THE MESSAGE CAME TOO LATE
TAKING A WALK IN SOME CORN, NO BIG DEAL
Teen suicides and what they say about us
Sauvie Island’s haunted MAiZE
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Portland responds to gay teen suicides Suicide of Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi inspires change at PSU ALISON BARNWELL VANGUARD STAFF
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his Monday was National Coming Out Day, and at 7 p.m., a crowd gathered at Pioneer Courthouse Square to hold a candlelight vigil. Lieutenant Sara Westbrook was driving around the block on her usual policing rounds when she saw the flickering lights. She stopped to look closer, and then she stayed to watch the entire event honoring the death of Tyler Clementi, a gay Rutgers University freshman who jumped off of a bridge on Sept. 22 after his roommate secretly videotaped him with a webcam as he was having sex in their dorm room. Though Westbrook stayed to provide police presence, she also stayed as a lesbian woman. “What happened was horrific,” Westbrook said. While at the vigil, Westbrook
listened to the speeches of Portland State student Amelia Wolf and other members of the community, from high school students to Mayor Sam Adams and Senator Ron Wyden. All 400 of the candles supplied by Pride Northwest were distributed, representing the volume of Portland’s response to the suicide. Clementi was only 18 when he leapt from the George Washington bridge on the Rutgers campus in New Jersey, and the community there and across the nation is responding to a spate of suicides among teenagers who were harassed by their peers for being or seeming gay. In September, a total of six young men—including Clementi—committed suicide. At PSU, the students who hosted the Open House on Coming Out Day at the Queer Resource Center were saddened by Clementi’s story, as well as the other suicides. “It cast a darker edge to Coming Out week than I was looking forward to,” said Cody LaRue, a PSU junior and the QRC’s education and outreach coordinator. At the open house, QRC Coordinator Cathryn McGraw said she is optimistic about the services that the center offers
PSU learning software receives $3.3 million grant Project aims to improve digital literacy effort in at least five states VINH TRAN VANGUARD STAFF
An online learning software developed at Portland State was given the green light by the U.S. Department of Commerce to expand to five other states with the help of a $3.3 million grant. The grant is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, a governmental effort to bridge the digital divide in the country. The Learner Web software platform was
developed by Stephen Reder, a professor of applied linguistics at the PSU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Reder said Learner Web has been a work-in-progress for the past five years and was originally used to help adult learners returning to college. The new grant will be used to develop content for Learner Web in the area of digital literacy, in addition to providing services for at least 23,000 people. “The populations we’re trying to help are often marginalized in many ways,” Reder said. “They either have low education, [are] non-native speakers of English or [are] low income, which prevents their access to computers.” Since most of the users won’t have any experience with com-
ADAM WICKHAM/VANGUARD STAFF
Coming together: Portlanders mourn the death of a Rugters University student, Tyler Clementi, at the Pioneer Courthouse Square on Monday.
to students in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and ally [LGBTQQIA] community. “When I came [to PSU], students and faculty were so excited to see somebody dedicated full-time to my work,” McGraw said. The QRC recently became a part of the Student Affairs cluster at PSU; before, it was a student group. Its new status means that McGraw and her team can offer crisis management services to students, hopefully in prevention of
tragedies like Clementi’s. Addressing the needs of the two or three students that come into McGraw’s office each month with suicidal thoughts or intentions is an effort that involves the Center for Student Health and Counseling. Though clinical social worker Tim Hagge is part of the SHAC staff, he has office hours at the QRC hosting a consultation service called Let’s Talk. “It’s for students who don’t feel comfortable coming into SHAC,” Hagge said. Hagge is available at the QRC every
puters, Reder said it is important to make the system as simple as possible. A unique feature of the program is that it will be a blend of computer support and in-person tutoring services at places such as libraries and community centers. “Learner Web will be implemented in 75 different community centers [for each state] in this project,” Reder said, adding that the program will utilize volunteers for its tutoring services. The five states receiving the service are New York, California, Texas, Louisiana and Minnesota. In some areas, residents are marginalized on several levels, such as Starr County, Texas, where 65 percent of the population lacks basic literacy skills and 33.5 percent live in poverty, according to the data provided by Reder. In other areas poverty rates are also in the double-digits, and the percentage of those without high-school diplomas is often equally high, such as the 19.8 percent rate in Richmond, Calif.
Record amount of students attend OUS schools
DIGITAL LITERACY ON PAGE 3
PSU enrollment up 2.5 percent from last year, admission requirements more stringent ALISON BARNWELL AND CORIE CHARNLEY VANGUARD STAFF
This fall, Portland State and the six other schools within the Oregon University System are experiencing record enrollment numbers—totaling around 92,000—despite major state budget cuts in the past year. As of last Friday, there were 25,213 students enrolled in courses at PSU, a roughly 2.5 percent increase from last fall’s numbers (which totaled 24,580), according to PSU’s
Wednesday between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. At SHAC, a team of 16 senior mental health staff is ready to help students of all orientations. SHAC Director Dr. Dana Tasson works with the QRC to sustain and improve programs like Let’s Talk. “As a gay man, I certainly understand the issues of dealing with sexuality,” Tasson said. “We’re in contact with the QRC; we have a definite administrative relationship.” McGraw has been strengthening ties with departments
Office of Institutional Research and Planning. Precise numbers will not be available until the end of next week, as students are still making adjustments to their schedules. Diane Saunders, director of communications at the OUS, said that the current economic recession plays a factor in the recent enrollment trend. “Generally, during a recession you do see a lot of increases in enrollment in community colleges and graduate programs, and some increases in enrollment of undergraduates,” she said. In addition, in the past few years the OUS and several community colleges have worked to implement transfer programs, which make it easier for students to transfer credits to a four-year university. Commu-
across campus since she began her job at the QRC in July. For example, she and Dr. Sally McWilliams, director of women’s studies, are planning on developing joint-programming on campus. However, since the Rutgers tragedy, they’ve been more urgent in their planning efforts. They hope to stage some initiatives around activism and empowerment in February. The suicide rate among gay teenagers has always been high.
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nity colleges have also begun using common course numberings to make the process easier. “We actually saw the same number of transfer students last fall as we did new freshmen,” Saunders said. At PSU, people are noticing the growth—especially in the classrooms. This fall, there are 145 students in Adjunct Professor Catherine Palmer’s Biology 101 class, which is a higher number than last year. “It’s just like any class, but there’s a few more people,” said freshman Jordan Walters. “I only know one other person.” Though the OUS expects the enrollment influx to continue, none of its universities are implementing admissions caps, unlike other states such as California. However, at PSU admissions standards are not as lax as they were in the past. For instance, all students must have a minimum 3.0 GPA to be admitted. Before, if students didn’t meet this requirement
ENROLLMENT ON PAGE 3