Event of the day
TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2010 • PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY • VOLUME 64, ISSUE 114
A free showing of the film The Garden will be hosted by the Multicultural Center and Sustainability Leadership Center. The film follows the plight of farmers as immigrants from Latin America tell the story of the country’s largest urban farm, land developers, money, poverty, power and racial discord.
When: Noon Where: SMSU Multicultural Center
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INSIDE OPINION Guest Opinion Future in clean energy necessary for U.S. PAGE 2
Portland minorities at a disadvantage Study shows that Portland is not as progressive as it appears Courtney Graham Vanguard staff
Blackboard out of my mind Online courses at PSU lowers the bar for all PAGE 3
NEWS Campus Connections Males with low GPAs more likely to drop out PAGE 5
ARTS
Royal Return Forgotten Sands takes Prince of Persia back to its roots with poise PAGE 6
Portland State recently released a report in conjunction with the Coalition of Communities of Color that found that communities of color—including newly profiled African immigrants and Slavic communities—are substantially disadvantaged compared to their white counterparts in Multnomah County. Ann Curry-Stevens, an assistant professor in the School of Social Work, contributed significantly to the report with her research and worked closely with the coalition to produce what will be the first in a series of detailed profiles of Portland’s disadvantaged minorities. Curry-Stevens moved here three years ago and thought Portland was a “progressive enclave,” she said. Through her research, however, she found “the degree of divergence between the common rhetoric and how toxic it is for communities of color” to be very surprising. In addition, Curry-Stevens said that it seems that this misconception is a common selfperception for Portland residents. However, commenting on this perception, she said, “Whose reality is really being reflected in that perception?”
The second author on the report, Amanda Cross-Hemmer, a senior research assistant in the School of Social Work, said that “it’s one thing to have a vague sense that disparities exist…but you can’t put them somewhere else; this is our home community.” “Putting that responsibility somewhere else does not help the very real disparities here,” she said. The report, titled “Communities of Color in Multnomah County: An Unsettling Profile,” was released late last month. Funds from PSU, the Northwest Health Foundation, the City of Portland and Multnomah County went towards the production of the report. The Coalition of Communities of Color is an organization of several groups in the Portland metropolitan area, including the Asian Family Center, the Native American Youth and Family Center, the Urban League of Portland and El Programa Hispano. In its introduction, the report explains that it is intended to examine “issues of inequality, inequity and injustice,” as well as “the failings of mainstream institutions to address the needs of communities of color are abundant and must create the impetus to act, [and] to act holistically.” It is important to note from the outset that the report acknowledges that there may be some reporting error, due to underrepresentation and miscounting of communities of color in census numbers and local data. Minority groups historically underreport and are left uncounted in counts due to a variety of socioeconomic and political factors.
Ann Curry-Stevens
In addition, many government service providers do not report their data in a way that shows community impacts, but instead aggregate data, according to Curry-Stevens. This does not reflect large disparities in access between different groups to such services. Similarly, when only certain groups are individually identified in data, it reflects a specific choice and set of intentions, according to Cross-Hemmer. For example, the U.S. census does not take mix-raced persons into account. “Nothing is natural, it’s a very sociopolitical choice,” Cross-Hemmer said. Ultimately, the report found that while 23.6 percent of the county’s population was, in 2008, composed of communities of color—defined as African American, African immigrant and refugee, Asian/Pacific
Adam Wickham/Portland State Vanguard
Islander, Latino, Native American and Slavic—their social, economic and educational outcomes are even worse than King County, Wash., which is home to Seattle. For example, youth of color make up 45 percent of public school enrollment in Multnomah County, but 30 percent of these students do not graduate from high school, compared to only 7 percent of whites. In addition, the collective child poverty rate is 33.3 percent, compared to 12.5 percent for whites and only 21.5 percent for communities of color in King County. Additionally, only 13.8 percent of members of communities of color can expect to receive a bachelor’s degree, compared to 24.5 percent
REPORT continued on page four
Improving portable classrooms
Local Film Highlights New and classic films playing locally this weekend PAGE 7
PSU working to improve Portland Public School portable classrooms
SPORTS
Catrice Stanley Vanguard staff
A tale of two seasons Softball struggled early, but coasted to PCSC championship after 18-2 run PAGE 9 Bonding with the Free Radicals Chemistry students form an intramural flag team PAGE 10
Michael Pascual/Portland State Vanguard
PSU creates temporary solutions: The architecture department is working with others on new
designs for temporary classrooms in the Portland Public School System.
About a year ago, a Portland State University professor was prompted by the Portland Public School System to envision what the “school of the future” might be like. Since that time, Sergio Palleroni and a team of architecture students and faculty have worked to redesign the aesthetic and functionality of mobile classrooms. But Palleroni, associate professor of architecture, realized that this would not be a simple task. “As we were working in the schools, we realized the problem was bigger than simply [designing a school of the future],” Palleroni said. According to Palleroni, it has been over 50 years since PPS has had a public funding initiative to build school buildings. With lack of funding for bond measures and the public unwilling to pay more taxes,
schools have had to look elsewhere to find extra space for students. “It’s not just New Orleans or Haiti that are in trouble, it’s our own communities that are suffering,” Palleroni said. PPS has been adressing the problems, but underfunding is evident in schools throughout the U.S. Many are dealing with the issues in a similar fashion. “All over the country, people are ordering mobile classrooms,” Palleroni said. Instead of building new buildings, schools are buying portable classrooms, which are the equivalent of mobile-style manufactured homes, adjusted to fit the needs of a classroom. “Schools are buying portable classrooms because they don’t have to raise bonds for them. They can pay for them out of operational and management expenses from the school. However, there is an extraordinary expense [to buy a portable classroom]. They cost an average of $250,000–350,000 for a lousy little classroom,” Palleroni said.
PORTABLES continued on page five