Event of the day
WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 2010 • PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY • VOLUME 65, ISSUE 3
Join PSU students and members of the Portland Surfrider Foundation at the Ban the Bag Day of Action for a City Hall testimony, rally and pint night. The event supports a citywide effort to place a ban on single-use plastic bags.
When: 9 a.m. Where: Portland City Hall, 1221 SW 4th Ave.
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INSIDE NEWS
Dees joins Impact Entrepeneurs Former Stanford professor joins organization’s advisory board PAGE 3
ARTS
Banter, insults, affirmations These Portland artists are Over It PAGE 4
Finding your inner Laser The Kids are All Right isn’t your typical romantic comedy PAGE 5
New system aims to monitor Gulf Professor develops system to predict the flow of oil spills Anna Snook Vanguard staff
While scientists clamor for answers to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, one Portland State professor is on the cusp of completing a twoand-a-half year project that may revolutionize the way in which the Gulf is monitored. The project’s goal is to predict the flow and turbulent dispersal of present and future oil spills. Professor Chris Mooers—along with his colleagues at Princeton University, North Carolina State University, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Naval Research Laboratory, Texas A&M University and the University of California, Los Angeles—is currently developing a 3-D computer modeling system that evaluates and predicts changes in ocean surface height patterns and currents, based on various observation systems, including satellite radar and thermal images. The models show detailed charts of everything from ocean
Tracking oil: A new computer modeling system is in the works to chart the flow and dispersal rate of oil plumes.
temperatures to major currents and eddies, as well as height to salinity levels in the Gulf and its surrounding areas. By examining the charts, one can predict a few days or weeks worth of Gulf patterns. For example, the salinity levels can help indicate the way oil plumes migrate through the Gulf. Based on such data, it could be predicted which way, and how fast, oil plumes could be expected to travel. Mooers’ project, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy,
ASPSU GEARS UP FOR NEXT YEAR
was originally started with the purpose of helping to ensure the safe recovery of hydro-carbon resources from the Gulf of Mexico Exclusive Economic Zone. While energy still remains the general focus of the project, the recent oil spill has contributed to the purpose of the models and has increased the immediate need for effective monitoring systems in the Gulf. “These models are not being paid attention to…because they
Adam Wickham/Portland State Vanguard
haven‘t been tested uniformly,” Mooers said, who has been evaluating different computergenerated models over the course of 2009 and 2010. “[We’re] trying to make conclusions about whether these models as a group are better or not than the individual models. By being clever, we can put the best models together and come up with something satisfactory.”
GULF continued on page two
PSU introduces Hellenic studies minor
OPINION
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New program will offer courses in ancient and modern Greek language and literature
Student radio learns from mistakes KPSU is off the air, for now PAGE 6
Amy Staples Vanguard staff Photo courtesy of Selina Poulsen
ASPSU’s new 2010 - 11 executive staff
New executive staff works toward developing more specific campaign goals Tamara K. Kennedy Vanguard staff
Since their recent election to office, ASPSU President Katie Markey and Vice President Selina Poulsen have filled all ASPSU executive staff positions with students that are ready to implement campaigns for 2010–11 school year. In the upcoming year, the focus of ASPSU’s campaigns will be ensure that students have a voice in restructuring, student dignity and student fee-funded services. The executive staff is utilizing
these campaign themes to develop more specific campaign goals, Poulsen said. In order to prepare for their first campaign, Poulsen said the staff will “backwards plan.” In other words, they will get information that is relevant, set goals and then figure out how to best utilize staff member strengths. In addition, Markey has been working with the new communications director to get the kinks out of the website and to provide up-to-date information about ASPSU and its campaigns to students as soon as possible. According to Poulsen, the ASPSU executive staff is using summer term to acclimate to their positions, attend training sessions and to learn to work as a team.
ASPSU continued on page two
A donation will bring ancient and Modern Greece to life at Portland State. E. John Rumpakis has donated $259,000 to the College of Liberal Arts and Science for the creation of a Hellenic studies program. The mission of the program will be to strengthen the relationship between Portland and the “people and culture of Greece and the Greek Diaspora,” according to a press release. CLAS Dean Marvin Kaiser said that PSU currently teaches many courses related to Greek or Hellenic studies, including classes in language, political science and history. However, the college is now organizing the classes into a minor. “We trust that sometime next year it will be formally recognized by the university,” he said. Although PSU has classes in both ancient and modern Greek language and literature, neither has tenuretrack positions, said Sandra Freels,
Photo courtesy of pdx.edu
Dean Marvin Kaiser
the chair of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. The donation will be used to seed a tenured position in modern Greek. “World Languages and Literatures will conduct a national search next year to fill that position,” she said. “We expect the new associate professor of modern Greek to begin work here in September 2011.” According to Kaiser, the chosen individual will also serve as director of the program and will therefore be in charge of helping the program to grow and of advising students. “The intention [of the minor] is to expand offerings in Greek language and literature so that a minor can be offered, with three years of modern Greek and
MINOR continued on page three