News

A Portland State team recently completed research that shed light on a relevant topic of discourse within the farming world: genetically modified food.

Associated Students of Portland State University presidential candidate Ethan Allen Smith’s campaign was challenged by the elections board last week because he had not selected a vice presidential candidate. Due to the board’s interpretation of the ASPSU elections board bylaws, which put in place the rules under which a candidate can run, the elections board informed Smith that he would not be recognized as a candidate unless he selected a running mate. Smith responded by selecting Jeffery Frankenhauser as his vice presidential candidate.

On April 25, the office of campus safety sent an email to all students and staff informing them of a police investigation concerning threats of violence to the student body. It was reported that 33-year-old Henry Liu, a graduate student studying conflict resolution, had made death threats regarding faculty. The email stated that though Liu had not been charged with a crime, he had been banned from campus and was under investigation by law enforcement agencies.

It was a rainy afternoon on May 1, and historic May Day celebrations were underway all across the U.S., including on the Portland State campus. A small crowd began gathering at 2 p.m. in the South Park Blocks in front of Smith Memorial Student Union as PSU math and economics senior Grant Booth addressed the crowd. More people trickled over as the student speakers got underway, and the crowd reached 40–50 people at its peak.

On April 29, the Associated Students of Portland State University met to discuss the final revisions to its governing Constitution and, ultimately, the entire structure of student government. The new Constitution was supposed to be finalized at the previous meeting on April 24, but because the session carried past 10 p.m. and the building had officially closed, the meeting was no longer considered public and had to be adjourned. The vision and reform committee consequently agreed to wrap up the final bits and pieces on Sunday, just a day before the April 30 deadline.

The Extended Studies Building, located on the corner of Southwest Ninth Avenue and Mill Street, just across the South Park Blocks from Lincoln Hall, is a multi-story building without an elevator. The lack of accessibility has been the subject of many complaints from students with disabilities, along with poor signage on campus and slow-to-open doors on some campus buildings.

According to a statement provided by University Communications, the Portland State School of Extended Studies is eliminating 16 positions. According to Director of Communications Scott Gallagher, “This move is part of PSU’s ongoing strategic effort to increase efficiencies and reduce expenditures campus-wide.”

Portland State’s Institute for Sustainable Solutions has teamed up with a group of 25 international interdisciplinary graduate students planning to sustain the future of river deltas around the world and balance clean water through ecological and community health and economic development.

Returning to Portland State after nearly five years at the University of California, Irvine, Pamela Miller will step back into a role she already knows. As the new assistant dean for development and external relations at the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, Miller will once again focus on securing funding for the college.