News
Recent Portland State graduates have various options for career paths, such as entering graduate programs, getting internships, joining the work force or traveling. Others will put their degrees to use for a career in the armed forces, a path which many college graduates have begun to follow.
Earlier this month, West Coast-based Umpqua Bank became the latest banking company to come under fire for purportedly unfair overdraft policies. Amber Hawthorne, a former member of one of Umpqua’s California branches, filed a class-action lawsuit in response to what she perceived to be an unjust attempt to overcharge Umpqua customers for over-withdrawing from their debit accounts, also known as overdrafting.
A recently incorporated component to Portland State’s film studies program allows students to not only watch and analyze films in lecture halls but also have the opportunity to produce their own films.
Though this program is a new addition to the university, film studies already claims about 270 students. The program began in 2007 as a vision of several faculty members within the Department of Theater Arts, particularly professor William Tate. As a result of the collaborative effort, film studies recently included a production component to its program.
At the the beginning of 2012, Shelly Chabon, professor and chair of the Portland State University Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences took office as the new president for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Chabon will serve as president for one year.
Chabon has taught at PSU since 2007, and became chair of the speech and hearing sciences department in 2010. According to her curriculum vitae, Chabon has more than 38 years’ experience working in the area of speech and language communication.
On Jan. 26, Portland State will host a fair for students interested in learning about studying abroad. With more than 100 programs in over 40 countries, the fair provides students with an opportunity to explore the different study abroad options, such as terms abroad, internships and short-term, faculty-led courses. The event will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom, room 355.
With so many different programs and places to consider, the fair offers students a one-stop place to ask questions about available programs and financial aid opportunities. According to Blythe Knott, education abroad advisor for the Office of International Affairs, the fair can help students determine their main priorities for selecting a program, such as pinpointing academic interest and affordability.
There are more than 250 scholarships available for the 2012–13 academic year, and applications are due next week, on Feb. 1.
These are the general university scholarships, the largest category of scholarships at Portland State, which include the Presidential and Oregon Laurels Scholarships. Other scholarships offered through various academic departments and the PSU Foundation may have later deadlines. For example, the ethnic-based scholarships offered through the Foundation are due on Mar. 15, 2012. The main graduate application closes on April 2, 2012.
Oregon will have a new attorney general in 2012. Citing personal reasons, John Kroger will vacate the current position and, so far, only three democratic candidates have emerged.
On Jan. 4, Ellen Rosenblum announced her intent to run for the state position, which supervises all legal matters in which the state plays a role. In 1993, then-Governor Barbara Roberts appointed Rosenblum to serve as an appellate court judge for Multnomah County.
The Middle East Studies Center will host a “lunch and learn” event featuring Arabic language scholar Asmaa Taha on Thursday, Jan. 26, at noon in Smith Memorial Student Union room 238. Taha will speak about the state of post-Mubarak Egypt on the one-year anniversary of the country’s revolution.
Taha, an Arabic language professor and Fulbright scholar at Reed College, was living in Egypt in 2011, and experienced first-hand the volatile nature of a country in the midst of revolution.
According to Oregon Campus Compact’s final count, the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of service event held on Monday, Jan. 16, united 1,000 student volunteers from nine Portland area colleges at Roosevelt High School. According to an article in The Oregonian, Emily Gilliland, the ORCC’s executive director, said the event at Roosevelt was the largest student mobilization in the country on what is considered to be a national day of service.
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.”
Reverend Dr. W.G. Hardy, Jr., was the keynote speaker for the Martin Luther King Jr. tribute week held Jan. 16–20. His speech on Thursday, Jan. 19, addressed the work of MLK in the civil rights movement and how his legacy can continue to move civil rights forward.
A Portland native, Hardy grew up in the Northeast portion of the city and eventually moved to the Southeast area. He has a long-standing and unique history with Portland’s African American and religious communities which began with his father. Hardy said his father was somewhat of a pioneer for African Americans in the Portland area. “My father was a trailblazer. He was a barber in the day and a pastor in the evening and on weekends,” Hardy said.