FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 2010 • PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY • VOLUME 64, ISSUE 92
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INSIDE
MORE STUDENTS, MORE HOUSING
OPINION
Coasting in at No. 2 Minneapolis takes Portland’s bicycle rank page 4
ARTS Student housing: More to come.
PSU hoping to house a quarter of students on campus A comedy to make you sing The Merry Widow belts out an operetta with enthusiasm and style page 5 Not all that mundane Vague and in the moment, The Great Mundane makes music with artistic grace pAgE 5
Wide open spaces at Barista II A new Alberta spot for coffee with lots of style, hold the attitude page 6
NEWS
Coffee on wheels For more than seven years, Melvin Bush has served coffee to PSU pAgE 4
SPORTS Vikings look to keep rolling Softball continues conference play at Utah Valley page 8
Joe Hannan Vanguard staff
As the student population continues to grow, Portland State and community partners plan to increase PSU’s on-campus living spaces to increase its accommodation of 7 percent of the university population to 25 percent.
The additional accommodation would come from the renovation of structures on campus and the construction of more buildings. The time frame for achieving this goal is estimated at 10 years, though the PSU Foundation is hoping to add an additional 900 beds within the next year. PSU Housing Director Corey Ray said that implementation of the 10-year plan for more housing has begun. University Place, located on fourth Avenue and Lincoln Street, could potentially be renovated into an apartment building. A new building to house senior and junior-level students would be called College Station. The projected site is on Sixth Avenue between College and Jackson streets. Outside of this building would be a MAX Yellow and Green Line stop. Construction on the project and renovation of other buildings is expected to begin this summer. “A couple of decades of research have gone into projecting the rise
in the PSU population and we are working on plans to keep things up,” Ray said. Lindsay Desrochers, vice president for Finance and Administration, said, “the population is expected to at least double over the next 15 years.” Ray said that living expenses are only going up due to inflation, but by creating more housing and having more students live on campus, students and PSU can help counteract that inflation. Creating an on-campus community for freshmen is another priority of PSU Housing. Ray said that PSU is not a traditional campus, and that students, especially freshmen, would benefit from having on-campus residences. A community atmosphere helps students focus on academics, while creating a community experience, he said. “Living on campus directly relates many students to being more successful,” Desrochers said.
VANGUARD
All photos by Marni Cohen/Portland State Vanguard
Ray said that for plans to go into action it will take leadership, and that PSU President Wim Wiewel is backing the efforts. Renovation funding will come from PSU housing revenue, and funding for actually constructing new buildings will be put up by PSU and private partnerships. American Campus Communities is one such partner that is helping to create the new housing. “We are one of the nation’s largest developers, owners and managers of high-quality student housing communities,” according to its Web site.
Professor receives Heritage Education Award Museum honors Dr. Sarah Sterling for investigative capstone course Stacy Austin Vanguard staff
The Marion County Historical Society has honored Dr. Sarah Sterling, a member of Portland State’s Department of Anthropology and an assistant professor for Extended Studies, with the Heritage Education Award for her capstone course. For the last 18 months, Sterling has been leading a capstone project at MCHS, helping students investigate the history of its items, often donated, of which limited information was known about them. Sterling started the capstone with the MCHS because she was aware that many museums receive more objects from the public than it has the staff or money to research them, including the objects’ origins and possible significance. “Museums cannot get rid of objects they don’t want or don’t have room for,” Sterling said. She said the MCHS must investigate whether items are relevant to the Salem, Ore. community, and giving away items “cannot occur without good reason.” “Items can accumulate like a crazy grandma’s garage,” she said. One piece that was donated to
the MCHS that Sterling and her students found interesting was a pasture photo backdrop from the 1900s. “At that time, only wealthy people could afford photographs, so this was a huge oil painting,” Sterling said. “We had no idea where it was from.” After going through Salem photography records, they made the determination that the photo backdrop came from well-known Salem photographer Thomas Cronise. According to Sterling, the capstone project also researched a square piano that had connections to a famous Salem family. In addition, students researched a Victorian baby coffin. The coffin had a small window in front so that the deceased could be viewed at wakes and funerals. However, the details about this particular item were not clear. “It was definitely used. It had wormholes, so it must have come out of the ground,” Sterling said. According to Sterling, it was not uncommon for families to reuse coffins in the past. Families might rent a coffin for their family member, and then return it to the undertaker after a funeral. “A symptom of [the] economic times,” she said. According to a press release, the capstone project is targeted at PSU’s Salem Campus and the Extended Campus program at the School of Extended Studies. However, all
Photo courtesy of Sarah Sterling
Capstone class honor: Sterling (right) receiving award from Vandegrift.
PSU students are welcome to join the class if they are able to find transportation to Salem. The capstone project will be available to students for at least one more year. It is a two-quarter class, with students signing up for three credits per quarter. “It is a nice, pleasant group. A good class for people who like historical objects…[and a] good class to find out why certain objects are more historically relevant than others,” Sterling said. She recommends the class to students who may want to work with a museum in the future, or for any undergraduates interested in going to graduate school, because of the original research opportunity. In addition, the class gives students the opportunity to practice
public speaking and writing skills in a real-world setting, Sterling said. “Students care and do their own work,” she said. “This project brings out the best in them.” Commenting on the MCHS’ help with the capstone project, Sterling said, “[It is] the most satisfying collaboration I’ve ever worked with.” According to Sterling, MCHS Director Amy Vandegrift comes to the class every week and makes herself available to speak with students and answer questions. Kenneth Ames, PSU’s Anthropology Department chair, said he was “extremely pleased” to hear that Sterling was recognized with the Heritage Education Award. “[It is] certainly well deserved,” Ames said. “She really worked hard on this capstone.”