Opinion

Portland is cracking down on graffiti. The only problem is that it’s also cracking down on murals.

These iconic pieces of the city are disappearing. Murals must go through a costly permit process in order to be considered “art,” regardless of whether there is permission by the owner of the building it is painted on.

In other words, people cannot paint their own buildings without violating the Portland City Code or graffiti-related offenses laws.

Most students can relate to this story: You’re crossing the street, perhaps on your way to Neuberger or Smith, when you come an inch from being run down by a cyclist. Bewildered, you glance upward to confirm that the signal says to walk. Sure enough, there it is. You had the right of way. And yet you’ve just narrowly avoided a collision with a cyclist who decided to run the red light.

It’s a common occurrence, to say the least, and now there’s some data to back it up. Four students in the Natural Science Inquiry class at Portland State decided to look at how many cyclists ran red lights at intersections on campus, as opposed to other motorists.

For many women, the availability of good contraception is not in question. From Planned Parenthood option to generic hormone birth control, it is both easy and affordable for women to find a method of preventing unwanted pregnancies that works for them.

The Plan B pill acts as an emergency contraceptive in the event that these methods fail or are unavailable. The medication is one alternative many women are thankful to have.

This October, two freelance contributors to NPR were fired for their involvement in the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Lisa Simeone worked as a freelance host for Soundprint, a documentary program distributed by NPR but not produced by it. Simeone provided her take on featured documentaries on the show for 15 years and never had a problem with personal politics affecting her work before.

What if a language class could also prepare students for the working world? For students proficient in the German language there’s one that can.

Seeing the connection between the students’ interest in German and their interest in business, the German department combines both the knowledge of the German language and the desire to get involved in the business world through its business German class, titled “German for the Working World.”

Al Gore says he invented the Internet? Congress declares pizza a vegetable? Federal judge rules that cigarettes have free speech? Europe says water doesn’t prevent dehydration? Based on these headlines, the average American might conclude that a significant portion of the world has suddenly contracted whatever intelligence-sapping disease seems to be plaguing certain Republican presidential candidates.

The problem is that these headlines, and the “reporting” that accompanies them, are saturated with intentional exaggerations and gross misrepresentations of information that serve no other purposes beside attracting audiences and manipulating public opinion.

If college is one thing, it’s expensive. The majority of us will graduate with some accumulated debt no matter how much we try to avoid it. With the cost of tuition, books, housing and food, every additional cost tacked on is another headache.

It seems a lot of students hold grievances with the mandatory health service fee in particular. For those of us who already have insurance, this added program may appear pointless. But if you look a little closer, this fee includes a lot of valuable student kickbacks.

Is this your fifth year in college? Or even sixth? Strangely enough, Portland State students take longer to graduate than the usual college student does.

Even full-time students who do not change their major tend to hang around as students for longer than four years.

There does not seem to be any one reason for this that encompasses every student who takes longer than four years to get a degree. Some may have taken time off from school or are not enrolled full time. Others faced obstacles such as classes that are only offered during spring term. Others still spent a year or two abroad.