Several of Portland State’s student senators, including Jarrell Townsend and Miranda Stern, have embarked on a new project to make the transition from home to campus a smoother process for incoming students.
Townsend and Stern met through the First Year Experience program last year. Both were new to Portland and found it difficult to find their way around a new city. This year, the two of them are serving together as part of ASPSU to create the very first Freshmen Magazine, along with other students.
The magazine will be produced for incoming freshmen, and the senators hope it will be distributed at orientation.
“What this is, is a zine from students to students to let them know what we had to figure our ourselves. It’s nothing formal,” Stern said. “We want to hand it out to let freshmen know what they’re getting into. There should be other options for freshmen. [First Year Experience] costs a lot of money and they shouldn’t be forced into it.”
Both Stern and Townsend were disappointed by some discrepancies in the FYE program and by the prices that incoming students are forced to pay.
Freshmen are given the option of living in the program or living off campus. The program is relatively new and still has some problems that need to be resolved, they said.
Last year, Stern and Townsend worked to change the discrimination policy. At the moment, there are no clear-cut guidelines as to how to proceed in a discrimination case. That project is still underway, and will hopefully be finished by the end of the term.
Another part of the program that they are trying to change involves the mandatory meal plans. Every student in the program has to choose between 10, 15 or 19 meal plans, which are differentiated by the number of total all-you-can-eat meals per week.
Students that are not a part of the FYE program can also be on a meal plan, but they have more options and can choose to be on a smaller meal plan if they want. Some students find fault with it being a mandatory meal plan due to the cost. For example, the default “15” plan costs $1,116 per term.
“It’s definitely getting better. They need to change the food plan,” said Townsend. “They need to update the dorms. I love the people—that’s why I came back [to the dorms]. There should be more intercultural exchange, rather than people doing it by themselves.”
Townsend’s portion of the magazine is a list of top five things for Portland. Different things such as best restaurants, movie theaters and coffeehouses are included on the list.
To compile the list, he is putting up posters around campus for students to write down their ideas of best places to go. There will be one poster per week, and they can be found in Ondine, ASPSU, Montgomery, Smith or Food for Thought Cafe.
“We’re trying to get people involved … we want people to capitalize on the surroundings. At PSU you can be what you want to be,” Townsend said.
Any suggestions for the magazine are welcome and should be directed to the ASPSU office in Smith Memorial Student Union, room 117.