Tennis teams split wins

The Portland State men’s tennis team hit winning form at just the right time. The Vikings made a clean sweep of city foes Lewis & Clark in Portland last Friday and Gonzaga at the Club Green Meadows the next day. The two wins came just before the men opened conference play against Sacramento State yesterday.

On the other hand, the women’s tennis team started the conference proceedings on a disappointing note last weekend. The Viks lost to Weber State in Ogden, Utah on Friday and fell to Utah State in Logan on Saturday.

For the men’s team, the weekend began with Friday’s comprehensive 7-0 rout of local rivals Lewis & Clark. The Viks kicked off the victories by winning all three doubles games and taking the doubles point.

In the singles, sophomore Mitch Somach replaced senior Chris Rice at line one and defeated Lewis & Clark’s George Aleen for his 6-3, 6-3 straights-sets win. Next, Portland State freshman Roman Margoulis made easy work of Quinn Roth-Carter 6-1, 6-0 at line two.

In the remainder of the singles games, Portland State senior Vetu Mam, senior Matt Erickson, senior Jeff Cero and sophomore Zach Lubek all won their matches with convincing 6-0, 6-0 scores.

Saturday’s game against Gonzaga was much more competitive for the Vikings. In the doubles contest, the game between Rice/Margoulis and Gonzaga’s Scott Sullivan and Zhia Hwa Chong was stretched to the tiebreaker, which the Viking pair eventually won 9-8 (4). This win was critical in securing the doubles point for Portland State as the teams split the remaining two doubles matches.

The singles matches were just as closely fought. Lines one to four all went into the deciding third set, but in each the Viking players prevailed over their opponents. At lines five and six, senior Matt Erickson and Mam each won in straight sets to secure the final 7-0 win for the Vikings.

With these results, the Viks improve to 2-3 for the season and should have felt confident going into their first Big Sky matchup of the season, when they hosted Sacramento State yesterday at the Club Green Meadows in Vancouver, Wash. The results of that game were not available as of press time. The Viks will then take on non-conference opponent Seattle on Saturday at the same venue.

The Portland State women’s tennis team started its conference schedule with a 1-6 defeat to Weber State in Ogden, Utah last Friday, Feb. 4. The Viks lost all three doubles duels, and with them the doubles point. Playing at line one in the singles matches, PSU freshman Yuki Sugiyam was the only Viking player to win a singles match. Sugiyama defeated Naseem Eslami 6-3, 3-6, 10-1.

The results against Utah State on Saturday were very similar. The Viks again lost all three doubles duels and the doubles point. And once again, Sugiyama was the only Viking to win a singles match. Sugiyama defeated Utah State’s Jaclyn West in straight sets 6-2, 6-0 at line one to advance her individual record to an impressive 4-1 when playing at line one in singles play.

The women next play city rivals Portland today and then take on Willamette on Saturday in Salem. ?

One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.” Oscar Wilde

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Bursar’s Office reconsiders mailing envelopes, urges students to use online option Miranda Schmidt  Vanguard staff

At the end of January, Amanda Conrad, an arts practices major at Portland State, was surprised to receive her 1098-T form from the university in what she deemed to be a non-secure envelope.

According to Conrad, her social security number, tax identification number, address and full name could be seen through the envelope.

“Everything you need for identity theft,” she said. “I think the Bursar’s Office should pay for identity theft insurance for everyone they mailed these out to.”

PSU delivers 1098T forms to all of its stu

There are 10 Toyota plug-in hybrids at PSU for evaluation and feedback   Ryan Deming   Vanguard staff   Those walking through Portland State’s Parking Structure One may have noticed an addition to the four Toyota RAV 4 electric vehicles: a silver Toyota Prius Hybrid Plug-In (PHV) vehicle.

In partnership with Portland General Electric (PGE) and Toyota, PSU has been given 10 PHVs to evaluate, and should have them until June this year.

PGE Economic Development Director Charlie Allcock said that Toyota has a list of topics about which it is interested in finding out more

Fair participants hope to raise awareness about queer health issues Katrina Petrovich Vanguard staff 

The Queer Resource Center is hosting the first annual Queer Health Fair, which began yesterday, for students and faculty at Portland State. The fair takes place from noon to 5 p.m. in 236 Smith Memorial Student Union.

Cody LaRue, education and outreach coordinator for the QRC, said that the health fair aims to educate people about the specific health challenges that the queer community face. 

QRC hosts Queer Health Fair today

Security of 1098-T forms in question

Hybrid driving for students

University is tuning out Portland State TV Vinh Tran Vanguard Staff After nearly three years of existence, Portland State Television has managed to survive without any institutional support. However, unless the organization finds a department in which to house itself soon, it faces shutting down altogether.

To qualify as a student group, Student Activities and Leadership Program—which oversees 178 student groups and services—must officially recognize it.

According to PSU-TV Manager Lucila Epple, the mission of the group is to provide original video segments that inform students on all things related to PSU that the campus community would find interesting. Notable examples include segments introducing Party in the Park, sustainable projects on campus and a video about the resignation of former PSU football coach Jerry Glanville.

SALP Director Aimee Shattuck said that the reason PSU-TV no longer qualifies as a student group is because it is more fitting to be managed by the Publications Board, which oversees groups such as KPSU, the Vanguard and the Portland Review.

“The Publications Board is the body that establishes guidelines for all campus publications,” Shattuck said. “They provide publications with lots of expertise regarding libel laws and free speech, which [SALP] would not be able to.”

According to Shattuck, what PSU-TV currently does is very tantamount to other student publications in the sense that the group is involved in media production, with the intention of distributing the product to the wider student population.

Senate Bill 242 may provide a road map to an uncertain future Joshua Hunt  Vanguard staff

Portland State and the Oregon University System held a campus-wide forum on Tuesday evening about the future of higher education in Oregon that featured PSU President Wim Wiewel, OUS Chancellor George Pernsteiner, ASPSU President Wim Wiewel, Professor Maude Hines and Representative Chris Harker.

The panelists discussed the current state of the OUS, as well as the restructuring proposals being heard by the Legislature.

“We spend as much on education as we spent 20 years ago, but now the student pays two-thirds of the cost and the state one-third,” Wiewel said when making his case for reform.

Of the questions asked, students were largely concerned with how restructuring would affect tuition.

“How will Senate Bill 242 give faculty and students greater control over tuition setting?” ASPSU Student Senator Karen Albright asked Wiewel.

According to Wiewel, the tuition process would not change if Senate Bill 242 (SB242) passes.

Currently, the group utilizes both its website at www.psutv.groups.pdx.edu and its YouTube channel to distribute videos.

PSU-TV, under the management of Epple, applied to join the Publications Board in early 2010. However, the group was rejected.

“We are basically in a situation where the school doesn’t want anything to do with us,” Epple said. “We have been working for a year without any money and I just don’t know what we’re going to do now.”

According to Judson Randall, the adviser for all student publications at PSU and the executive secretary for the Publications Board, the reason PSU-TV did not qualify as a publication is that the group lacks ongoing production. In order to be considered, it must produce a certain number of videos per week.

“If you’re going to be a legitimate publication, you need to turn out content regularly,” he said.

Epple admitted that PSU-TV does not publish its content regularly. However, she said that is due to the unique nature of its line of work, which does not fall in the same vein as the campus’ other publications.

“Video production takes a lot of work and requires hours upon hours of editing,” Epple said. “We believe in quality over quantity and our main goal is to produce visually appealing, entertaining and informative pieces.”

According to Epple, the group does not consider itself to be a news organization.

“We think of ourselves as visual storytellers,” she said.

However, its 2010 mission statement, which states that PSU-TV seeks “to provide news and special interest stories relating to PSU,” suggests otherwise to administrators.

According to Shattuck, the group’s current mission statement is a departure from its 2007–08 statement, which emphasized the “service” aspect of the group to provide job skills to its members and video services to the campus community. With the shift in mission statement and purpose, Shattuck said it seems appropriate that they should look for a home under the Publication Board.

“Right now, they have to decide if they’re into providing news, marketing or service…[this] would determine whether they’ll get recognized or not,” Shattuck said.

Epple plans to re-appeal to the Publications Board at its meeting this month. For now, she is hopeful that it will get the recognition from the university.

“We’re just asking for guidance and support,” Epple said. “We believe in what we do, which is to provide film students a unique opportunity to gain skills without having to pay for a class.”  

Originally developed in 2004 as a project to document homelessness in Portland by several graduate students, the group transitioned into Viking Vision the following year, which followed a televised news program format.

Since then, it has undergone two more transformations; it became the Motion Picture Film Club in 2008 before officially becoming PSU-TV in 2009. ?

These challenges include under- or misrepresentation of queer people by health institutions, especially for those who do not necessarily identify with one gender or another, LaRue said.

A second focus of the health fair is raising awareness about safe sexual health practices. LaRue said that while sexual health is important for all people, it is a particularly big factor for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer (LGBTQ) community. According to LaRue, the HIV/AIDS crisis is one of the most pressing issues. 

Today, the health fair will feature on-site rapid AIDS testing services provided by the Cascade AIDS Project. These confidential AIDS tests only require a swab of the cheek and yield results in as little as 20 minutes.

There will also be a workshop about transitioning from college to the workplace, for which there will be two sessions. The first one will take place from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. and the second from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Other fair events include a workshop given by a social worker from the Student Health and Counseling Center (SHAC) about managing stress and anxiety. Both the QRC and SHAC will have tables available at the fair where people can learn more about the services and support they offer. 

The health fair is open to everyone, including people from the greater Portland area. LaRue said that there has been off-campus advertising for the event, so people beyond the PSU community may be in attendance.

The theme—just in time for the Valentine’s holiday—is “Love Yourself,” an idea that LaRue believes promotes responsibility and self-worth. 

“Healthy students have an easier time getting good grades and completing their education,” he said.  

SHAC Health Educator Gwyn Ashcome said that the Queer Health Fair is a joint venture with SHAC’s  “Take Heart” program, which also focuses on educating students about healthy sexual relationships.

According to Ashcom, SHAC is using the “Take Heart” program to reach mainly first-year students who live on campus. The program seeks to inform students about methods for fostering healthy relationships with or without sex. Safe sex kits are being distributed around PSU’s residence halls with information about SHAC’s services and the QRC, as well as brochures about healthy relationship practices. ?  

PSU delivers 1098-T forms to all of its students by mail unless a student opts to get the document online. The 1098-T details a student’s tuition and education expenses for the year.

These documents are sent by the Bursar’s Office. Though the office’s address is listed on the envelope, Conrad said that she still had difficulty finding the right person to speak with. 

“I tried to contact the Bursar’s Office, but trying to find their number is almost impossible,” Conrad said. “On the PSU website, it’s not listed.”

When Conrad contacted the Cashier’s Office, a representative told her that the information would be passed along to the Bursar’s Office. However, as of Feb. 4, the office had not received the information.

“We haven’t gotten one single complaint,” said Eric Blumenthal, director of business affairs.  

According to Blumenthal, the mailing process for 1098-Ts has not changed within the three and a half years he has been in the position, nor have the envelopes the office uses or the vendor from which they are purchased. 

“It’s been the stock of envelopes we’ve always used, unless they’ve changed it over time, and it’s become a cheaper stock,” he said. “We were ordering those, probably, since the 1970s.” 

Conrad has been a student at PSU for the last three years, and says this is the first year she has received her 1098-T in such an envelope. As a student at Portland Community College, she says she received her 1098-T forms in an envelope made of heavier paper, which could not be seen through.  

“If it’s not held up to the light, you can’t see through it,” Blumenthal said of the envelopes sent by the Bursar’s Office. 

According to Bursar Amanda Nguyen, around 30,000 1098-T forms were mailed to PSU students this year. Around 10,000 students got their forms online. This is Nguyens’s first year in the position. 

PSU ran a campaign in January to encourage students to sign up to get their 1098-T forms online.

“The ultimate thing is not to have it mailed at all,” Blumenthal said. “It’s better for the environment. It’s cheaper. It’s more secure.” 

Electronic forms are password-protected and can be viewed and printed out online. PSU uses the same online system for employee W2 forms. It is not necessary, for tax filing purposes, to have a paper copy of the 1098-T form because these forms do not need to be sent to the Internal Revenue Service, according to Blumenthal.

The IRS, however, still requires schools to offer a mailing option for 1098-T forms and the Bursar’s Office is currently reconsidering the envelopes in which it mails the forms. 

“It’s fine for just general correspondence,” Blumenthal said, “Maybe we just shouldn’t be using it for other sensitive things.” 

Blumenthal speculates that the decision about which envelopes to use at the office was made before awareness of identity theft was as common as it is now. 

Conrad has been fighting a previous and unrelated case of identity theft for the last five or six years. She said that it could take as much as one or two years for identity theft to become known to the victim. 

“People just need to be aware of what’s going on with this type of stuff…and how little information it takes,” she said. ?

through this study. Toyota wants to see how certain individuals, in certain situations, use the cars.   

Allcock said that from PGE’s perspective, this study will help the company analyze what needs to be done to build an infrastructure for electric vehicles. This includes being able to anticipate and answer customer concerns, such as the effects of charging the car at one’s house.

“From our standpoint, it’s a great example of the benefits of a collaboration of a utility and the local university,” Allcock said. “We’re really happy to be doing this.”  

George Beard, alliance manager in the Research and Strategic Partnerships Office and the administrator of the PHV program, said that he assigns the cars to various people throughout the entire state. His goal is to expose the vehicles to as many people and different communities as he possibly can.

Beard wants “not just the political and corporate elite, but real people to have a chance to participate in this.”  

“We have [Priuses] in Corvallis, Salem, Eugene and even in Ashland,” Beard said. “I’ve got a car about to be assigned to Willamette University.”

According to Beard, the vehicles are assigned to different people and rotated every couple of months.

David Utzinger, the Portland ZipCar fleet manager, said that ZipCar also received two PHVs on Jan. 27.

One of ZipCar’s PHVs is located in Parking Structure One, while the other is located outside of the Shaver Green Apartments in northeast Portland.  

He said that the only way the PHVs differ in use from other cars in the fleet is that they are only allowed to be reserved for hourly use by members. The main reason for this is that the vehicle’s lithium-ion battery takes up so much room, spare tires are not included with each Prius. Without this safety net for drivers, ZipCar doesn’t feel it is safe for members to take the cars on long trips.  

According to Beard, while many manufacturers are coming out with electric vehicles and extended-range electric vehicles like the Chevrolet Volt, the Prius uses a different strategy to lower vehicle emissions.  

As an example, Beard referred to a large semi-truck. According to Beard, these trucks use a large amount of gas to accelerate from a dead stop. The normal Prius uses its battery to get the car from a dead stop to up to four or five miles per hour; at this point, the vehicle’s combustible engine kicks in. Moreover, the vehicle recaptures electric energy from its wheels and braking system to recharge the battery.

The PHV, however, takes this strategy a step further, Beard said.

“In addition to…this normal Prius advantage, [Toyota said] let’s add a lithium battery to the back of the car that can be charged in a normal 110v [volt] charging socket,” he said.  

Beard said that when he takes the car down to Salem, the car seamlessly switches over from the lithium-ion battery to combustible engine when the electric charge runs out. In testing the vehicle, Beard said that he got almost 150 miles to the gallon.

PSU is one of eight institutions and organizations to receive the evaluation PHVs, including Syracuse University, San Diego Gas & Electric and the California Center for Sustainable Energy, according to Toyota’s website. The Prius PHV will be available for retail purchase at the beginning of next year. ?

According to Wiewel, the tuition process would not change if Senate Bill 242 (SB242) passes.

“But it will become more formalized and involve greater student participation,” Wiewel said.

While the restructuring proposed in SB242 would grant the OUS greater control over how tuition dollars are spent, it would in no way impact the amount of tuition that Oregon university students pay. A proposed 9.4 percent increase in resident undergraduate tuition for the 2011–12 academic year at PSU, if passed, would not be affected by SB242. What would change is that the OUS would not have to seek approval from the Legislature when deciding how those tuition dollars are spent.

“In and of itself, the restructuring bill does not by itself change the budget issues at all,” Wiewel said. “It will make us more efficient, but it won’t fix anything.”

Pernsteiner and Wiewel reiterated that while SB242 proposes sweeping changes to the way that OUS operates, and who operates it, the changes for students and faculty will only be reflected in areas such as class size and facilities management.

It is claimed that under the new system institutions would have more freedom in hiring of staff to meet rising enrollments, and in raising wages for faculty. Additionally, having greater control over tuition dollars would provide the OUS with a greater capacity for facilities repair and maintenance, something that has been a well-publicized concern at both Oregon State University and PSU in the recent past.    

Another concern addressed by students and faculty was the potential for a lowering of standards in order to meet performance requirements and graduation rates required under the restructuring proposal. While there was much discussion on the issue amongst panel members, there were no proposals for an empirical measure of the quality of university education.

Pernsteiner commented on the timeline for implementation, should SB242 pass, as well as the possibility of institutional boards. Institutional boards would give each university their own say in budget issues and overall university system policy.

“The board has a committee that will see how institutional boards might make sense in raising educational efforts,” he said.

While audience members expressed great interest and concern over the potential restructuring of OUS, the overwhelming majority of questions posed by the public related to issues concerning tuition, student voice and mechanisms for the protection of minority student groups.

According to Pernsteiner, the bill would take effect on Jan. 1, 2012. ?