This year was full of surprising successes, painful near wins, and comebacks for the Vikings. We became the Pacific Coast Softball Conference two-time softball division winners, women’s soccer took home a co-championship title and volleyball claimed runner-up honors in the regular season and tournament. Hard work does pay off.
As the year comes to a close, the student fee committee is wrapping up activities, documenting final balances for fee-funded areas and finalizing documentation for the transition to a new SFC coming in with the new Associated Students of Portland State University administration. These are tasks ASPSU Vice President and SFC Chair-elect Nick Rowe called “very important to the current and continued smooth functioning of the SFC.”
Students in freshman inquiry courses at Portland State have the opportunity to design a variety of service-learning projects.
This week, students in professor Alma Trinidad’s Race and Social Justice Freshman Inquiry course host “Talent for Change,” a performance art event that provides a space for students to continue exploring how to respond to the social issues they’ve studied.
The fifth annual Bike to PSU Challenge rounds out the final day today. With more than 1,000 riders actively logging commutes, the challenge has expanded nearly 20 percent in ridership from last year. The program is thanks in part to the Portland State Bike Hub and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. PSU students and employees racked up more than 90,000 miles, logging their trips online as they made the choice to commute by bicycle to and from PSU.
Vikings know how to throw. Senior Sean MacKelvie broke the Portland State record in the men’s javelin last week at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field West Regionals and will move on to nationals.
Portland State needs a new quarterback. Last fall, the Vikings football team relied on star quarterback Connor Kavanaugh to lead the team. Kavanaugh is graduating this year, along with reserve quarterbacks Drew Hubel and Justin Engstrom. PSU has a handful of new players ready to step up and fill those empty shoes, though.
If you happened to drive by Ross Island on May 19, you may have seen something interesting: From a distance, it looked like dozens of men and women stood on the Willamette River, gliding forward; but as you got closer you saw they were vigorously rowing while standing on surfboards. The 2012 Ross Island Stand Up Paddle Series was underway, and it’s not over yet.
At the beginning of the year, I signed a lease with University Pointe. I didn’t know very much at all about apartments in Portland. I was a very, very stupid person from a much smaller suburban town, and I was impressed by the big, modern new building. I somehow convinced myself it would be a good idea to get a room reserved. But a few months later I realized: I’d made a huge mistake.
Don’t stop riding! The Bike to PSU Challenge is over, but you don’t have to chain up the spoked beast. After all, summer is here—sort of—and Portland’s streets are great for cycling.
The start of the 2012 Major League Soccer season for the Portland Timbers has been somewhat similar to last year’s season. The Timbers have played commendably at Jeld-Wen Field but have yet to win an away game. In 2011, the Timbers won only two away games all season.
The Smith advisory board met last Monday and unanimously approved a resolution to convert one women’s bathroom to a gender-neutral facility. Located on the fourth floor of the Smith Memorial Student Union next to the Queer Resource Center, the restroom will be the first multi-stall, multi-user gender-neutral bathroom on campus. SMSU staff is still working on the timing for the exact date of the conversion.