Vanguard January 25, 2010

Page 1

Another up-and-down week for the vikings

THE COUNTRY THAT NOBODY WANTED

A depleted Portland State beats Weber State but loses to Northern Arizona at home

Rethinking Afghanistan

SPORTS: PAGE 12

OPINION: PAGE 5

INDEX NEWS OPINION ARTS SPORTS

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The Vanguard is published twice weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays.

ESTABLISHED 1946

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25TH, 2011

VOL. 65 NO. 32

PSUVANGUARD.COM

KPSU launches new website Radio station hopes to attract more listeners with online upgrade

Senate Bill 242 would drastically change the Oregon University System

Erick Bengel Vanguard staff

Joshua Hunt Vanguard staff

A

fter Portland State’s student-run radio station, KPSU, lost its AM signal last summer, the station’s website suddenly became the de facto medium for broadcasting beyond campus. As a result, Station Manager Doug Friend decided to make a complete overhaul of the website a priority. Now, six months later, KSPU welcomes its new website, which was officially launched on Dec. 31. KSPU lost its coveted signal when Bill Cooper, managing director of Benson High School’s KBPS—which owns the signal—chose to terminate the contract with KPSU two weeks before it was slated to expire. Cooper cited an onair, sodomy-related quip that sparked outrage among listeners. Although KPSU mourned the loss of its AM signal, Friend remained optimistic. “After we lost our signal, we were surprised at how many more listeners we got on our website,” Friend recalled. “We saw our web traffic increase pretty drastically.” The station immediately hired Web Developer Steve Salazar to build a new website from the ground up, using input from the station’s DJs, producers and others involved in the KPSU team. However, even if KPSU’s AM signal had remained active, the station would still have required a new website for the sake of convenience, according to Salazar. It was apparent

SARIA DY/VANGUARD STAFF

Going online: KPSU's new website, which was launched on Dec. 31, provides a more interactive layout than the previous one.

“After we lost our signal, we were surprised at how many more listeners we got on our website.” DOUG FRIEND

for some time that the old website had become increasingly outdated and that any attempt to upgrade it would have amounted to an exercise in futility. “What we were getting from our listeners and our DJs was feedback that [the old website] was

cluttered, not organized well and didn’t really convey information,” Friend said. “It looked very 1997—functional, but drastically needed to be updated.” The task at hand was to fashion a site that could be customized with greater ease and provide more room for interaction between users and the website than the previous one had. Salazar, therefore, chose to abandon Drupal— an antiquated application framework for web design—in favor of the more sophisticated Ruby on Rails. KPSU ON PAGE 3

ASPSU investigates former VP’s termination Ad-hoc committee aims to address ambiguous constitutional policies Jesse Hansen Vanguard staff

In response to the recent termination of former ASPSU Vice President Lauren Morency and the apparent miscommunication by major parties handling the procedure, the Student Senate established an ad-hoc committee last week to address any pitfalls in the organization’s constitution. According to the by-laws drafted to guide the committee, the primary duties involve the analysis of case studies in which ASPSU’s policies were called into question. The commission, now officially titled the Policies and Procedures Committee, will identify issues in the constitution and ultimately draft and present amended policies that will ensure proper functioning within ASPSU as a whole. Though the committee is

Chancellor outlines proposed restructuring of higher ed.

how constitutional issues were handled both at Portland State and by members of student government at other universities. “This is actually something we conceived back in September,” said the newly-appointed Vice President Ethan Smith. “This would be a committee to maintain an institutional knowledge DREW MARTIG/VANGUARD STAFF Investigating ASPSU: The ad-hoc committee met on Sunday to discuss of the policies here at the consitution and Markey's actions. ASPSU. Because we’re made up of students, presently deemed temporary, it’s likely that our turnover rate is very high. I believe that the Senate will vote for its institution as a the longest serving senator has only been permanent entity. here 18 months. With such a short term, it’s The committee was proposed in order to bet- hard to really get a working knowledge of ter understand how to handle situations for the constitution.” which the constitution is vague or a resolution is absent altogether. The intent is to examine ASPSU ON PAGE3

Members of the City Club of Portland listened last Friday as Oregon University System Chancellor George Pernsteiner and Oregon State University President Ed Ray revealed details of Senate Bill 242 (SB242). The changes proposed in the bill would allow Oregon’s seven public universities to operate under their own public system, rather than as state agencies. “The state legislative process is not responsive to enrollment growth, even when the money comes from the students’ tuition,” Ray said. “Under the current system, we can’t even use existing cash reserves to maintain and repair facilities at OSU to improve safety.” Ray’s comments highlighted a key area of contention between the Oregon State Legislature and OUS. Under the present system, universities in Oregon must appeal to the Legislature before spending tuition dollars from their own cash reserves. Last December, the Legislature denied such a request for more than $17 million in emergency funding for the university system. CHANCELLOR ON PAGE 7

PSU connects with students through social media University attracts prospective students via Facebook, other sites Alison Barnwell Vanguard staff

Nhan Ly Tran is a senior at EF International Academy in Tarrytown, N.Y. When he was accepted to Portland State this winter, he posted the news on PSU’s Facebook page. Tran is one of nearly 6,000 fans of PSU on Facebook. As social media becomes the ultimate human network, the university’s communication staff is committed to attracting prospective students like Tran and keeping current students interested on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other sites. Tran applied to five universities this fall, including Stanford University and Harvard University. He said that PSU was his first choice. He became a fan of the university on Facebook when he received his acceptance letter. SOCIAL MEDIA ON PAGE 3


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