During the initial allocations period that ended in early January, the Student Fee Committee, the Cultural Centers Committee and the Diversity and Multicultural Student Services deliberated on a new financial and administrative arrangement for PSU’s multicultural centers in the 2012–13 academic year.
On Jan. 21, the Student Fee Committee conducted one of its many initial budget allocations meetings for the 2012–13 academic year. During the meeting on Saturday, the committee focused their discussion on the budget for the athletics department. The SFC working group tasked with composing a proposal for the athletics budget, recommended a decrease in the student fees being funneled into the athletics department.
Sean Green, a member of the SFC athletics working group, said, “The Student Fee Committee is looking at reducing student fee support for athletics…in part because we feel the athletics budget is too dependent on the student fee.”
On Jan. 9, ASPSU, with support from the Oregon Students Association, The Bus Project and Basic Rights Oregon, coordinated a two-day voter-registration drive with a goal of registering 700 students at Portland State University. By their deadline, Jan. 10, ASPSU had registered 985 students.
ASPSU and their supporters wanted to ensure a student voice in the special election taking place for Congressional District 1. District 1’s voter registration deadline was Jan. 10.
Stumptown Coffee and its founder Duane Sorenson had an eventful 2011, with fast-flying rumors of the sale of the company and the openings of Woodsman Tavern and Woodsman Market, Sorenson’s latest Portland ventures. With a new central headquarters and a second Stumptown Café opening in New York City, 2012 seems to be following a similar, busy trend.
On Oct. 15, a city ordinance banning plastic bags in Portland took effect. Sixteen days later, Portland launched its curbside compost collection program.
The Plastic Bag Ban ordinance requires that all large grocery stores (e.g., Safeway and Fred Meyer) and large retailers with pharmacies no longer distribute single-use plastic bags to their customers. The reception to this limitation has polarized grocery store patrons across the city.
There is seemingly no end to the sandwiches on offer in this town, which is why we embarked on this often satisfying, sometimes disappointing (and certainly wallet-lightening) tasting adventure on your behalf. With the firm belief that no Portlander should drop cash on a less-than-stellar lunch, we adopted a broad definition of sandwich (Wraps? Sure!) and tried dozens of local creations in search of the best.
On Oct. 4, Maura Kelly and Lindsey Wilkinson of the PSU department of sociology, along with consultant Leslie Hammer of the PSU department of psychology, were chosen by the Bureau of Labor and Industries and the Oregon Department of Transportation as the recipients of a $76,025 research contract entitled, “Evaluating why women and people of color have lower retention rates in apprenticeships.”
This contract is part of the highway construction workforce development partnership program. The program is dedicated to increasing diversity in the highway construction workforce, and ODOT is the financial backer while BOLI supplies its expertise in workforce development.
Audrey Wimmer is one of many Portland State student living on campus who has a compost bin in her kitchen but doesn’t know where to take it when it’s full.
“My compost is piled up right now. I haven’t yet brought it anywhere and I’m not sure where I’m going to bring it,” Wimmer said. “I took one handful of compost, mostly jasmine [tea] leaves, and dumped it in the bushes a while ago.”
On Sept. 24, the Duathlon World Championships were hosted in Gijon, Spain. Debra Lindberg, an assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at Portland State, participated in the race and placed 22nd in the world in her age bracket.
The duathalon consisted of a combined 9.3 miles run and a 23.9 mile bicyce course.
On Oct. 3, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, in collaboration with the Lumina Foundation for Education, announced an $880,000 grant program for eight selected states, including Oregon.
The Quality Collaborative Initiative is a three-year project designed to improve the learning experiences for students here at PSU, as well as at other Oregon universities and the state’s 17 community colleges. The project will be allocating $40,000 of the $880,000 total grant money to Oregon’s two and four-year colleges.
Portland State received $150,000 earlier this month from the Persian Aligned Righteous Strategic Astute Community Foundation (PARSA CF), a grant aimed at revamping Portland State’s Persian/Iranian Studies program.
PARSA CF is a six-year-old philanthropic organization dedicated to preserving Persian arts and culture while creating leaders in the Persian/Iranian community by offering fellowships and awards.