Third annual Diversity Career Panel today Portland State’s third annual Diversity Career Panel will be held today from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 228. The PSU Food Industry Leadership Center (FILC) will host the event, which is designed to inform students of color about job opportunities in the food and packaged goods industries.
News briefs
Third annual Diversity Career Panel today
Portland State’s third annual Diversity Career Panel will be held today from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 228.
The PSU Food Industry Leadership Center (FILC) will host the event, which is designed to inform students of color about job opportunities in the food and packaged goods industries.
The panel will feature companies that are seeking to hire a diverse workforce–such as Nike, Costco, Fred Meyer, Starbucks, Merchant Concept, Target and Frito-Lay–discussing how diversity affects their industries and answering student questions.
The event will also function as a job fair, and students are encouraged to bring resumes and apply for current openings at the companies. Food and drinks will be served.
“Last year over 150 students came to the panel,” said Rahel Yared, FILC’s manager of student programs and diversity. “This year we’re trying to make it bigger, to expose more students to these opportunities.”
The panel is part of Pathways to the Future, a diversity-oriented program at FILC that was created to help high school and college students find careers in the food, beverage, retail and consumer products industries.
–Sascha Krader
Security deposit replaced with advance payment
An advance payment of $150 will replace the current security deposit students pay when they sign a housing contract.
The $150 payment will be collected each year when the contract is signed, and will be taken off of the last bill residents pay before they end a contract.
If current Portland State housing residents wish to secure and get first pick on an on-campus apartment or dorm next year they will have to pay a $150 advance payment when the contract renewal process begins in mid-April.
Current contracts with Portland State will be valid until fall term 2007, but students who want to secure housing after Sept. 8, 2007 will have to make the $150 advance payment.
Residents who pay the $150 will get first pick on apartments or dorms and will be assigned before the administration assigns new tenants, according to housing manager Mary Cloos.
–David Holley
Historic buildings no longer on waiting list
Vacancies in the historic housing buildings on campus (such as Montgomery Court and the Blackstone) will be listed only in the University Housing office and no longer in the online rental list.
Housing manager Mary Cloos said in an e-mail that students can sign up on a waiting list, but current residents’ requests will be accommodated before requests on the waiting list.
–David Holley
Revenue Committee endorses cigarette tax hike
Turning aside Republican opposition, the House Revenue Committee endorsed an 84.5-cent-per-pack cigarette tax hike Wednesday after House Speaker Jeff Merkley personally appealed for the tax to provide health coverage to 117,000 uninsured children.
The Portland Democrat, saying that 10 hours of negotiations with House Republicans last week had failed to produce an agreement on the tax, urged the revenue panel to move ahead anyway to “put this plan forward.”
The tax measure, which now goes to the Legislature’s budget-writing committee for more work, would require at least five Republican votes in addition to all 31 Democrats in the House to pass.
–Brad Cain, Associated Press
