News

Two years ago, Jack O’Neal came back from his deployment in the Middle East and enrolled as a mechanical engineering student at Portland State. Last spring, his engineering 199 class was given an assignment to create something that “you think you could fix for the world.” When someone in the class spoke up and said they would like to see a better lighting system designed to assist cyclists, O’Neal’s brainchild, YouTurn, was born.

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.

On Thursday, Oct. 6, Portland State dodged a potential crisis thanks to the actions of a responsible student as well as a useful on-campus resource designed for just such a situation.

A student in Philosophy 416: The Rationalists, while engaged in a heated discussion with professor Angela Coventry, lost control and began to angrily shout at everyone in the room. A more serious situation seemed imminent: several onlookers felt that the altercation was about to turn physical.

Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s PSU Weekend, the community-wide event held annually at Portland State. The event will launch with Gruen’s address this Friday, Oct. 21, at 7:30 p.m., in the SMSU ballroom and will conclude on Sunday, Oct. 23.

Beginning this fall, Portland State now offers one of only two real estate development master’s degree programs in the Pacific Northwest—the other being the University of Washington.

A joint effort by the Center for Real Estate Development, the School of Business Administration and the School of Urban Studies and Planning is responsible for the new program.

Twelve days ago, protesters from all backgrounds joined in a march from Waterfront Park to Occupy Portland’s long-term home, the Park Blocks of Chapman Square. Many of the activists are students who balance full schedules, often choosing to sleep in the Park Blocks and shower at PSU’s Recreation Center.

Across the nation, more and more students are signing up for online and distance-learning courses: Enrollment increased from 8 to 20 percentbetween 2000 and 2008, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Numbers at PSU paint a similar picture: Last year, out of 24,845 students enrolled, 11,441 were enrolled in at least one online course—46 percent of the student body.

On Oct. 8, Randal Acker, an attorney and the owner of the Figo House—the only historic home remaining at the College Station site on the outskirts of the Portland State campus—joined documentary filmmaker MichaelGalinsky for a showing of his film, Battle for Brooklyn, at the Hollywood Theatre in Northeast Portland.

Last month, Mark Bosworth—a former adjunct professor of geology at PSU—disappeared while volunteering at Cycle Oregon. Bosworth had been acting confused and disoriented during the time leading up to his disappearance, according to other event volunteers and participants.

Last month, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that the OUS campus ban on firearms was invalid because it superseded Oregon state law.

The OUS rule responsible for the controversy was enacted in the late 1970s, and was based on another Oregon statute that gives universities the right to control the use of their property. However, there is a “state preemption” in Oregon firearms law that allows no one but the Oregon legislative assembly to regulate the possession of firearms. Because of this preemption, the OUS administrative rule was found invalid in accordance with state law.