President-elect Barack Obama will take office on Jan. 20, 2009, after a hard-fought election process that ended on last Tuesday night. While this has been an historic victory for the United States and is still reverberating across the world, America’s new leader used a great deal of his acceptance speech on the night of Nov. 4 to remind the American people that this is no time for political apathy.
Although most national polls show Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama arguably ahead in the polls, some believe many white voters may change their mind just before voting over reasons of race or rosier political projections. Historically, white voters have changed their minds over a black candidate projected to win, a political phenomenon known as the Bradley effect.
Portland State’s Political Science Department hosted a roundtable discussion forum last night about the 2008 Presidential Election, with a panel that consisted of four political science faculty members. The roundtable was held by the department in order to provide an “informed discussion about the upcoming election” for students as well as the general public, as well as to explore the election’s international implications, according to the event posting.
At a meeting last Friday, the Student Fee Committee ruled to increase the individual stipend levels 5 percent for all student groups except for the SFC and Associated Students of Portland State University, whose raises range from 1 percent to 19 percent. ASPSU requested $47,060 from the SFC to fund stipend increases and the Student Senate, Elections Board and Judicial Board, three groups within student government that have been previously unpaid.
With golden hopes and the revamping of Shattuck Hall, PSU is well on its way to becoming the Michael Phelps of LEED-certified standards. Portland is often viewed as a role model for environmental sustainability across the nation, and Portland State followed suit with the rededication of Shattuck Hall on Monday, Sept.