Opinion

Being graded on attendance is a fact of life in higher education. If you don’t show up to learn, you won’t get the grade. But when it comes to being held accountable for showing up to every class, the decision isn’t really ours.

Too much of the grade we earn is reliant not upon our hard work, but simply upon our physical presence. Every year, our campus is hit hard with the flu, various strains of colds, croup, strep throat and everything in between, because there are so many sick students coming to class.

Networking isn’t just of shaking hands anymore. It’s moving toward online “friending” in many ways. Facebook has become a powerhouse for finding community connections online.

The Virtual Viking weekly email, which offers Portland State organizations space to advertise their events, encapsulates how important Facebook has become for these groups to reach out to the rest of campus. Out of the 16 links in the “Upcoming Events” section of last week’s Virtual Viking, nine lead to Facebook pages, six of which are viewable only by people with a Facebook account.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the new Life Sciences Building on Oct. 12 marked a new direction for the science department in terms of collaboration with other universities as well as a shift in Oregon’s research economy.

Set to open in August 2013, the new Life Sciences Building will be shared between Portland State University, Oregon Health and Science University and Oregon State University. Located on the South Waterfront, the new facility will house state-of-the-art laboratories and one of the largest lecture halls in the state. This transformation puts PSU in a position to collaborate with other universities and acts as a means to establish Portland as a research economy.

Ask a critic of Occupy Portland what they think of the hundreds of protesters occupying the park blocks between Chapman and Lownsdale Squares, and you’ll likely get a disgusted smirk accompanied by the phrase, “Get a job.” Much to opponents’ disdain, movements like Occupy Portland continue to grow and gain the support of their local communities and businesses—and that includes the endorsement of the Vanguard.

The government is putting energy and focus into boosting our economy, and some of that energy is noticeably green.

Using $31 million in funds from the state of Oregon with help from the government stimulus and community donors, the renovation of Lincoln Hall included 234 solar panels installed in September.

What comes to mind when one thinks of protecting the environment? Buzzwords and phrases such as sustainability, clean fuel and energy efficiency get tossed around and shuffled. But what does it take to actually save the environment?

Portland State touted a gain of about 124 new black students in 2010–11. In a sea of almost 28,000 students, 874 black students matriculated here last year—3.5 percent of the university’s students—according to data from PSU’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning (OIRP).

Is this cause to celebrate? The OIRP report points out that this 3.5 percent is “higher than Oregon high school completers (who are black), which is 2.7 percent.” Sirius Bonner, a university admissions official in charge of diversity recruitment programs, said a fair comparison is Western Oregon University, with its 2.7 percent enrollment rate of black students.