Final issue of the semester
The BEacon
Vol. 117, Issue 12 November 20, 2014
Every Thursday
The Student Voice of the University of Portland Since 1935
Cross country heads to National Championships Sports, p. 16
Christmas shopping for the lazy Living, p. 9
What’s happening in Salzburg? News, p. 5
Putting food on the table Students pitch in to provide Thanksgiving meals for Portland families in need
Jacob Fuhrer fuhrer17@up.edu More than 100 families who would otherwise go without a Thanksgiving dinner will feast this holiday, thanks to the efforts of UP students and Bridgetown, Inc., a local service organization. Providing Portland families with Thanksgiving baskets of perishable and nonperishable food was a mission led by Phu Nguyen, Angela Hudson, Claire Kenneally and Tyler Tennant, all social justice coordinators (SJC). Hudson, the SJC for Corrado Hall, said they chose Bridgetown because the organization has worked with UP before.
I was really surprised at the amount of people we got wanting to donate points. After we met our goal of 7,000 points, people still came up to me (to donate). Angela Hudson sophomore They also worked with Bon Appetit, which allowed students to donate up to 7,000 points from their meal plans and towards filling food baskets for Portland
families. Some students even donated 400 points at once. “I was really surprised at the amount of people we got wanting to donate points,” Hudson said. “After we met our goal of 7,000 points, people still came up to me (to donate).” Nguyen, Schoenfeldt Hall’s SJC, said this basket drive is different from most UP volunteer opportunities. “This (drive) is significant because a student is able to participate in the entire donation from beginning to end,” he said. In addition to assembling the baskets, students will deliver them to families this Sunday, with the goal of witnessing community issues. “We get so wrapped up in our own lives,” Hudson said. “I want to get people thinking about more than themselves.” To do this, the team brought Zach Clark, director of environments for Bridgetown, to speak about the difference between compassion and pity. Clark said there are plenty of people full of pity, but that people should be compassionate instead. The difference, he said, is action. “I think our response should be that when we see a problem we reach out and do something,” he said.
Hannah Baade | THE BEACON
Zach Clark, director of environments at Bridgetown, Inc., discusses the difference between pity and compassion with students. Social justice coordinators for various dorms have teamed up with Bridgetown to provide Thanksgiving dinners for more than 100 families in Portland. Clark said the Thanksgiving basket drive is a great way for people to physically get involved and help with not only the growing hunger problem, but
also the psychological impact on young children. The small act of donating meal points, he said, can translate into a child having an authentic
Thanksgiving, a memory that lasts far longer than a dinner of turkey and mashed potatoes. “It’s not just 400 mouths you’re feeding,” he said. “You’re
UP launches campus-wide reading program Christine Menges menges15@up.edu
Wes Washington, Wikimedia Commons
Alice McDermott, whose book “Charming Billy” will be part of UP’s new campus-wide reading program, will hold a lecture at UP in February.
Attention bookworms: Today is UP’s kickoff event for a new campus-wide reading program. The book in the reading program, “Charming Billy,” was written by Alice McDermott, who will speak about the novel in the Buckley Center Auditorium as part of the Schoenfeldt series Feb. 26. Provost Thomas Greene said the idea for the project started when English professor Molly Hiro approached him with the idea of doing a campus-wide read, common on many college campuses. According to Greene, a small committee discussed the project this summer and created a program where students would
be encouraged, but not required, to read the novel. This model differs from the all-campus reading activity Hiro originally envisioned, but still offers students the chance to partake in events if they wish. “It’s a nice little compromise,” Greene said.
Maybe this leads to having a writer in the Chiles Center instead of the Buckley Center. Brian Doyle editor of Portland Magazine Drew Harrington, dean of The Library, said the University has received 300 copies of the book. One hundred are in the Office of
Residence Life, and 200 are in Clark Library, ready for students to check out. Before the event, Fr. Charlie Gordon will lead book discussions open to the entire community on Feb. 11, Feb. 19 and Feb. 24. There will also be a reception on Feb. 26 with McDermott, which will culminate with the public lecture at 7 p.m the same day. Brian Doyle, editor of Portland magazine, hopes similar events will happen in the future. “This is sort of the running head start for a campus reads program,” he said. Doyle thinks this program could eventually expand to entire See Read, page 3