other states are doing to fund their public universities.

“You have 50 states and 50 systems,” Saunders said.

Frohnmayer’s job was to take that information and find what he believed was best for Oregon.

It seems that most officials are in agreement that flexibility, diverse forms of revenue and a quality education with appropriate tuition will be the most important aspects of the coming debate. They also don’t foresee any serious decision making happening until the 2011 legislative session. Until then, the matter is open to discussion as to whether the best option is Frohnmayer’s public corporation model, something more in line with Wiewel’s guidelines or a radically different solution.

The point is that for all of its perceived shortcomings and matters of contention, the Frohnmayer Report has achieved exactly what it was commissioned to do—jumpstart a discussion that will ultimately lead to a better future for higher education in Oregon. The details will fall into place as long as we all work towards the same established goals.

Illustration by Kira Meyrick/Portland State Vanguard

believe it’s better to scrap the whole program and go for a new one instead of appealing to legislatures for more funds by using cogent arguments based on the importance of universities to boost morale and economic growth, or raising more funds by— horror of all horrors—raising taxes for schools.

This is problematic due mostly to the interests of a public corporation, even though in this case, the corporations created would be university corporations, the consequence of separating further from the state is the possibility of interest groups acting with profits in mind and not necessarily for university gains.

Though the system proposed would create corporations that are official government agencies, the leaders of these corporations will have the power to act with relative freedom—as long as it is claimed to serve a public interest—and will effectively control university assets and income. This serves to further separate decision making about funding, tuitions and salary from a democratically elected body. The odds of democratic deficit would effectively be raised.

If part of the problem is inefficient bureaucracy—which, according to Frohnmayer’s report, it is—it doesn’t exactly follow that creating more agencies would help mitigate the problem (agencies,

in this case, meaning public corporations independent of the state system created by the State Board of Higher Education).

On that note, bureaucracy may get a bad rep, but oversight is not necessarily a bad thing. The state should have oversight privileges on entities that serve the public good. I think we can all agree that higher education is indeed a public interest. We should be focusing on making the current system more efficient and articulating the need for a bigger budget than going in a direction that may prove disastrous.

Finally, the timeline needs to be considered on a topic so vital to such an important public interest.

The Frohnmayer Report was issued in November, yet Frohnmayer is pushing the Independent Public Corporation Act to be passed this month. A decision such as this should not be considered lightly.

Time is needed to flesh out details and figure out who will be running what before a responsible decision can be made.

Though I appreciate the effort

by Frohnmayer to better our university system, handing the reins of a public university to independent corporations is not the answer we need. What we need is awareness, and for Oregonians who value education to elect officials who will fight for higher education in the Legislature.

etc.

ART WEDNESDAY The New York Times Syndication Sales Corporation 500 Seventh Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10018 For Information Call: 1-800-972-3550 For Release Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Edited by Will Shortz Down 1 Pointed criticisms 2 Org. that used to bring people to court?

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71 + end 24 It facilitates 72 Answer to an old replying to a MS. riddle alluded to 25 Buckingham by the starts of Palace letters 17-, 32-, 42- and 27 Article in El Mundo 64-Across 29 Schmo 30 Campus areas ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE 32 Card game for D E N I � L E � O P I S A 11-Down A N I T A O R A L A N O N 33 Onetime realm � O P S T E W A R D R U L E of central Eur. � I N � S A � R O N 34 “___ be an honor” E L � E S T E E � S P E N T 35 A writer may S A L S O � E T A L work on it S T O L E S L I P U P S E � R U � R I D E � L E N 36 Washington pro � A S � E E N U S A � E 37 Christmas ___ � A N A � A T N N E 38 Carrier to Copenhagen W A I � S P I N D O � T O R 43 “Oh yeah …,” in I N D U S S O A P � a text message S � I N � A L L � I N D E D P L O D A � E L A D A � E 44 Franceʼs second-busiest S E T S P E T S N I N O N port

Across 1 “I dare you” 10 The Hawks of the Atlantic 10 conference, informally 15 This very moment 16 Conscious 17 1970 Santana hit 19 Orch. section 20 It might pass une loi 21 Reuters competitor 22 Tiny recipe amount 26 Idol worshiper?

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40 Instantly fry 41 In vitro cells 42 Macho types 49 Lone Star State cowboy 50 Trekkiesʼ genre 51 Impulsively 55 Medical insurance portion of Medicare 58 Extinct cousin of the kiwi 59 Break point score, perhaps 62 Artist Lichtenstein 64 Varying wildly

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Writing Conference Scholarship Willamette Writers offers Teacher/Student scholarships to its annual conference August 6-8 2010 Portland. Info, wilwrite@teleport.com http://www.willamettewriters.com/ wwc/3/inf-17.php 503-452-1592

CALENDAR Today Seminar: “Politics, race and the future of America” 6:30 p.m.

Smith Memorial Student Union, room 323 Free seminar for students hosted by NAACP at PSU

Thursday

57 63

68

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Global Aging and Health Bake Sale 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Urban Center first floor Bake sale hosted by an international Capstone class to raise funds for travel abroad to Nicaragua Recital: Barbara Heilmair Noon The Old Church 1422 SW 11th Ave. Free clarinet concert as part of the Performance Attendance Recital Series Women Veterans Brunch 9:30 a.m.

SMSU, room 228 Free brunch for female student-veterans and guests Grieving Through Sculpture 1 p.m.

SMSU, room 228 Free event with Sue Taylor, fine arts professor, who will discuss the Holocaust and noted minimalist sculptor Eva Hesse Eating Animals 7 p.m.

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Friday KenKen® is a registered trademark of Nextoy, LLC. ©2010 KenKen Puzzle LLC. All rights reserved. Dist. by UFS, Inc. www.kenken.com

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ART WEDNESDAY Sands of Destruction spins good versus evil differently by supporting global annihilation

The world ends with you

Bands with food in their names: Apples in Stereo

Steve Haske

Bananarama

Vanguard staff

If you’ve read anything I’ve ever written about video games (and even if you haven’t) you know that Japanese RPGs have gotten very stale, with derivative stories and bland design.

You also probably know, if you’ve hit up your local Gamestop any time in the last four years, that the Nintendo DS has about 40 billion RPGs available (and surprisingly, a lot of them are good). So it’s pretty hard to come across one that actually does some interesting things.

Sands of Destruction doesn’t look like it’d fit the bill for a JRPG that breaks any kind of mold. It has your typical teenage anime-style heroic couple on the cover. It has the big, terrible prerequisite cataclysmic event happening in the background and it has a name like Sands of Destruction.

But there’s more here than meets the eye—particularly if you’ve been a fan of the genre since the halcyon days of the 32-bit era (and even before that) when damn near every RPG that came from Japan was of extremely high quality.

I wasn’t expecting it, but Destruction actually has quite a throwback feel to this golden age. Sure, it’s antique, but if you grew up with games like Grandia and Xenogears, this is something that’s going to resonate with you.

Hell, even if you didn’t, you should be able to appreciate the wellwritten narrative and solid design conventions.

Comparing Destruction to those two games isn’t just a random matchup, either, as its development team ImageEpoch is made up of former developers that worked on the earlier two games. Even on a small-scale platform like the DS, their penchant for the grandiose is immediately apparent—another plus on Destruction’s scorecard.

Vanguard Arts & Culture | 8 February 10, 2010

The Black Eyed Peas

In particular, the game immediately struck me as a kindred spirit to Xenogears, though instead of a labyrinthine tale of morality, existentialism and religion set in a sci-fi universe (with giant mechs), it deals with slavery. xenophobia and one’s sense of self (with giant sand critters).

Not that these kinds of themes are entirely uncommon from the canonical history of JRPGs—these guys just spend more time crafting interesting narratives than a lot of other “save-thekingdom” efforts, and it’s as noticeable now as it was then.

Another interesting element in the game’s narrative comes from the main character, a young kid who just happens to have the power to destroy the world lurking somewhere inside him.

Naturally, there are those that want him to use the power to do just that, but it’s not for the evil reasons you might think.

Essentially, mankind has been enslaved

by a class of wolfpeople so corrupt that pro-human radicals decide that destroying the planet is their only way out. This brings an interesting morality play to the typical good versus evil proceedings.

I could go on about the game’s high production values, or the fact that the brilliant Yasunori Mitsuda (of Chrono Trigger fame) composed Destruction’s soundtrack, but you get the idea. This game was developed by an all-star team.

It still comes with the caveat that, compared to today’s streamlined design standards, it’s going to feel old. The experience isn’t ruined thanks to some design balancing tricks that run the gamut from good to bad.

Random battles are present (but not throw-your-DS-out-thewindow frequent), but remain absent from the world map. The difficulty isn’t that steep, though there are plenty of customizations and depth in the battle system.

And then there are the game’s numerous event scenes, many of which have lots of lines of spoken dialogue. You can’t skip the dialogue despite the presence of accompanying text (though you can turn it down). However if you, say, die in the middle of a long-winded set of scenes, you can press start to skip the scene entirely.

It’s not a great tradeoff, since you still have to listen to the dialogue the first time around if you want to absorb the story (this can be especially bad because some of the voice actors are godawful), but it helps.

On the plus side, the game’s aesthetic choice—an old-school 2-D sprites on 3-D backdrops approach—really works well for Destruction’s design and historical sensibilities. The combat is more fun than a lot of other JRPGs, with a mixture of real-time commands (paid for with energy points) governed by a turn-based rubric.

But really, just to play something else from Xenogears alums (and Mitsuda, one of the best and most interesting video game composers this side of ex-Silent Hill player Akira Yamaoka) is a good thing.

If you disagree, you probably shouldn’t be playing JRPGs anyway.

Blind Melon Blue Oyster Cult Bowling for Soup Bread Cake Cranberries Fiona Apple Hall and Oates Hot Tuna Infected Mushroom Korn Lemonheads Limp Bizkit Meat Puppets Meatloaf Moldy Peaches Neutral Milk Hotel Peaches The Raspberries Red Hot Chili Peppers Salt-n-Peppa Smashing Pumpkins Spice Girls Strawberry Alarm Clock Sugar Ray Sugarcubes Tangerine Dream Vanilla Ice

Sands of Destruction Sega Out on Nintendo DS $29.99

All photos courtesy of Sega