In short

Some TriMet roadwork set to finish Thursday

Construction for TriMet’s new MAX Green Line along Southwest Sixth Avenue between Southwest Jackson and Harrison streets will finish by the end of the day Thursday, Feb. 29.

Two normal traffic lanes will remain open, and pedestrians will be restricted to using temporary sidewalks until the work is done Thursday, said Kay Dannen, TriMet public information officer.

When the work is complete, Sixth Avenue will return to three lanes, and vehicle access from Southwest Jackson to Harrison streets will reopen, she said.

All of Sixth Avenue is currently closed at Southwest Harrison Street due to construction of PSU’s new recreation center, Dannen said. She said she did not know when that area will reopen because TriMet is not currently managing construction there.

Portland State is managing construction on the block between Harrison and Montgomery, Dannen said, adding that the university has had delays in the work on the street, causing the construction to slow down. PSU administrators were not available for comment after the Vanguard learned of the delays.

The next stage of MAX construction will begin March 3, running on Sixth Avenue between Harrison and Market streets, Dannen said. The work is scheduled to be finished March 28, and there will be no vehicle access and limited pedestrian access during construction, she said.

–Robert Seitzinger

IRS refund e-mail scam targets PSU students

Some Portland State students have recently received a scam e-mail claiming that IRS refunds are available to them if they give up personal information, such as a social security number.

The e-mail claims that the recipient is owed a refund from the IRS, and is intended to collect students’ personal information, said Jahed Sukhun, the director of user support in PSU’s Office of Information Technologies.

Scams like this are often used to entice students into giving up information that scammers can use to access private user accounts and even steal their identity.

OIT receives these sorts of e-mails all the time, Sukhun said, and students should never respond to them. He said if a student is unsure, they should call the OIT helpdesk and have OIT security investigate. Sukhun also said students may receive e-mails that claim they are from OIT asking for personal account information.

“They make it look like it came from our office,” Sukhun said. “We will never ask you, or send e-mails to the entire campus, asking them for their passwords.”

Have a question about a possible e-mail scam? Contact the OIT helpdesk at 503-725-4357 or [email protected].

–Steve Haske

PSU rises in recycle competition rankings

In week two of RecycleMania, Portland State is ranked 19th out of 84 schools participating in the waste minimization category of the national recycling competition, up from 22nd after week one.

Students and staff averaged 4.6 pounds of waste generated per person for week two, down from 5.1 pounds per person for week one.

In the Per Capita Classic category, which measures the amount of materials recycled by a campus, PSU placed 100th out of 159 schools for week two. In week one, the average recycled material was 1.2 pounds per person, though that average fell to 1.04 for week two.

Last year, PSU averaged 5.6 pounds of waste per person in week two of the competition, and finished 13th place overall for waste minimization. The current leader this year in that category, the Monterey Institute of International Studies, averaged 1.1 pounds of waste per person during week two, according to the scoreboard at www.recyclemaniacs.org.

-Robert Seitzinger