Lewis & Clark College

The Pioneer Log: Lewis & Clark College’s Student-Run Newspaper

Volume 98, No. 4

Lewis & Clark College Student Newspaper

Pioneer Log Staff

2022-04-01

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Lewis & Clark College: Pioneer Log / Mossy Log

By GRETA BURTON
LEWIS & CLARK’S 149th Annual
Commencement Ceremony is
scheduled for May 7. This year’s
commencement will be held in the
Veterans Memorial Coliseum, located
next to the Moda Center. According to
the Undergraduate Registrar’s office,
419 students have applied for Spring
2022 graduation or have already
graduated in Fall 2021.
Director of Student Engagement
and Special Events Tamara Ko
is responsible for coordinating
commencement activities.
“This will be our first in-person
commencement since 2019, and our
return to the Moda Center Veterans
Memorial Coliseum since 2018,” Ko
said via email. “We hope that it will be
very similar in celebratory nature to
previous commencements while still
being respectful of people’s comfort
levels in regards to COVID-19.”
According to Ko, the pandemic is
still at the forefront of the institution’s
minds as they plan the event.
“We are doing our best with working
with our students and colleagues, and
just keeping an open mind and always
trying to plan ahead for different
scenarios,” Ko said.
In accordance with the Oregon State
mandate, neither masks nor vaccination
will be required for attendees. However,
the graduation webpage states, “While
they are not required, we strongly
encourage attendees to be vaccinated
and wear masks for the betterment of
the community.”In an effort to limit the spread of
COVID-19, graduates are allowed to
distribute up to eight tickets, unlike
students pre-pandemic who were given
unlimited tickets. The graduation
planning committee, comprised of Ko
and Graduate Assistant Jasmine Torres
’19, sent out a Google Form in March
which allowed students to transfer
tickets to one another.
Commencement will feature two
speeches, one from a notable figure and the other from a student representative.
The Office of the Dean of the College
and representatives of the senior class
select potential speakers a year in
advance and invite them to campus for
the upcoming commencement. When
a decision is reached, the President will
publicly announce the selection. Former
commencement speakers include Dr.
Anthony Fauci in 2004, Michele Norris,
host of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” in
2017 and author Maria Semple in 2019.Student speakers competed for the
chance to be selected on March 14 in
Smith Hall. The senior class was invited
via email several weeks earlier to
submit a speech. Speeches were given
in random order based on a number
drawing to a panel of eight to 10 faculty
and other members of the community.
After speaking, participants were able
to listen to the other candidates. The
student speaker is also expected to be
announced later this month. Additionally, the “Senior Social”
will be held on April 23 from 7 to 10
p.m. at Punchbowl Social in Portland
and the “Last (Senior) Supper” will
take place on April 28 from 3 to 5 p.m.
The location of the supper is still to
be determined. Additionally, many
departments are hosting their own
senior celebrations near the end of
April.
On May 6, the Phi Beta Kappa
induction will take place from 11
a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Smith Hall, the
Baccalaureate Ceremony is from 1 to
2 p.m. in Agnes Flanagan Chapel and
finally the Honors Convocation is from
3 to 5 p.m. in Agnes Flanagan Chapel.
The Veterans Memorial Coliseum
is a 12,000-seat arena located on
the eastside of Portland. Opened in
1960, the Coliseum is the current
home of the Western Hockey League’s
Winterhawks and the original court
of the Trail Blazers. It was also the
location of President Obama’s first
campaign rally in Portland. The
Beatles, Ray Charles, Cher, Johnny
Cash, the Rolling Stones, the Doors,
Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Pink
Floyd, Tina Turner, Frank Sinatra,
David Bowie, Queen and Jimi Hendrix
are among some of the performers to
grace the venue’s stage.
Cap and gown pick-up is on April 25
and 26 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Smith
Hall. All graduates must arrive at the
venue at 1 p.m. Bags are not allowed into
the venue. For all other security concerns,
visit the Veterans Memorial Coliseum’s
website. LC’s commencement website
on lineup instructions.Students celebrate after graduation in 2021; Lewis & Clark hosted a number of in-person celebrations despite the virtual ceremony.Vol. 98 No. 4 FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022 www.piolog.com
Today’s Weather
Raining cats and dogs! (It is
actually overcast with a mix of
sun and clouds with a high of 55
degrees and a low of 42 degrees.
Do not tell.)OPINION
Theater needs inclusion
The white-dominated theater
environment would benefit from a more
diverse range of participation.
PAGE 4ARTS
Maude Latour concert
The show featured new songs from
the singer, who is about to graduate
college.
PAGE 9SPORTS
Jack Thomson feature
Jack Thomson ’22 wins second
consecutive NWC player of the week,
leading the nation.
PAGE 10Muslim students observe month
of Ramadan through fast, prayerCommunity Dialogues
discuss school’s name
After two years of virtual ceremonies, graduation will include updated mask, vaccination requirements
COURTESY OF LEWIS & CLARKIn-person commencement returns this spring
By VENUS EDLIN
ON MARCH 31, as part of a
broader series of conversations
about Lewis & Clark’s name,
the college announced three upcoming
events hosted by the Community
Dialogues Planning Committee.
The Executive Council created
this committee and announced
the dialogue series on March 4.
The committees’ two co-chairs
are Associate Dean and Associate
Professor of Education Janet Bixby
and Douglas K. Newell Professor of
Teaching Excellence Janet Steverson.
Other members consist of faculty,
students, staff and alumni from all
three campuses. This committee
formed in response to concerns from
a small, informal committee that held
biweekly conversations in the fall.
Associated Student Body
President Sarah Lind-MacMillan ’22
was part of this informal committee,
and is now the undergraduate student
representative on the dialogue
committee.
“I worked with Robin to kind of
create a proposal to kind of initially
flesh out what a conversation
within our community would look
like to bring everyone together,”
Lind-MacMillan said. “Recognizing that not everyone has the same
understanding, or the same education
about Indigenous issues, the history
of the college, the history of Lewis
and Clark as people, lots of different
things.”
According to the LC webpage,
these events are formulated as
learning experiences “envisioned
as the first in a series of community
dialogues designed to facilitate
bold conversations about topics of
importance to the L&C community.”
The first event will be a panel
discussion held on April 11 from 10 to
11 a.m. in Agnes Flanagan Chapel. Vice
President of Student Life and Dean of
Students Robin Holmes-Sullivan will
give opening remarks before opening
the floor for panelists. These include
Associate Professor Jess Perlitz
who has worked with the Portland
Monuments Memorial Project,
Professor and Department Chair of
Rhetoric and Media Studies Mitch
Reyes who will discuss public memory
and Professor Emeritus Stephen Dow
Beckham. David Harrelson ’07, who
is the cultural resources department
manager for The Confederated Tribes
of Grand Ronde and a tribal member,
will also sit on the panel. Dean of the
College of Arts and Sciences Bruce
Continued on page 3By AUBREY ROCHÉ
RAMADAN, THE I s l a m i c h o l y
month of fasting, will begin
on the weekend of April 2
and will last until the beginning of
May. Ramadan is usually observed
by fasting, community prayer and
introspection.
Lewis & Clark’s Office of Spiritual
Life has regularly provided support
and celebration opportunities for
Muslim students observing Ramadan.
Bon Appétit provides accommodations
for students through Fields Dining
Hall. Muslim students are encouraged
to visit the dining hall before it closes
at 8 p.m. in order to pick up their iftar
meal, as well as a take-out box for
their suhoor meal. Due to COVID-19,
take-out options are available at all
meals, which has not been a regular
option in the past.
“With sunset times ranging from
7:40pm to 8:16pm in April, we hope
that this will be a suitable option for
any students observing Ramadan,”
Ryan Jensen, general manager of Bon
Appétit, said in an email statement.
Students can also access an iftar
meal at Maggie’s from Monday to
Friday until 9 p.m. using a meal swipe.
Additionally, the Office of Spiritual
Life, located in the lower level of the chapel, will be open for students to
break fast together. There is a prayer
space available on the main floor
of Aubrey R. Watzek library as well
as a prayer and meditation room in
Agnes Flanagan Chapel. LC’s Muslim
Student Association (MSA) is also
planning on hosting an iftar on April
16, which will feature comedy and
poetry.
“In 2019 we had our first
community iftar during Ramadan,
which was truly special,” Hilary
Martin Himan, the Chaplain and Director of Spiritual Life said via
email. “COVID impacted our 2020
plans for a community iftar, and ever
since it has been more challenging to
bring together the AES and domestic
Muslim students together to break the
fast.”
Yasmin Kemer ’22, an MSA Board
Member, views Ramadan as a chance
to recharge spiritually and practice
discipline outside of just fasting. She
hopes to take these habits and apply
them to her future and her daily life.
Continued on page 3
COURTESY OF OFFICE OF SPIRITUAL LIFE
Students gather for a community iftar in 2019 hosted by the Office of Spiritual Life.
The Pioneer Log is interested in
changing our name in order to better
reflect the values of our student body.
Please scan this QR code to access a
survey where you can provide input
about the newspaper’s name.By AMELIA DOYLE
ON MARCH 16, Lewis &
Clark Law School hosted the
33rd Environmental Law
Distinguished Visitor Lecture via
Zoom.
The event was held in honor of the
2021 Distinguished Environmental
Law Graduates. After opening
remarks, University of Oregon (UO)
Law Professor Mary Wood gave the
Distinguished Visitor Lecture. Wood
also serves as the faculty director of
UO law school’s nationally acclaimed
Environmental and Natural Resource
Law Center.
Wood began her lecture with a
discussion of what she calls the “silent
war,” or the war that is waged against
ourselves and our future. According
to Wood, this war will trigger the
sixth mass extinction. According
to the director, there can be no
peace without ecological peace, and
there can be no prosperity without
ecological prosperity.
“Law has an integral role in peace
and prosperity, environmental,
organized societies and final assaults
on nature or can catalyze a broad
planetary defense of nature,” Wood
said. “It will be part of the problem
or part of the solution either way,
we need to acknowledge that
environmental law is not like any
other area of law.”
Wood explained how
environmental law differs from
other areas of law. While other fields
tend to focus on human matters,
environmental law mainly deals with
ecological systems and the potential
for drastic consequences as a result of
human activity.
“We just can’t teach environmental
law anymore as if it’s a functional
system with a few failures,” Wood
said. “Instead, we have to understand
how the system itself brought
emergencies to our doorstep.”
During the lecture, Wood
explained that there are two different
ways to approach environmental
law. One way is through statutes,
which are all structured in a way that intends to protect the environment.
“The agencies use environmental
law to legalize unthinkable damage
permits for mountaintop removal
lined up like a row of dominoes under
the Clean Water Act, and the Surface
Mining Control and Reclamation
act,” Wood said.
Additionally, Wood argued that
the enormous amount of faith that
has been placed in the system by
lawyers has led to the statutes causing
negative effects. These include
toxic pollution, fracking, drinking
water pollution, ocean acidification,
erosion, impacts from mining, the
climate crisis, the mutilation of
landscapes and the disruption of
ecosystems throughout the globe.
Another way that the law is approached is through the framing
of obligation under the public trust.
Wood explained that the public trust
was first recognized by courts in the
earliest days of the founding of the
United States. However, it has been
lost in the jungle of environmental
law.
“People sustained clean water,
ample the food sources and secure
shelter, all of which are fundamental
to democracy as our voting rights at
its most practical level,” Wood said.
“The public trust operates to prevent
our government leaders from abusing
their absolute power over ecology to
serve their own political interests at
our expense.”
Oregon’s public trust doctrines are
one of the most limited in the country, according to Wood. The state claims
that their public trust duty currently
only applies to navigable waters and
refuses to recognize this application
to air, fish, wildlife and other bodies
of water.
“The power of the public trust
principle is that it obligates our
government trustees to manage
ecology for us, according to time
tested fiduciary obligations,” Wood
said. “So this is the opposite of
political discretion, statutory laws
elaborates that agency discretion
must also meet a level of fiduciary
care.”
Wood is now leading a project that
applies a trust lens to the forests of
Oregon. This may be a new horizon
for public trust law in the United States, but this is not a new idea. The
laws of other nations have moved to
recognize forests as part of the public
trust, due to the necessary role forests
play in providing clean water and
climate regulation.
During the event, Wood analyzed
the roles that both the frame of
statutes and the frame of public trust
play in environmental law. In the
end, she emphasized that those laws
matter in the eyes of humans, but
humans themselves are at the mercy
of nature’s laws and nature’s power.
“We should never underestimate
the power of the people everywhere
to rise up against intolerable harm
to our shared natural environment,”
Wood said. “But we need to make the
call.” FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022
NEWS /gid00484
LC Law School hosts UO professor Mary Wood
AMELIA MADARANG/THE PIONEER LOGVisiting lecturer addresses issues related to environmental justice, natural resource conservation
By AMELIA DOYLE
ON FEBRUARY 2 8 t h , L e w i s &
Clark announced their search
for a New Vice President of
Student Life (VPSL). The current VPSL,
Robin Holmes-Suvillan, will become
LC’s president on July 1.
The VPSL resides over numerous
areas including campus safety,
career services, athletics and health
services. During her vice-presidency,
Holmes-Sullivan built a sizable and
well-qualified team to support the
position.
LC is partnering with Keeling &
Associates in order to start the search
for the Vice President. Currently,
Keeling & Associates is actively
reaching out to dozens of professionals
in the field in order to solicit potential
candidate leads.
“Keeling & Associates was selected
by the president and Dr. Holmes-
Sullivan (and) was the search firm
of choice because of their many
years of experience in assisting other
colleges in filling this type of position,”
Vice President of Admissions and
Financial Aid Eric Staab said via email.
“Ultimately, their job is to not only
advertise the position, but to actively
recruit professionals who may not even
be looking for a new job at this time.”
U n l i k e t h e P r e s i d e n t i a l S e a r c h
committee, there are two student
representatives on the Vice President
for Student Life. Luca Sax ’22 and Sarah
Lind-MacMillan ’22 are serving on the
committee.
The VPSL search committee
consists of Assistant Dean of Student
Engagement and Executive Director of Career Center Rocky Campbell,
Associate Dean of Student Affairs at
LC Law School Libby Davis, Associate
Dean and Professor of Rhetoric and
Media Studies Daena Goldsmith,
LC trustee Patrick Nielson, Director
of Campus Living Benjamin Meoz,
Assistant Professor and Program
Director of Educational Leadership
Brenda Sifuentez, Program Director
and Executive Assistant for Student
Life Jessica Sweeney and Associate
Vice President for Alumni, Parent,
and Student Engagement Andrew
McPheeters. Staab will serve as the
chair for the committee.
“ I t h i n k t h a t t o g e t h e r , L u c a a n d
I cover a lot of different areas of the
student body and we’re able to kind of
speak about our experiences and that of
our peers pretty well, ” Lind-MacMillan
said.
Sax echoed Lind-MacMillan’s
statement that it was particularly
significant for a search committee
that advises the hiring of a position
that is so student-centric to include
students. Sax also hopes that in the
future, the number of students will
increase on hiring committees and
hopes for more student voices to be
represented.
“I hope future search committees
will offer more opportunities for
a larger part of the student body,
beyond just the students serving on
the committee, to communicate with
the applicants,” Sax said via email.
According to Sax, the search committee
has met a few times as a group in order
to get to know each other and prepare to
evaluate candidates for the position. Sax
mentioned that they will hopefully begin reviewing candidates in the next week.
“What I am looking for in the next
VPSL is a willingness to actively and
meaningfully engage with the student
body,” Sax said. “It is important that
the new VPSL recognizes the students’
needs, is committed to transparently
address tensions that may arise from
differences in what the students and
the administration want, and that they
create opportunities for students to
actively contribute to the culture of this campus.”
The next VPSL will have the
advantageous opportunity to work
with the past VPSL, allowing them to
collaborate and more effectively create
a better school environment. Staab was
asked to be on the VPSL committee by
the current President Wim Wiewel.
“I will add, however, that these
are big shoes to fill,” Staab said. “Dr.
Holmes-Sullivan has, in my opinion,
made significant achievements in her tenure in the position. The next
VPSL will be expected to continue to
advance many of those projects and
identify other initiatives to continue to
make L&C a stimulating environment
for current and future students of the
College.”
The committee is hoping to bring
finalists to campus in late April or early
May.
Additional reporting by Molly Mahoney
Search begins for new vice president of student life
Commitee selects Keeling & Associates to identify top candidates for administrative vacancy
AMELIA MADARANG/THE PIONEER LOGBy AMELIA DOYLE
ON MARCH 23, the first event
of the Radical Queer Legal
Studies Speaker Series took
place over Zoom. The event was
hosted by Matt Constantino, and
was sponsored by the Lewis & Clark
Law School. The conversation was
facilitated by law student and LC
Student Bar Association President
Akriti Bhargava ’22.
The Radical Queer Legal Studies
Speaker Series embraces Angela Davis’
maxim that radical means grasping
things at the root. The group aims
to achieve this by centering activists,
scholars and legal practitioners whose
work intersects queerness, race,
disability, homelessness and poverty,
with an additional focus towards
liberation from the carceral state.
The series distinguishes queerness
as a fundamentally intersectional
practice.
Student affinity groups often bring
speakers to the law school campus
in order to discuss legal issues and
perspectives that do not always
come up in our classes — especially
issues and perspectives pertaining
to populations who have historically
faced systemic oppression under the
laws of this country.
“I proposed the RQLSSS to bring
together a coalition between NLG and OutLaw, our campus’ queer affinity
organization, and to add voices to the
campus conversation that I believe
were missing from our classes.”
Constantino via email explained.
Law students with marginalized
identities bear the burden of having
to read about cases and opinions
that debate their basic rights, adding
an extra layer of difficulty to a law
education.
“Law school can be awfully tough
on queer students; you spend a great
deal of time in class reading judicial
opinions where queer people’s
rights to marry, adopt, have private
consensual sex in their homes, and
more are openly debated in a highly
formal and traditional format,”
Constantino said.
Constantino explained that they
saw that interjecting one’s personal
perspective is generally frowned
upon, as most students just want to
boil cases down to a rule they can
apply to a hypothetical fact pattern
on an exam. But hearing their
predominantly straight colleagues
and professors discuss Constantino’s
right to exist in such an abstracted
way felt wrong. Before they came to
law school, Constantino spent most
of their time being surrounded by
people who also moved through the
world as queer. As such, coming to
law school forced them to confront how straight people, who outnumber
them in classrooms, discuss queer
existence.
“The RQLSSS was, in part, a
corrective response to what I saw,
by carving out a space for us and
for the enthusiastic embrace of
radical possibilities of abolition and
liberation.” Constantino said.
Constantino secured funds from
three sponsoring organizations, and
sought to put together a program of
three speakers from different racial,
ethnic, educational, methodological
and ideological backgrounds. They then
wrote cold invitations to queer scholars,
activists and legal practitioners whose
work they found online—work they
found to be radical, innovative and
outside the bounds of what is generally
covered in law school classrooms.
“The three speakers of the inaugural
RQLSSS are a sociologist who studies
the experiences of queer POC families;
a woman who transitioned while
incarcerated in a Washington state
prison and who is now the director of an
organization that assists queer people
in prison and upon reentry; and an
attorney who represents sex workers,
a population that is disproportionately
queer. All three of these speakers bring
experiences and expertise to campus
that I haven’t seen in the classroom
yet.” Constantino said.
The guest speaker, Katie L. Acosta,
is an associate professor in the
department of sociology at Georgia
State University. Acosta is the author
of two books: “Amigas y Amantes:
Sexually Nonconforming Latinas
Negotiate Family” and most recently
“Queer Stepfamilies: The Path to Social
and Legal Recognition.” During the
presentation she highlighted the latter,
which is her most recent work.
Opening her talk, Acosta recalled
her experience on June 26, 2015, the
day the United States legalized same-
sex marriage. She said that all over
the U.S., people were trying to present
an image of the “perfect gay family”
that upheld heterosexual assumptions
about marriage.
“Those were the good queer
families, I was talking to the actual
queer families,” Acosta said.
She gathered data for her work
“Queer Stepfamilies” from 2013 to
2017. During this time she spoke with
different people across the nation, from different socioeconomic and
racial backgrounds. Most of the
families she spoke with were formed
after breakups as her work revolved
around the custody battles involving
same-sex couples and their children.
Constantino explained that Acosta
is a sociologist by training and not
a legal practitioner, and this was
particularly important to them when
inviting Acosta to talk at the Radical
Queer Legal Studies Speaker Series.
Acosta’s talk highlights the societal
outcomes of this system.
Acosta also discussed court
rulings for same-sex couples, mostly
in relation to custody battles of
these couples and their partners,
during her lecture. She described
the homophobia and racism that was
still present in the court system, and
something that these families had to
deal with.
“Many law school classes approach
legal issues from a top-down perspective; students spend infinitely
more time studying the system of
laws than the societal outcomes of
this system.” Constantino said via
email. “Katie’s research flipped that
script, using a careful study of queer
POC families’ experiences in family
courts as a lens for considering the
laws.”
Towards the end of the
presentation, she mentioned that
some lawyers would advise their
clients to hide their relationships in
the courtrooms, and families often
resented that. The same-sex couples
would never place trust into the legal
system, they would often rely on their
children or their “tight legal knots.”
Constantino hopes to see more
students from the undergraduate
campus at the upcoming events. There
will be two more events through the
Radical Queer Legal Speaker Series.
The events will take place on March
31 and April 7 virtually over Zoom. NEWS 3FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022
Radical Queer Legal Studies Speaker Series kicks off eventsLegacy, impact of LC’s name to be
examined in community meetings
Continued from page 1
Suttmeier will serve as moderator.
The panel is set to be live streamed
for community members who cannot
attend in person and a recording will
be posted on the LC website for 24 hours after the event. Additionally, a
pre-recorded small group discussion
composed of Native American
members of the LC community will be
made available online as the second
part of the discussion.The final event of this dialogue
will be a community discussion held
on April 12 from 2:30 to 5 p.m. at
the graduate campus’s chapel. The
discussion will be moderated by an
outside facilitator. According to Bixby,
community members who wish to
participate in the final event should
view the other two parts of the dialogue
beforehand to encourage informed
participation. Both in-person events
will require reservations and LC ID
cards.
While the name of LC and its
history will be discussed, the role of
the first community dialogue is not
to determine if there will be a name
change.
“This is not set up to and it will not
determine if we are going to change the
name or not,” Bixby said. “It’s a much
larger, more complex set of processes.
This is community dialogues one.”
According to Lind-MacMillan, the
process to determine if a name change
is appropriate would be much more
intensive.
“There’s lots of different thoughts
within our larger school and Portland
community of the name of Lewis &
Clark,” Lind-MacMillan. “For now, it’s
less about changing the name of Lewis
& Clark, because the reality is that’s a
multi-year process, at least according
to what I’ve heard from administrators.
This is more of how can we all get on
the same page of understanding the weight of these issues, because all of
us have just very different perspectives
and backgrounds.”
For Bixby, these conversations play
a vital role even though a name change
is not being considered at this time.
“It’s a passion of mine that we
get back to a place where we can
have meaningful dialogue across
difference,” Bixby said. “We can be
open minded, we can listen to each
other, we can have hard conversations
about meaningful topics. Also (to) do
that in a way that serves the function of
equity and social justice.”
Future installments of the
Community Dialogues series will be
shaped by the feedback and discussion
resulting from the first dialogue. The
committee plans to create a survey
to plan future events for the 2022-
23 academic year. According to
Senior Advisor to the President for
Communications Lois Davis, future
dialogues will also extend to other
topics besides LC’s name.
“Whatever the recommendation
is about continuing dialogues on this
topic, I know from talking to Robin that
she also wants the dialogues to take on
other difficult topics as well,” Davis
said. “Over time, I think there will be
a number of conversations about a
number of topics, because there’s …
lots of challenging topics out there.”

Additional reporting by Amelia Doyle.
Professor of Sociology Katie Acosta discusses most recent work, realities of queer identity in legal system
THE PIONEER LOG ARCHIVES
The Community Dialogues series aims to discuss the impact of Lewis & Clark’s name.
COURTESY OF GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY
Professor Katie Acosta gave a lecture at LC Law school on Wednesday, March 23rd.
GRETA BURTON/THE PIONEER LOGInstitution
celebrates
holy fasting
Continued from page 1
“(Celebrating Ramadan during
college) has been tough because I
live on campus,” Kemer said. “I try
to make an effort to go and break
fast with family, but because of the
distance and the schoolwork and
how demanding my schedule is,
I’m unable to go back and forth. So
oftentimes during the school year …
it doesn’t have the same feel as iftar,
which is when we break fast, being
around people who have also fasted
with you and then praying together
after breaking fast.”
Kemer also praised all of the
assistance that MSA has received
from the Office of Spiritual Life.
Himan, in particular, has played a
crucial role in providing support to
Muslim students at LC, and planning
events surrounding Ramadan. Kemer
appreciates the MSA as a space to get
to know other students who identify
as Muslim, as not everyone who does
is visibly so.
“ I t g i v e s u s a s p a c e t o i d e n t i f y
who’s Muslim and build relationships
with one another,” Kemer said.
For more information, support
and resources during the month of
Ramadan, contact hmhiman@lclark.
edu. To get involved with MSA,
contact msa@lclark.edu.FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022
OPINION /gid00486
Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed in the Opinion section are those of The Pioneer Log and are not held by the authors.By NEGASI BROWN
THE THEATER is white. This has
ultimately manifested itself in a
rather ubiquitous way on the Lewis
& Clark campus. The lack of diverse
bodies onstage has been an important
issue on campus for many years, and it
does not seem to be changing all that
much. I believe this issue is two pronged:
The theatre department needs to put on
more explicitly diverse shows, and there
needs to be a greater push for diversity in
the department by faculty and students
alike.
Granted, this is not a problem
unique to LC. From the stories we tell,
to the characters we portray, to the
actors we showcase, there has been a
concerted effort by Western theater
artists to create and perform stories that
at best, confirm their own biases and at
worse, lead to the creation of new ones.
The broader theatrical landscape has
changed dramatically, with shows such
as “Hadestown” or “Once on this Island”
platforming a great number of creators
who are BIPOC. However, in a lot of
cases, the damage has already been done.
The culture created by white Western
theater makers has shaped the landscape of theater into one of exclusion, where the
barrier for entry is so far out of reach that
many BIPOC view theater as exclusively
white.
At LC, the stories and messages we
are showcasing contribute to the lack of
diversity of bodies on stage. In the last six
semesters, the mainstage has yet to put
on a show by a POC creator with explicitly
written POC characters. This is not to say
this is solely the fault of the professors of
the department, as I discovered during
my time as an assistant director for the
last school mainstage, “Passion Play.”
Professors in the department are more than ready to cast POC actors in any story
they are telling.
That begs the question though, if
the professors chose plays that were
made by and for BIPOC theater creators,
would there be a larger BIPOC turnout
at auditions? Or, are there simply not
enough POC involved in the LC theatre
program to even propose such shows?
One of the largest issues facing the
diversity of the department is this cyclical
process of reasoning, as one cannot
put on a diverse play without a diverse
student body, and a diverse student body
may be deterred by the lack of diversity in the performances and stories being
shown on campus.
As part of the process to increase
diversity, there has to be a more
active push by students and faculty in
the department to make the theater
more accessible to those who have
historically been and currently are
underrepresented. After all, there are
fewer than 10 BIPOC theatre majors,
and it can be difficult to find community
in such a small group. In the past, these
efforts included events with Inclusion
and Multicultural Engagement (IME)
and Students for Cultural Inclusion in
Theater (SCIT) performances. As the
current president of SCIT, I hope to
find avenues for POC at all skill levels to
participate in public storytelling. When
I say push, I do not believe theater
should be forced upon those who are
not interested, but instead that the
effort should be made by those in the
community to create welcoming spaces
for those outside.
SCIT hopes to start a dialogue
between the department and those
outside of it about how to ensure that
all voices are being heard. My goal is to
create an inclusive space where writers,
actors, directors and designers of color can collaborate and create art that
represents their experiences through
conversations, workshops, skits and full
length plays. Furthermore, I am aware
that this will be an ongoing process,
as there is not just one neat trick that
can solve the centuries of oppression
present in the Western theater tradition.
Diversity is not just a question of the
bodies we put in a space, but of the stories
we tell and the ways in which we tell
them. Theater is such a complex artistic
process that there is the possibility for
bigotry at any stage, and with SCIT I
hope to make it so that conversations
surrounding those issues can happen.
Western theater is rooted in white
supremacy, from the use of Blackness as
a gag in minstrelsy to the gross history
of cultural appropriation and violence
perpetrated by the industry. The only
way to deconstruct those systems is
to build counter systems of inclusion
and cross-cultural communication.
While this piece does not solve the
issues currently present in the Western
theater, or even in LC’s theater, I am
hoping this can be the first step towards
platforming underrepresented voices
and destigmatizing BIPOC artists
getting involved in theater.
Vulnerable students at risk due to
changes in campus mask mandate“Don’t Look Up” prompts
political polarization
By MOLLY MAHONEY
AT THE TIME of publication,
Lewis & Clark has extended
its CAS campus mask mandate
to April 2. I believe that this is less
than the bare minimum, especially for
members of the community that still
face a significant risk from COVID-19.
Consistently, disabled members of
the community are indirectly told we
are not welcome on campus. Those
with mobility issues often have to take
longer routes to and from class, and
cannot access the numerous buildings
that do not comply with the Americans
with Disabilities Act(ADA) standards.
It was not until this year that LC
undertook any major effort to increase
accessibility of Templeton Student
Center, and it will be at least another
year until Stewart and Odell Halls are
up to ADA standards. This
does not even mention
the all-too-prevalent
bureaucratic hoops
students must
jump through in
order to receive any
in- or out-of-class
accommodations for
their disabilities.
Now, we have a new
mask policy that completely
disregards the opinions and well-
being of disabled people both on
and off campus. Anyone who has
kept up with research regarding
COVID-19, or even knows
the basics of germ theory and
epidemiology, knows that so-
called “individual choice” is not
enough to protect even our least
vulnerable people, let alone those
of us at high risk. Studies from the
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the journal of Medical
Devices and Sensors and The Lancet
all confirm this. The decision to
remove masking requirements is not
based on any real science and only
puts people in harm’s way.
When the requirement for
community members to wear masks is
removed, we are placing all community
members at greater risk. Most of us
are left with far fewer options for
protecting ourselves. We have already
seen a significant number of cases
even with a very high vaccination rate
and an enforced mask policy. How do
we expect removing one of our most
important lines of defense to help our
community? Instead of being upheld
by those we have trusted to prioritize
our safety, the impetus to keep our community reasonably safe is placed
on those who are most threatened by
a lack of protection.
It is also important to acknowledge
the timing of this shift in policy is
completely unreasonable for all
involved. This happens to be after the
state of Oregon is lifting its mandate,
but for many community members, we
are past the point of no return for the
semester. When enrolling for this term,
we, as students, agreed to the safety
measures being enforced at the time,
which included masking. For those who
do not want to wear masks, keeping
the mandates in place is an expected
inconvenience. For those who do want to
continue campus-wide mask
wearing, removing the
mandate is a dire
matter.
For students, even if they do
withdraw from classes they can not
safely attend, they will receive a W for
“withdrawn” on their transcripts, and
lose the money they paid for tuition,
room, board and other associated
fees. Totals somewhere between
$30,000 and $40,000. Many staff and
faculty members may be in an even
harder position, being contractually
obligated to remain through at least
the end of the semester. While it is
worth noting that faculty members,
specifically, do have the authority
to require masking in their spaces,
reducing mask wearing in a significant
capacity will still put them and the
rest of campus at higher risk through
increased overall transmission rates
and the contamination of various spaces around campus. This also does
very little to help other members of
the community avoid overall COVID-
19-related risks; after all, a few hours
of class time make up only a fraction
of a person’s time on campus.
Claims that those of us who still
want to keep our community as safe as
possible should simply make personal
decisions based on individual risk
factors are uninformed and dangerous.
We cannot just pick ourselves up by our
bootstraps and willpower our way to
health. There are very real, inescapable
realities that will put us at more risk
than we may be able to handle. Some
of us work jobs where masks will no
longer be enforced, and we cannot
afford to simply quit or find a safer
alternative. Some of us attend classes
where professors cannot or will not
enforce mask wearing, with no clear
path through official channels to
receive effective accommodations.
Some of us live with folks who
are high risk and cannot
simply move out to
keep them safe.
LC community
members are now
being forced to
constantly justify
their concerns to
disinterested peers and
authority figures. Back
when the mask mandate was set
to be lifted in March, I remember
one of my classes discussing what
our class should do in regards to
continuing safety measures. One
student mentioned they should not have
to wear a mask when asked, unless they
knew for sure the concerned party had a
good reason. In another class, a different
student mentioned that it should not be
their job to keep anyone safe, because
they had already been wearing masks for
two years and had been vaccinated. Why
should it be the job of those most at risk
to disclose their personal medical history
and put themselves in an even more
vulnerable position just for a chance at
some semblance of safety? It should not.
I know masks are not fun. I know
they can be uncomfortable, especially
when you have to wear it all day with
no breaks between classes, work
and extracurricular activities. Foggy
glasses, clogged pores and having to
remember another vital accessory
on top of your wallet and keys are all
annoying. However, we cannot allow
ourselves to be the kind of school that
puts each other at risk in exchange
for a little extra comfort. LC can, and
must, be better than that.By NOAH REESE-CLAUSON
IN TODAY’S ERA of hyper-polarized,
hyper-partisan politics, the role
of consumed media cannot be
overstated. From Tik Tok to television,
from talk shows to athletics, everyone has
something to say. I do not find this to be
inherently harmful, but in order to have
unifying effects, the messages must be
consistently well crafted, or it will do the
opposite.
No film is more indicative of this than
Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up.” The
concept of the film is a thinly-veiled parallel
to global warming, replacing the threat of
climate change with an impending comet.
The film shows the ensuing battle between
truth and misinformation that McKay
thinks will inevitably befall Earth.
The best picture nominee embarks with
a noble purpose: establishing the rampant
misinformation attached to global warming,
particularly in America. Unfortunately,
the film does a terrible job of fulfilling this
purpose, as no one who disagrees with
McKay would ever watch the film. From
the beginning, the film mocks the GOP, as
the president blows off the scientists for an
entire day (partially for a birthday party),
their Supreme Court Nominee is a sheriff
without a law degree and it is implied that
nepotism is so prevalent in the right that
the president’s chief of staff is her own son.
All three of these jabs are delivered within
the first 25 minutes of the film, ensuring
no right-winger would watch past that
point, and the cheap laughs drawn out
of left-wingers invites us to assume all
Republicans are nothing more than those
stereotypes. The movie only succeeds in
creating division and making everyone
angry. I stopped the movie five times during
the course of watching it because it was
making me too aggravated.
However, not all movies and outlets do
a poor job of incorporating politics. Over
spring break, my friends and I rewatched
Disney’s “Zootopia,” and I found it
surprisingly comparable to “Don’t Look
Up.” The film follows bunny detective
Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin), and con
artist fox, Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman),
as they investigate a series of instances
of predators going “savage.” The movie
parallels the problematic relationship
between white people and minorities
in America to condemn racism, just as
“Don’t Look Up” parallels the comet and
global warming. However, the two are
far from equally effective. The parallel
format makes far more sense in a kid’s
movie, where concepts cannot necessarily
be understood in all their complexity.
But even in “Zootopia,” the parallel is
less blatant than in “Don’t Look Up.” To properly execute the sort of film meant
to change someone’s mind, the viewer
must be drawn in before they can make
the connection, otherwise, they will
not watch it. In “Zootopia” they do that
successfully, but in “Don’t Look Up” it is
clear by the end of the trailer alone what
they are referring to. The teaser begins
with the line “Based on real events that
haven’t happened yet,” foreshadowing a
future it is helping to create.
“Don’t Look Up” is not the only
example of a misstep in delivery method
that has been commonplace in left-
wing media for a while. After the rise in
success of the Late Show with Stephen
Colbert, all other late-night rivals began
leaning left as well with varying degrees
of effectiveness. For Colbert especially,
this was tied to the election of Donald
Trump, the main source for his material
during Trump’s time in office. His
consistency dipping in this pool shifted
and shrank his audience demographic.
With current disagreements on facts like
global warming, an increase in partisan
sourcing spells inevitable disaster. The
more the media that left wingers and
right wingers consume differs, the more
entrenched in our differences we will
become, and the more hostile we will
become with one another. Our country
will be infighting while global warming
takes its toll.
Of course, we can not expect all our
media, or even the majority to properly
center its message for the good of our
country, but we can (to some degree)
control what we ingest. If we do not lean
on our partisan comedy, and partisan news
sources, we can better serve our country.
The more we buy into the “us vs. them”
narrative, the more we will see those across
the party divide as blights and barriers and
stereotypes. We need to remember that we
are all humans, and believe that eventually
those you disagree with can see your
method for achieving universal good as
superior. Lack of inclusion remains pervasive blemish on theatrical performances, excludes BIPOC studentsTheatre department plagued by whiteness
ALEX NASH/THE PIONEER LOGPHOTO COURTESY OF SCIT
FAITH GALLEGOS/THE PIONEER LOGFRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022
OPINION /gid00487
GABRIEL MANTIONE-HOLMES/THE PIONEER LOG
SOFIA REEVES/THE PIONEER LOGNews Editors
Amelia Doyle
Molly MahoneyArts Editors
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Adelaide Kaiser
Sports Editors
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Gabe KorerOpinion Editors
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Sofia ReevesFeatures Editors
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The Backdoor Editor &
InDesign Specialist
Greta Burton
Faculty Advisor
Molly RobinsonCopy Chief
Venus EdlinWeb Manager
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Business Manager
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Social Media Manager
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Photographers & Illustrators
Negasi Brown
Asiya Kamawal
Ashlyn Kelly
Liz LeJeune
Nathan OakleyMiles Oki
Tor Parsons
Noah Reese-Clauson
Frankie SpurbeckStaff WritersCancel culture fears limit
varying perspectives at LCSupport is lacking for
students with COVID
By TOR PARSONS
ON MARCH 7, t h e N e w Y o r k
Times published the op-ed
“I Came to College Eager to
Debate. I Found Self-Censorship
Instead.” Written by a senior at the
University of Virginia, the article
described contemporary American
college life as a paranoid nightmare
in which everybody is afraid of
being ostracized for their opinions.
Predictably, much of the internet
rolled their eyes. Twitter users
replaced the headline with things
like “I Came to College Eager to Be
Offensive and Start Arguments. Why
Is Everyone Mad at Me?”
However, the article made an
interesting point, and it inspired me
to think about how this may apply to
Lewis & Clark. I, too, was disappointed
by the lack of open and in-depth
debate that I had seen in my classes at
LC, but is self-censorship present?
After a year at LC, during which
I served in the Associated Student
Body (ASB) Senate and participated
in other student organizations, I felt
like I knew the answer based on my
knowledge of the LC student body. It
was depressing. No, there is not much
self-censorship at LC, but only because
it seems like everybody here agrees on
every political issue.
Whenever anybody raised any
of their concerns, they seemed to
be saying “I am the only true leftist
at LC, while everyone else is just
a performative activist,” all while
parroting the exact same talking points
as the next person to speak.
Lately, however, I have been
reconsidering my point of view. The
last week before spring break, a
student spread out wooden boards
on the lawn by J.R. Howard Hall and
asked members of the community to
write about the changes they wanted to
see at LC. Among the expected calls for
more BIPOC faculty, a name change
and better mental health resources,
which should be familiar to anyone who
has listened to students’ grievances, I
also saw “more conservative students,”
“no mask mandates” and “more pride
in Pioneers,” things I cannot imagine
students saying in a non-anonymous
forum.
So, there is censorship at LC,
coming from both the self and from
outside influences. However, I think
fears of angering LC’s leftist majority
are misjudged. Last year, I had a
professor who, while not explicitly
conservative, was certainly more moderate than the majority of the LC
student body. Every now and then, he
would wander off topic from discussion
of a novel being read by the class and
bring up politics. His positions on
issues such as police abolition and
capitalism versus communism were
different from most students’ views,
but the class never devolved into ugly
mudslinging.
In a study group for the class, I
often heard students comment on how
much they enjoyed the professor’s
willingness to speak his mind, even
when they usually disagreed with the
things he said.
If LC’s mostly leftist student body
thought this professor was a breath
of fresh air, perhaps we ought to stop
being so afraid of the things that we
say. Recently, a Rhetoric and Media
Studies class of mine turned to a
discussion over the administration’s
decision to end its mask mandate.
Political discussions in that class are not uncommon, but usually end
quickly with everyone agreeing. In
this case, I was part of a minority
of students directly arguing that
removing the mandate was a good
choice. Emotions ran high but nobody
personally attacked me, and I did not
feel like my social standing took a
hit.
At LC, cancel culture is by and large
all in our heads. It is only our collective
fear of being canceled that perpetuates
cancel culture itself. Even here, where
it seems like the main political rift is
between democratic socialists and
revolutionary socialists, there is a
latent desire for alternate viewpoints.
LC students are not afraid of open
debate. We are, however, afraid that
everyone else is afraid of open debate.
If we can cast away that fear and speak
openly about what we believe, LC will
truly provide the complete liberal arts
education, exposing its students to a
variety of views, that it claims to.By ADELAIDE KAISER
THE TWO WEEKS before spring
break were some of the most
stressful of my college experience.
This was not due to midterms or my
mom’s visit, but because of COVID-19.
This two-week period fell on the exact
two-year anniversary of the outset of
the pandemic. You might think that
after a full two years, LC might be
well-versed in dealing with the virus.
However, based on my experience, you
would be wrong. The college is woefully
underprepared in terms of helping
students exposed to or diagnosed with
COVID-19, and are not considering the
material realities of what it means to
test positive while living on campus.
It all started with one friend, who
I had been in contact with, testing
positive. Then another. More and more
people I knew started to test positive.
It took two full days for me to receive
an automated close contact email from
Health Promotion & Wellness. When I
received my email, it included almost
no helpful information. If you have
been exposed, as long as you do not
have symptoms, you are fine to continue
going about your daily activities as long
as you are wearing a mask and plan to
test yourself five days after exposure.
I was shocked by this. Even after
being directly exposed to the virus, I
was allowed to go about my day, even
eating in Fields Dining Hall like normal.
Despite my anxieties about this, I was
not offered many alternatives, so I
went about my daily business. I had no
symptoms and I was testing negative on
both rapid tests (all of which were my
own) and a PCR, which I had purchased
on my own accord to be extra cautious.
A full week after being exposed,
I woke up with a sore throat. I
immediately called the Health Center,
which was able to fit me in that day,
only after recommending that, for some
reason, I drink a “hot toddy,” a hot
drink with whiskey, and asking me what
I thought could be wrong before even
scheduling me for a test. Although I had
two negative rapid tests from the past
two days, I could not shake the feeling
that I had COVID-19. I ended up testing
positive on the Health Center’s PCR test.
After my diagnosis, everything only
got worse. After missing a week of class
and being stuck inside, I was looking
forward to spring break and hopefully
testing negative on day six of my illness,
which happened to be the first day of
spring break. However, it turned out
that the Health Center was closed that
day and had limited availability during
the break.
I received an email with this
information on Friday, March 18. It
also included a link to more information
about isolating over break. Buried in
this link was the information that, to
my surprise, there would be no meal service for isolating students over break.
Instead, they provided information on
how to order groceries and Domino’s
delivery. This was troubling to me for
a few reasons. First of all, I was not
supposed to leave my room except to
pick up meals and take out trash. I do
not have a fridge or microwave in my
room. What did they want me to do?
Additionally, the fact that they had
not told me this, and I had to find it
out myself, was infuriating. Having
to unexpectedly order days worth of
groceries and delivery is not cheap;
fortunately, I was able to afford to do so.
However, for many people, this would
be a large financial burden. The school
should have offered vouchers, or, at the
very least, provided the one meal a day
that was being served at Fields Dining
Hall. Being in my room all day did not
make me motivated to organize my
meals, and I was not eating as much as I
should have been.
COVID-19 is not a joke. Being sick
was debilitating for the first few days.
I was extremely tired and achy, and
the emotional toll of being stuck in my
small room for days on end was not
easy to endure. The school expecting
us to coordinate all of this for ourselves
seems like a lot to ask, especially while
we are sick. Two of my friends who got
sick earlier had to move to isolation
rooms. Moving everything needed for
what could end up being a ten-day stay
while also experiencing a respiratory
illness is a lot to handle.
There also seems to be a total lack
of communication between different
departments that help students who
are isolating. When I talked to a nurse
on the phone, she instructed me to keep
picking up my meals and was surprised
when I told her that there would be
no meals over spring break. I was told
that after I was diagnosed, there would
be tests and an N95 mask delivered to
me. This never happened. No one was
following up with me to make sure I
was isolating, to see if I was okay or to
ensure I had everything I needed.
Overall, this experience left me
feeling unsupported and not well
communicated with. I found myself
having to rely on my support system
of friends quite a bit for picking
up packages, food and supplies.
Fundamentally, the school is acting
under the assumption that every case of
COVID-19 will be asymptomatic or mild
and that students have the resources to
know what to do, but that is not the case.
Even with three doses of the vaccine, I
still felt awful. Being isolated for days
on end is stressful and definitely took an
emotional toll on me.
LC has had two years to prepare for
an outbreak of this magnitude, and yet
it felt unorganized and as though they
had unrealistic expectations of what I
was capable of keeping track of, even as
I recovered from this illness.
SOFIA REEVES/THE PIONEER LOG
Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed in the Opinion section are those of the authors and are not held by The Pioneer Log.
Ella Ferencz
Faith Gallegos
Asiya KamawalAlex Nash
Miles Oki



FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022
FEATURES 6
By ASIYA KAMAWAL &
ASHLYN KELLY
LOCATED 15 minutes away from
campus, off NW 23rd Avenue,
the William Temple House Thrift
Store is home to an impressive selection
of clothing, furniture, accessories and
even a senior shop cat. The shop is
run by the nonprofit social services
organization William Temple, which
was founded in 1965. The thrift store
itself is quite vintage; established in
1972, it is the oldest thrift store in
Portland.
The William Temple organization is
dedicated to helping people and families
in various ways. They often provide food
shelters, counseling services, household
items and emergency assistance relief.
Their castle-like Victorian-era office
building, the William Temple House, is
located a block away and is worth a visit.
All proceeds from the thrift store support
the local Portland community through the
programs that the organization provides,
making it a more ethical alternative to
corporations like Goodwill.When entering the store there is a
boutique “vintage” section to the right
for the more curated used clothing
items. There are color-coordinated
racks that offer clothes tailored to
many styles, with neatly displayed
glassware, ceramics and art hanging
on the walls. Some racks have tags
that state 50-75% off. The store uses
the classic thrift store color-coded tag
system, where certain colors are on
clearance at certain times. However,
unlike other thrift stores, the tags are
hung on separate racks denoting the
markdown, as opposed to being mixed
in.
The store also has a mixture of
higher-end and regular items. A
Ralph Lauren Polo Top is priced at
$15, while assorted women’s blouses
go for around $5. The pricing is
perfect for broke college students
feeling distraught about Goodwill’s
criminally overpriced clothing in
recent years. In addition to the
great prices, if you donate clothes or
furniture to the thrift store, you will
receive a 20% off coupon that can be applied to your next purchase.
Something about the foraging
and searching of thrifting leaves one
hungry, ravenous or even famished.
Luckily, a block away, on NW 21st
avenue, there is arguably Portland’s
most diverse array of restaurants.
There is San Sai, a Japanese grill with
the best katsu curry in Portland. Top
Burmese has great vegan options, such
as coconut noodle soup and Burmese
Gold Samosas. Additionally, there are
three Indian food options, Swagat
being the best of the three pizza
parlors, two Chinese restaurants,
a Mediterranean spot and more all
within a five-minute walk.
For dessert, there is a sleek fondue
restaurant, Urban Fondue, or the
beloved frozen yogurt spot, Eb &
Bean NW, with non-dairy options for
lactose-intolerant or vegan people.
A highlight of your visit is sure
to be the shop cat named Ozzy that
greets you at the door and lazily sits
by the window, watching shoppers
browse. Ozzy has an Instagram you
can check out at @ozzy_the_shopcat.William Temple House offers affordable thrifting pricesBy PHILIP STEFFEN
ON MARCH 17, Hannah
Crummé, college archivist and
head of special collections,
addressed a collection of guests in
Aubrey R. Watzek Library.
“We’re so excited that we can
welcome Portland back to Watzek
Library,” Crummé said. “Because
we’re so eager to share the work of our
students.”
On this afternoon, the library’s
lobby and display section, normally
filled with studying students, was
outfitted with tall black-clothed tables,
complete with gourmet appetizers
and a bartender. The guests gathered
within this arrangement of tables and
mingling with students incidentally
passing by, had all been invited for
a special purpose: to witness the
opening of an exhibit celebrating the
arrival of poet Kim Stafford’s archive
at the library.
The arrival of Stafford’s archival
collection at Watzek Library was
long anticipated. The library already
housed the collection of his father
William Stafford, who was also a poet.
“We’ve been interested in having
Kim’s archive for a long time, because
we hold the archive of his father,”
Crummé said. “We were finally able to
make the gift happen last year in 2021
thanks to the generosity of Kim and
his wife Perrin Kerns.”
Stafford, born to Lewis & Clark
professor William Stafford in 1949
and a professor at the college himself since 1979, has a connection to LC
almost as old as the school itself. Kim
Stafford reflected fondly on his on-
campus childhood.
“The campus was really family,”
Stafford said. “It was post-war, a lot
of the faculty had young children,
and it was like we were all cousins.
We climbed the trees and picked the
grapes and the apples and pears and
plums. So it was kind of a paradise …
It’s a haunted place in the best way.”
Stafford went on to explain
his decision to donate his archive
as having grown out of his work
preserving his father’s archive in the
1990s.
“I worked for years to develop my
father’s collection,” Stafford said.
“It was frustrating to guess what he
would have wanted, and I thought
that I don’t want to do that to my
children, so I thought it was my job to
find a home for the papers.”
Stafford also explained why he was
specifically drawn to Watzek Library.
“I’ve been so happy with the
library staff and student workers, so
I feel like I’m in pretty good hands,”
Stafford said.
The archive’s arrival was also a
significant achievement for President
Wim Wiewel, who had been working
towards acquiring the archive since
his inauguration in 2017.
“It’s like a gem” Wiewel said. “I
think it is just wonderful for somebody
to decide that they’re willing to send
this off … I think it speaks to a trust in
the institution and a faith in the future.” The unveiled exhibit was the
product of months of work by three
LC students taking part in the Watzek
Curation Practicum: Ben Warner
’22, Franchesca Schrambling ’22 and
Liam Conley ’23, as well as library staff.
Conley described how the student
curators had centered the exhibit
around Stafford’s creative process.
“It’s not just writing everyday,
it’s also connections with people
and their influences on his writing,”
Conley said, referring to Stafford’s
habit of carrying pocket notebooks.
Stafford himself happily provided
a brief tour of the exhibit.
“When I was a college student I
spent a summer hitchhiking across
Europe,” Stafford said, walking
towards a display case containing
a tattered bag and a vintage 35mm
camera. “It was important to me to
have this in the exhibit because this is
where I started. Just a vagabond with
my journal and camera going through
the world.”
Stafford continued, moving
towards a display of a rough wooden
box filled with pens and books.
“This box here was a portable
office,” Stafford said. “When I came
here in 1979 I didn’t have an office,
so I had to carry my things with me
… I just walked from classroom to
classroom teaching.”
Moving over to display cases filled
with his daily notebooks, Stafford
approached a case containing a letter
written on a piece of birch wood bark.
“There’s a kind of intimacy in
physically making a talisman for
someone you love and are connected
to, and it goes not through a wire, but
literally hand to hand,” Stafford said, expanding on the virtues of letters.
Beyond just the exhibit, Stafford
had much to say about the creative
potential of LC at large.
“I find I can think here,” Stafford
said. “In the hurly burly of the city it’s
harder, but we’re up on the hill. That
has its disadvantages, in a way we’re
cut off, our kind of an ivory tower, but
we’re close to nature here.”
Stafford also spoke about what he
saw as the pacifist ethos of LC.
“This college was saved by a
dynamic president, Morgan Odell,
who was a pacifist in World War
One,” Stafford said. “And he didn’t
make much of that, but I think that
my dad came here because he was a
pacifist, and he felt that this is a place
that promotes understanding.”
With the conclusion of remarks
by Crummé, Wiewel, the student
curators and Stafford, the guests
began to gradually disperse, marking
the beginning of Stafford’s archive’s
time at LC.
“We are already putting together
finding aids, which are like catalogs,”
Crummé said. “I don’t think the
finding aids are public yet, since we’re
waiting for the entire collection, but
you can request the items that we
already have here now.”
Stafford, for one, was quite more
than confident in the future of his
archive.
“I think the archive is in good care
here,” Stafford said. “So I think I’ll be
here forever.”Watzek opens exhibit from LC poet’s archive
In operation since 1972, Portland’s oldest thrift store boasts antique goods, vintage feline employee
ELLA FERENCZ /THE PIONEER LOG
Watzek Library displays books written by Kim Stafford, former Oregon Poet Laureate and professor at Lewis & Clark since 1979.
ELLA FERENCZ /THE PIONEER LOG
Kim Stafford’s archive, now located in Aubrey R. Watzek Library, includes his pocket notebooks from decades of daily writing.
COURTESY OF @OZZY_THE_SHOPCAT
Ozzy the senior shop cat poses on a floral vintage couch at William Temple Thrift Shop.President Wiewel, Hannah Crummé speak at opening event for longtime professor, author Kim StaffordBy TOR PARSONS
FROM THE street, the Portland
Japanese Garden appears smaller
than it is. Tucked into the hills of
west Portland’s Washington Park, across
the street from the famed and sprawling
International Rose Test Garden, the
entrance is unassuming. A low, flat-
roofed building, reminiscent of a modern
take on traditional Japanese architecture,
sits next to a placid pond, with a small
garden of bushes and winding paths
extending up the hill behind it. It is hard
to imagine that this is the place Nobuo
Matsunaga, Japanese ambassador to
the United States from 1985-1989, once called “the most beautiful and authentic
Japanese garden in the world outside
Japan.”
Entering the Japanese Garden,
however, reveals a hidden wonderland.
The 12-acre garden is nestled in a natural
hollow in the hills, with ivy-coated slopes
rising sharply on nearly all sides. Within
the garden, it is easy to forget you are
in a major city. Different parts of the
garden are devoted to different types
of landscape. Such sites include piles
of stones, groves of Japanese maple
and cherry trees, trickling creeks, a koi
pond with a waterfall pouring into it and
even a large expanse of fine gravel for
visitors to make designs in with a rake,
a concept from Zen Buddhism known
as kare sansui.
The purpose of a traditional Japanese
garden is to serve as a microcosm of
nature. Unlike most Western gardens,
Japanese gardens rarely feature lawns,
colorful flowers or much organization
of what grows where. Instead, Japanese
gardens take on a more naturalistic
aesthetic, with large stones, dottings
of trees and almost always a pond or
creek. In ancient Japan, royals had
gardens representing places from Shinto
mythology with a pond symbolizing
an ocean and a rock representing a
mountain. From this came the idea that
Japanese gardens should represent a
miniature world unto themselves, with
a variety of landscapes and imitations
of natural features. Like many Japanese
gardens, the Portland Japanese Garden
also includes a variety of footbridges such
as arched “half-moon” bridges and zigzag
bridges across ponds.
Portland’s Japanese Garden uses
two key principles common to many
large Japanese gardens: miegakure and
shakkei. Miegakure means “hide and
reveal,” and it refers to a design feature
very prominent in the Portland Japanese
Garden: Not all of the garden can be
seen at once. The visitor must follow
the garden’s winding paths in order to discover new areas and landscapes,
which are not visible from elsewhere.
Shakkei means “borrowed scenery,”
referring to scenic views from outside
the garden. While most of the garden
is encircled by steep hills, obscuring
outside scenery, the garden pavilion, like
the Lewis & Clark campus, is designed
to face Mount Hood, visible through a
notch in the hills. In the context of the
Japanese garden, Hood resembles the
iconic Japanese image of Mount Fuji.
The Portland Japanese Garden was
planned and constructed throughout the
1960s and opened in 1967, on the former
site of the Portland Zoo. It was intended
as an homage to Portland’s sister city of
Sapporo, Japan, and the city donated
a hundred-year-old pagoda lantern to
the garden. In 2017, the garden was
expanded, adding features like a bonsai
garden and a 185-foot-long stone wall
built by a 15th-generation traditional
Japanese stonemason.
The grounds include a café, which
regularly hosts Japanese tea ceremonies,
and a gallery, currently home to an
exhibition on netsuke carvings, tiny
sculptures traditionally worn as button
fasteners. The exhibit runs through April
17. Other events at the Portland Japanese
Garden include traditional music
concerts and demonstrations of various
Japanese art forms. For instance, on
April 9, the Japanese classical music
duo Maido Mind will perform a
shinobue flute and piano concert at
the garden.
The Portland Japanese Garden
is accessible by public transit via a
shuttle bus from the Washington Park
MAX Light Rail stop. It is open every
day of the week but Tuesday. The
garden is a non-profit that receives no
funding from the city or state, so adult
admission to the garden costs $18.75,
though there is a $15.25 student rate.
However, it is just a small price for the
privilege of visiting one of the world’s
most authentic Japanese gardens.
FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022
FEATURES 7
PIE announces goal
shift to housing crisis
The garden displays a stunning waterfall.By NOAH REESE-CLAUSON
THE PORTLAND I n c u b a t o r
Experiment (PIE) has taken on a
new “class” of local entrepreneurs.
PIE is a business incubator that provides
mentorship and resources to the startups
it selects.
PIE offers a variety of services: PIE
Shop, PIE and PIE Consumer. PIE Shop
helps with prototyping and product
development, PIE is an accelerator that
helps push various start-ups forward
and PIE Consumer is a partnership
tool for established companies to grow.
Wonderfil, a company created
by LC alumnus
Amelia Eichel
’20, was a
member of
their 2020-21
class.
Local
entrepreneurs, typically
those with product-based ideas, apply for
PIE’s resources under the condition that
their products address a certain need or
initiative. Past projects have ranged from
a Pacific Northwest Tech Fest to a virtual
hub. This year’s application period closed
on March 13 and required submissions
related to housing security.
The idea spawned when Brad
Berrens, PIE consultant and interactive
advertising bureau editor-in-chief,
suggested that they look at problems
within the community and address
them directly.
“This is an opportunity to reverse
the growing pessimism and cynicism
plaguing our community,” Co-Founder
Rick Turoczy said. “This is an opportunity
to regain our ethos of optimism,
creativity, and collaboration to help our
fellow Portlanders.”
Berrens was also quick to
acknowledge the depth and severity of
the housing crisis. He explained that
while the organization understands that
they do not have all the answers, they remain committed to helping people
nonetheless. PIE will go about this
by communicating with the formerly
and currently unhoused to ground
themselves in their mission, educate the
next generation of entrepreneurs on the
gravity of the issue and work with other
companies for funding and ideas.
In the past, PIE has boasted
collaborations with large corporations
such as Nike, Coca-Cola and Intel.
They have also expressed interest in
working with Street Books, Central City
Concern and R2D2 Investments in their
most recent undertaking. In addition,
the Portland government makes an
interesting
prospect,
and they
too have
collaborated
with PIE in the
past. However,
Turoczy does not
expect to work with the city government
any time soon.
“The Portland government needs to
be part of the conversation,” Turoczy
said. “Organizations that are going to be
more nimble and able to work quickly
around these issues are going to be where
PIE will tend to gravitate.”
The government has been unable to
solve the issue thus far, and that is why
Portlanders like Toroczy are frustrated.
Since 2011 — when the statistic was
first calculated — 643 people have died
without a home in Multnomah County
alone. Weekly, there are around 350
active campsites and 200 inactive ones.
PIE wants to do something about it, this
entrepreneurial think tank is how
they begin.
“Start-up folks bring risk tolerance,
a sense of urgency, comfort with failure,
and a passion for solving riddles,”
Turoczy said.
He believes their model could
provide fresh new ideas and potentially
make a difference.ADELAIDE KAISER/THE PIONEER LOG Portland Japanese Garden
offers serenity within city
SOFIA REEVES/THE PIONEER LOG
ADVERTISEMENTFRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022
ARTS /gid00490
By AIDAN D'ANNA
SIAN HEDER’S family drama “CODA’’
took home the Oscar for Best Picture
this Sunday at the 94th annual
Academy Awards. Largely overshadowed
in the popular press by the (admittedly
exciting and unexpected) events that
transpired between Will Smith
and Chris Rock, the film’s Best
Picture win is a historic
achievement.
Not only does Apple
TV+ now get the honor of
being the first streaming
service with rights to a
Best Picture winner, but
the Deaf community got to see
people who look like them on
the biggest stage in the world.
CODA, which stands for “Child of
Deaf Adults,” is the heartwarming, funny,
bittersweet tale of Ruby Rossi (Emilia
Jones), the only hearing person in her family.
Ruby gets caught between being there for her
parents and brother, who need her as their
rock and interpreter, and pursuing her own
dreams of going to college for music.
Troy Kotsur took home the Oscar
for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for
his performance as Frank Rossi, Ruby’s
father. Kotsur became only the second
Deaf actor ever to win an Oscar in any
category, after Marlee Matlin – who plays
Kotsur’s wife in “CODA” – became the
first in 1986 for her role as Sarah in Randa
Haines’ “Children of a Lesser God.”
K o t s u r h a n d e d h i s s t a t u e t t e b a c k
to Youn Yuh-jung, who had presented
him with the award, in order to deliver
a moving acceptance speech entirely in
American Sign Language (ASL). “I just want to say that this is dedicated
to the Deaf community, the ‘CODA’
community and the disabled community,”
Kotsur said, interpreted by a translator.
“This is our moment.”
Completing the film’s sweep of
the three categories for which it was
nominated, writer and Director Sian
Heder took home the award for Best
Adapted Screenplay. “CODA”
was adapted from Éric
Lartigau’s 2014 French
film “La famille Bélier,”
and only exists because
Philippe Rousselet was a
producer on both projects
and retained remake rights.
Though “CODA” was
originally intended as simply
an English-language copy of
the French film, Heder made
some important changes when adapting the
script. Most obviously, “CODA” takes place
in Massachusetts where the Rossi family are
fishermen, while the Bélier family are dairy
farmers in rural France.
Other small changes like
this permeate the film, but
the most striking and risky
move Heder made was in
casting. In the original
film, only Luca Gelberg
(the Brother character,
played by Daniel Durant
in “CODA”) is actually
Deaf, while Paula (Louane
Emera)’s parents are played
by hearing actors. Heder
committed to the script and
her vision by casting three Deaf actors to play
Ruby’s family, and in the process immersed
herself in both Deaf culture and ASL. “I don’t think I’d ever met a director
who was so invested in her work, as well
as in learning about the Deaf community,”
Matlin said in an interview with Variety.
Another huge accolade for the
film is the fact that while Apple TV+
distributed the film, it was originally
produced by independent production
company Vendôme Pictures with a
modest budget of $10 million. Vendôme
Pictures is owned by Rousselet, and has
produced only 8 movies in its 11-year
history, including “La famille Bélier.”
After its premiere at the fully virtual
January 2021 Sundance Film Festival,
“CODA” only continued to pick up
steam. After Apple TV+ acquired the
film for a record-breaking $25 million
in August 2021, the snowball of success
became astronomical.
All told, “CODA” received 133
nominations and 59 awards, including
two BAFTAs, two Screen Actors Guild
Awards, four Sundance Film Festival
Awards including the Grand Jury
Prize, the NAACP Image Award for
Outstanding Independent Motion
Picture, three Hollywood Critics
Association Awards and the
Writers Guild of America Award
for Best Adapted Screenplay.
“CODA” is an incredible story of
family, of perseverance,
of duty, of heartbreak,
but most importantly of
love. It has reached millions
of people worldwide,
and given a voice to a
historically underrepresented
community. If you have access to Apple
TV+ or can still find it in theaterse, it is
absolutely worth the watch.By TOR PARSONS
THE 94TH ANNUAL A c a d e m y
Awards ceremony, otherwise known
as the Oscars, was held on March 27,
honoring the best films of 2021. Though
the ceremony’s films may have been
overshadowed by the media hoopla over
the altercation between Will Smith and
Chris Rock, this year’s awards represented
a spectacular range of movies. In fact, it
was one of the best Oscar hauls in a long
time.
In an effort to reverse the ceremony’s
declining viewer ratings, several changes
were made this year. Instead of a single
host, there were three, actress Regina
Hall and comedians Amy Schumer and
Wanda Sykes. Additionally, eight awards
with less audience draw, including
Best Documentary Short Subject, Best
Film Editing and Best Sound, were
not presented live in order to shorten
the ceremony. In an attempt to attract
younger viewers, the cast of Disney’s
musical “Encanto,” plus rapper Megan
Thee Stallion, performed the song “We
Don’t Talk About Bruno,” an unexpected
breakout hit from the film, despite the
song not being nominated for Best
Original Song.
Another new inclusion geared toward
boosting ratings were the Fan Favorite
awards. While the official Oscars are
nominated and voted on by the nearly
10,000 members of the Academy of
Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (who
are mostly actors, producers and film
crew members) the Fan Favorite Film
and “Cheer Moment” were voted on
by Twitter users in the weeks before
the ceremony. The zombie flick “Army
of the Dead,” which received no Oscar
nominations, won the Fan Favorite Film
category. A scene from the superhero
epic “Zack Snyder’s Justice League”
won the category of “Oscars Cheer
Moment,” once again from a movie that
lacked any Oscar nominations despite
critical acclaim. The inclusion of the Fan
Favorite awards, especially against a
slate of relatively obscure films vying for
the serious awards, drew criticism from
some media figures for entrenching the
barrier between high and low art: action
films for the masses, art films for the
elite.Regardless of Hollywood’s hand-wringing
over audiences’ diminished interest in the
Oscars, the films themselves were excellent.
The ten Best Picture nominees represented
nearly every major category of cinema,
including the ’70s-set coming-of-age
story “Licorice Pizza,” a beautiful film,
but somewhat controversial due to a
joke at the expense of Asian women.
The other nominees were the climate
change allegory “Don’t Look Up;” Steven
Spielberg’s adaptation of the iconic
musical “West Side Story;” “Nightmare
Alley,” a historical thriller about carnival
psychics; the big-screen, big-budget sci-fi
epic “Dune;” the western “The Power of
the Dog;” “King Richard,” a biopic about
the childhood of tennis stars Venus and
Serena Williams; “CODA,” about the
only hearing child in a Deaf family;
“Belfast,” a drama about the Troubles,
a period of civil war in Northern
Ireland from the 1960s to ’90s; and the
slow, elegiac Japanese character study
“Drive My Car,” the only Best Picture
nominee from a non-English-speaking
country, though “CODA” is mostly in
American Sign Language.
“CODA” won Best Picture, as
many Hollywood insiders had
expected, making it the first film with
a predominantly Deaf cast to receive
the award. It was also only the third
Best Picture winner directed by a
woman, Sian Heder. “The Power of the
Dog” director Jane Campion won Best
Director, likewise the third woman
to win the award and the second in a
row after Chloé Zhao took home Best
Picture and Best Director for 2020’s
“Nomadland.” “CODA” also won Best
Adapted Screenplay, as it was based on a
2014 French film about the same subject.
The Best Actress award went to Jessica
Chastain, her third Oscar nomination
and first win, for her spectacular
starring role as the corrupt and eccentric
televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker in
“The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” The film also
won the other award it was nominated
for: Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
Will Smith won Best Actor for his
portrayal of Venus and Serena Williams’
demanding father in “King Richard.”
However, Smith is also responsible for
what was probably the ceremony’s most
memorable event, and not necessarily in a good way: About an hour before
winning the award, he walked onto the
stage and slapped Rock. While Rock was
awarding the Best Documentary Feature
statuette to musician Questlove for his
film “Summer of Soul,” he had made a
joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett
Smith, mocking her baldness due to the
autoimmune disorder alopecia. Later,
when receiving the award for Best Actor,
Smith apologized for the infraction
without directly mentioning Rock. On
Monday, he apologized more forcefully
to Rock, saying “my actions were not
indicative of the man I want to be.”
“Belfast” won Best Original Screenplay,
making writer-director Kenneth Branagh
one of the few people to have received Oscar
nods for acting, writing and directing.
Unsurprisingly, “Encanto” took home Best
Animated Feature, though I was rooting
for “The Mitchells vs. the Machines,” a film
about a neurodivergent family who use
their quirks to defeat a robot uprising. As
an autistic person, seeing a mass-market
film with characters like me is a rare and
special occurrence.
“Dune” rightfully swept the technical
categories. While I was uncertain
whether a sci-fi blockbuster like “Dune”
was Best Picture fare, its music, effects
and production design certainly
deserved the recognition they got. Billie
Eilish’s haunting tune “No Time to Die”
from the James Bond film of the same
name received Best Original Song.
The film industry has been through
a tough few years. Box-office returns
are still not back to their pre-pandemic
level. Nonetheless, 2021 was probably
the best year in film in quite a while. This
year’s haul of awards ought to show that
while Hollywood may be under financial
strain, quality filmmaking is not dead.By LIZ LEJEUNE
JOHN WILLIAMS, one of the greatest
composers in history, turned 90 years
old in February. On March 19, I was
fortunate enough to attend an Oregon
Symphony event celebrating his legacy.
For seven decades, Williams has churned
out some of the most iconic television and
movie scores, three of which are in the
American Film Institute’s top 25 film scores
in American cinema. Since his first Grammy
nomination in 1962, Williams has won 25
Grammys, seven British Academy Film
Awards, five Academy Awards, four Golden
Globes and three Emmys. He has been
nominated for 52 Academy Awards total,
making him the second most nominated
person behind Walt Disney.
In celebration of Williams’ legacy,
conductor Jeff Tyzik and the Oregon
Symphony assembled some of his most
memorable pieces and performed them
at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. As
someone who spends a remarkable amount
of time listening to film and television scores,
I was elated to attend this magnificent event.
The conductor was animated and
personable in his engagement with the
audience, the pieces and the musicians.
I felt at home sitting among hundreds of
people who also reveled in the nostalgia and
sheer brilliance of these pieces and the films.
Moreover, they played the original sheet music
as it was recorded for each film, meaning there
were no arrangements, which only amplified
the sentimental value of this experience.
Although the program lacked fan
favorites like the theme song from “E.T.” and
“Hedwig’s Theme,” the carefully-arranged
setlist drew from a wide range of his work.
The Symphony played highly recognizable
pieces like the March from “Raiders of the
Lost Ark,” the “Jurassic Park” theme and
“Harry’s Wondrous World” from “Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.” It was during
those pieces that I was especially overcome
with nostalgia and homesickness. Hearing a
professional orchestra play these soundtracks
so closely tied with my childhood brought me
pure joy, and I will admit that I cried when
they played the “Jurassic Park” theme. During the “Jaws” theme, the musicians
screamed in the midst of the rising tension
near the beginning, which had the audience,
including myself, cackling. They also played
the theme from “Schindler’s List” and
“Sayuri’s Theme” from “Memoirs of a Geisha,”
which unlocked memories of watching these
with my mom when I was probably too young
to truly appreciate those films.
For each piece, Tyzik told a story or gave
some context to the composition of the music.
In introducing “With Malice Toward None”
from “Lincoln,” he read aloud the closing
lines of Lincoln’s second inaugural address.
For the vibrant and rhythmic “Devil’s Dance”
from “The Witches of Eastwick,” he asked
the audience if anyone had seen this lesser-
known movie. Only about 20 people in the
whole auditorium raised their hands, but
he was thrilled that even some people had
seen it, because he was obsessed with this
film’s score. He mentioned how he hounded
the company to publish the “Devil’s Dance”
sheet music, calling the office every month,
and after three years, they finally did.
Tyzik took the time to praise Williams for
making his sheet music unbelievably cheap
and accessible compared to other scores,
which tend to cost thousands of dollars.
The orchestra, of course, played several
pieces from a certain space franchise whose
name Tyzik jokingly refused to say until the
very end. They concluded the first half of the
performance with “Duel of the Fates” from
“The Phantom Menace,” and although they
did not have a choir, the musicians did a
surprisingly good job singing the opening of
the piece. They closed the night on a strong
note, playing a suite from “Star Wars,”
including the “Main Title,” “Princess Leia’s
Theme” and “The Imperial March.”
The conductor recounted the story of
Spielberg approaching Williams during
the making of “Schindler’s List.” Williams
said a better composer was needed to tell
this story, to which Spielberg responded,
“I know, but they’re all dead.”
Williams has produced a rich breadth
of meticulously curated scores that
effectively elevate the tone of each film,
certainly making him one of the most
influential film composers of all time.
By QWYNCI BOWMAN
The H ALLOWED HALLS recording
studio is nestled in a quaint
neighborhood in SE Portland. This
is where I found myself attending a SoFar
Sounds concert series where up until 25
hours beforehand, the location of the
concert was a complete mystery. That is
what makes the SoFar Sounds experience
so special.
Before buying a ticket, attendees
are able to choose the general
neighborhood of the venue. The exact
location remains a secret until the
day before the concert. The artists
also remain unknown to the audience
until they take the stage. Each concert
features musical acts that perform
after each intermission.
The only guarantee in attending
a SoFar Sounds event is that the
audience experience will be an
intimate one. According to their
website, sofarsounds.com, the goal
of these events is to “(Reimagine) the
live event experience through curated,
intimate performances.” SoFar Sounds
prides itself on creating a small,
immersive experience that gives the
audience a deeper connection to the
performers without the frantic bustling
that accompanies most larger concerts.
Upon entering the Hallowed
Halls venue, it was hard to miss the
multitude of colorfully printed rugs
on the main stage’s ground floor. On
each rug, groups of people sat down
socializing and drinking as they waited
for the performances to begin.
One act that completely captivated
the audience that evening was Rain
Pollock who goes by the stage name
“Rainezra.” The musician, who calls
both Modesto and Santa Cruz, Calif.
her home, is relatively new to the SoFar Sounds scene. The first shows
she performed were towards the end
of 2021.
“I mastered the skill of being able to
choose songs in my head, like my head
is its own little jukebox. And as I am
playing a song, I will be looking at the
audience and evaluating, and flipping
through my head of all the different
songs I know,” Rainezra said.
At one point during her
performance she even encouraged the
audience members to harmonize with
her, further adding to the close-knit
feeling of the concert.
On the SoFar Sounds stages,
Rainezra performs a mixture of covers,
beat-boxing and original songs that
caused people to cheer and clap during
her performance. In describing her
musical stylings, Rainezra says “If
I identified my sound as a whole, I
want my whole sound to represent
kind of early 2000s, SWV, JoJo, Alicia
Keys, old school Paramore, which are
completely different vibes.”
The second group who took to the
stage was Presidio, a musical duo that
displayed a melodic set of presentations
of tunes. The third performance
was from Hiroki, a local band that
performed an eclectic mixture of
jazzy, rock and acoustic sounds. As
the audience and I harmonized with
each artist, I found the interaction to
be a refreshing display of community
amongst everyone in the room.Secret concerts feature
local Portland artists
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interest in quality filmmaking
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Best Picture, depicts Deaf community
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famed score composer
SOFIA REEVES/THE PIONEER LOG
QWYNCI BOWMAN/THE PIONEER LOG
Concert-goers await the first artist.ALEX NASH/THE PIONEER LOG
ALEX NASH/THE PIONEER LOGBy ADELAIDE KAISER
RISING POPSTAR a n d s i n g e r -
songwriter Maude Latour
kicked off her first headline tour
in north Portland on March 11. The
22-year-old played to a sold-out crowd
at Polaris Hall, the first stop on a tour
that will take her to cities across the
country during her spring break and
over weekends of her final semester at
Columbia University.
The show featured stellar opener
Jensen McRae, who played an acoustic
set of songs from her album “Are You
Happy Now?” which was released on
March 22. McRae’s announcement that
it was her first ever tour was met with
resounding applause from the crowd.
Latour delivered a high-energy set,
which the audience matched with ease.
The crowd screamed along to every
word of Latour’s songs with passion.
She opened with her song “Furniture”
and closed with “One More Weekend,”
which she said was her favorite to
perform. The show included some
moments that felt extra special. Before
“Ride My Bike,” Latour silenced the
crowd and had everyone take three
deep breaths before starting the song.
During “Block Your Number,” everyone
dropped to the floor during the pre
chorus before jumping up and dancing
energetically after the beat drop.
Latour had wonderful stage
presence, interacting with audience
members throughout the show and
giving the experience a very personal
feel. She said that starting her tour
in Portland was a great experience,
despite it being her first time in the
city.“There was totally some magic in
the room and I felt overjoyed after,”
Latour said. “I had such a good time, it
was such a beautiful experience.”
Adjusting to what it means to be on
tour and play the same show multiple
times has proved to be a challenge,
and Latour has been figuring out how
to navigate this experience.
“I’ve never done more than one
show in a row before,” Latour said.
“I’m just trying to work on learning …
(to) preserve and protect my energy.”
Latour’s set included every song
that she has released in her career thus
far, including her most recent release
“Headphones,” as well as two songs
that have not yet been released, “Lola”
and “Trees.” Latour’s music explores
themes of friendship, romance,
heartbreak and love in all forms. “I definitely feel like this heartbreak
chapter has been said and has been
closed,” Latour said, referring to her
last EP, “Strangers Forever.” “I think I
found out how to write about being 16,
I found out how to write about being
19 and 20. And I’m currently figuring
out how to write about being 22.”
“Lola” is the next song Latour plans
to release, a song she says is about
healing and protecting the people that
you love. It is named after her best
friend Lola.
“I want it to be an anthem to
protecting my friends and keeping my
friends safe … like, group love that you
feel,” Latour said. “It’s also about this
theme that I find in my music a lot, of
the fluidity of love and friendship.”
Latour also finds that there is
a connection between love and loneliness in her music, which she has
been exploring in her writing process.
“I’m finding more and more that
so much of my music is about being
lonely,” Latour said. “But then like
also having these surges of total
community and total love and the
opposite of loneliness.”
Latour is currently finishing up
a degree in philosophy. She jokingly
told the crowd about how she had
submitted a midterm right before
leaving for Portland. However,
launching a music career and being a
full-time student has not been without
its challenges.
“(I have been) emailing my
professors my music to try to convince
them to give me extensions,” Latour
said. “They’ve been super helpful.”
Despite the challenges of juggling everything, Latour’s classes have
helped her improve as an artist.
“I’ve taken a lot of English classes
focused on words and poetry,” Latour
said. “It’s talented writers who have
found cracks in the world, and figured
out how to shine light through them.”
Latour is set to graduate in the
spring, and though she has learned a
lot from college, she believes it is the
friendships that ultimately make it
worthwhile.
“Don’t stress too much about
school,” Latour said. “Just enjoy. Give
yourself a break. Just enjoy hanging
out with your friends. That’s true
education.”
Latour is currently focused on
completing her next project. In the
meantime, “Lola” is set to be released
on April 8.FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022
ARTS /gid00491
By PHILIP STEFFEN
CHAPARRAL BOOKS, l o c a t e d a t
5210 South Corbett Avenue, is a 15
minute walk south of the Moody
and Lowell Pioneer Express stop. The
store’s gray facade faces the road with
a number of large windows that reveal
warmly lit shelves of books from several
blocks away.
The central hallway of the store,
where patrons enter, is a combination
showroom and workspace, with a number
of rare and ornately bound books. At the
register, which is surrounded by several
unique display pieces and works-in-
progress, an employee named Veronica
explains the store’s mixed business
model and clientele.
“A lot of it is either neighborhood
people or book scouts who go all over the
region buying books for resale,” Veronica
said. “We sell most (used books) online,
and also bring some of that into the
store.”
Taking a left from the hallway brings
visitors into the store’s main room. Here,
light ’50s Jazz plays on the radio, and
books are organized into a wide range
of sections depending on their genre.
Of particular interest are the Art and Design shelves, which contain a number
of large art books on subjects ranging
from costume design and architecture to
artistic political protest and photography
of Midwestern grain elevators.
Moving towards the back of this
room, visitors are greeted by a large
selection of books on Black and
Indigenous history in the U.S., as well
as a number of shelves devoted to the
history and environment of the Pacific
Northwest.
As Veronica explains, the store is
specifically focused on literature in these
genres.
“The owner specializes in Western
Americana and Native American
Studies,” Veronica said. “John, the
owner, is from New Mexico, so that’s
kind of where his love for books comes
from.”
The store is, of course, not limited
to these genres, a fact exemplified by a
large children’s book section towards the
back, as well as an adjacent and extensive
selection of cookbooks and craft guides.
The store’s real specialty lies,
however, in the back room. Whereas the
store’s main room has the feel of a more
traditional book store, the back room
has the tight, cramped feel of a personal collection, complete with the strong
and pleasant scent of aging paper and
binding. The focus on the western U.S. is
very evident there, with a greater depth
than most libraries, and with whole
shelves dedicated to various Native
American tribes and U.S. states.
Like the front room, the books
here, along with the various collected
pamphlets and magazines, are all for
sale. Of particular interest in this room
is the selection of antique posters,
postcards and U.S. Geological Survey
maps, which provide great opportunities
for eclectic room decoration.
Out of the back room and back at
the register, Veronica advertises how
Chaparral Books functions as a buyer of
books, perhaps more so even than as a
seller.
“A lot of people bring us their books,
and we occasionally acquire larger
collections,” Veronica said. “Anybody
can just come in and say I’m downsizing,
or my dad just died and I have all of
these books that I want to get rid of.”
Whether students are in the market
for new books, or (with the move out
season approaching) in the market to
sell books, Chaparral Books is a great
place to go. By MILES OKI
ON MARCH 1, t h e P a t r i c i a R e s e r
Center for the Arts opened its
doors to the public in Beaverton,
Ore. The building, which features a pond
and a 550-seat auditorium, is the first
center for performing arts located in
Beaverton, and was built to bring a large
performing arts venue to the west side of
the greater Portland area.
The center was built to cater a wide
variety of performances including
dance companies, symphonies and jazz
ensembles. According to the center’s
website, the plan for the theater was
formulated in the 1990s. Construction for
the project began in 2019 after Patricia
Reser contributed $13 million to the
project via the Reser Family Foundation.
Later, the Washington County Visitors
Association contributed $500,000
in April 2019 and the state of Oregon
contributed $1.5 million, allocated from
the Oregon Lottery, in July 2019. The
total price for the center was $55 million,
according to the Portland Tribune. The
center’s website states that most of this
money was raised by private donors and
Transient Lodging Taxes.
The center also includes a mini art
gallery. The current display is titled
“Celilo-Never Silenced,” and features
work by Native American artists including
Don Bailey and Analee Fuentes. The
art describes the relationship between
Native Americans and Celilo Falls, known
as Wyam by Indigenous residents, that
was a hub of intercultural exchange for
many Pacific Northwest Tribes. The hub
was once located on the Washington
Oregon Border by Wasco County, Ore. The bustling exchange hub and fishery
was destroyed in 1957 by the construction
of the Dalles Dam after the falls and the
surrounding buildings were submerged.
The art collection can be visited separately
Wednesday through Saturday, between
10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Other art pieces
include large installations in and around
the center, such as the Ribbon, which is a
large, spiraling sculpture with lights that
turn on when the sun sets.
Nestled between other new buildings,
the center is surrounded by restaurants
and shops, meaning that if you would
like to catch a show here, it is easy to go
out to dinner in the area. The Center is
also only a short walk from the Beaverton
Central MAX stop, and the Blue Line can
be taken from Portland’s Pioneer Square
Courthouse for a quick, cheap and easy
transportation to the Center.
I visited the Center to watch the
Portland Gay Men’s Chorus perform,
“Learn to Fly.” All lines ran quickly and
there was staff around to help with any
questions or to aid in finding seats. The
auditorium itself is perfectly spaced,
and all 550 seats seem to have great
views of the stage. While waiting for the
performance I was able to walk around
the lobby, peruse the amazing art pieces
and also took a look at the pond. The
group sang what they call songs “about
inner strength and seeking new horizons,”
according to their website. I believe that
their performance really captured this
essence, and I left the theater feeling like
it was a happy end to my spring break.
If you would also like to experience a
performance, see upcoming shows or
learn about the artwork at the center
check out their website, thereser.org.Chaparral Books is a destination
for Indigenous, Western historyNew Center brings art
showcases to BeavertonUp-and-coming artist discusses new single “Lola,” finishing college while pursuing music careerMaude Latour opens debut tour in Portland
Maude Latour played the first show of her first tour at Polaris Hall on March 11.ADELAIDE KAISER/THE PIONEER LOG
Opening act Jensen McRae delivered an acoustic set with tracks from her new album.ADELAIDE KAISER/THE PIONEER LOG
Chapparal Books in South Portland delights all types of readers with its curated selection of Western and Indigenous literatur e.PHILIP STEFFEN/THE PIONEER LOGBeaverton’s new performing arts center includes an art gallery and auditorium.MILES OKI/THE PIONEER LOGFRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022
SPORTS /gid00483/gid00482
By GRETA BURTON
THE PHOENIX Mercury’s Brittney
Griner has been detained in Russia
since Feb. 17, after the Russian
Federal Customs Service allegedly
found cannabis oil in her luggage at
the Sheremetyevo airport located near
Moscow. Griner has played basketball in
Russia during the WNBA off-season since
2016.
Customs officials reported finding
vape cartridges of hashish oil, a form
of marijuana concentrate. Griner faces
charges in accordance with Russian Article
229.1, which describes the illegal crossing
of a customs border while in possession
of illegal narcotics. If found guilty, Griner
faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.
This sentence, however, could be extended
up to 20 years if the amount of illegal
narcotics is deemed to be “significant.”
Griner was playing basketball in the
Russian Premier League for UMMC
Ekaterinburg when, like all other foreign
athletes, she had to leave the country due
to the ongoing political tension caused by
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Griner is the
only player to remain in Russia as forces
occupy Ukraine.
According to the Russian state news agency, TASS, Griner’s period
of detention has been extended until
May 19 while officials conduct an
investigation. Resident advisor to the
U.S. Embassy in Moscow Tom Firestone
told the New York Times that delays in
the penal system are common in Russia.
Griner may be held without a trial for
up to a year, but this period could be
extended an additional six months.
The 31-year-old athlete is currently a
seven-time WNBA All-Star and two-time
Defensive Player of the Year. She has won
a championship with the Mercury, an
NCAA championship at Baylor and two
gold medals in 2016 and 2021 with the
U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball team.
According to ESPN, Griner is “one of the
most recognizable players in women’s
basketball.”
Delsie Johnson, 4-year forward on
the LC women’s basketball team, said
she heard about Griner’s detention a few
weeks ago when the news first broke.
“At first I was shocked to find out
that she was being detained in Russia,”
Johnson said via email. “I also have not
really seen or heard much about the
situation on social media, especially with
women’s sports outlets that I follow. I did
some digging on this and people haven’t been making a big deal of it on social
media because it could potentially escalate
things with the US and Russian relation.
I also think that if it was a male athlete
in her position or even a white female
athlete, there would be a lot more public
attention and action being taken to get
them back to the US.”
Women’s basketball in Europe and
Asia has steadily grown in popularity since
the 1970s. Teams are typically funded by
large corporations or the government.
Approximately half of all WNBA players
compete internationally. There is usually
a maximum number of American players
allowed on teams overseas, however,
many athletes obtain dual-citizenship in
order to overcome this obstacle. Griner
does not have Russian citizenship.
The appeal to and success of team
ownership by private companies allows
WNBA athletes to make much more
money playing sports abroad compared
to their U.S. salaries. Griner reportedly
earns over $1 million per season,
nearly quadrupling her WNBA salary.
By comparison, the current salary for
a WNBA player ranges from $60,471
to $228,094. Furthermore, the NBA
offers a minimum salary of $925,000
and a maximum salary beginning at
$28 million. In 2020, the WNBA and
Women’s National Basketball Players
Association (WNBPA) agreed to a
new eight-year collective bargaining
agreement to raise the average salary to
approximately $130,000, nearly $12,000
more than the maximum salary in 2019.
“I think the future for the WNBA is
bright,” Johnson said. “Lately, it seems
like more and more male athletes are
using their platform to show their support
of WNBA athletes and women basketball
players in general ... The women’s college
basketball tournament this year, which
is still ongoing, has seen significant
increases in viewership compared to last
year, and this just shows how women’s
basketball is getting to be more popular in
the public eye.”
Russian oligarchs play a critical role
in the operation of off-season teams.
UMMC Ekaterinburg is owned by the Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company
and is headed by owner Iskander
Makhmudov and CEO Andrei Kozitsyn.
While normally highly influential in
matters of government and commerce,
oligarchs and their bureaucratic
operations have been challenged by
current political tensions in Russia.
“I think the concern is, if it becomes
too high-profile, if it becomes political,
then the Russian government may dig
into their position,” Firestone said to
ESPN, “It may make it difficult for her to
get a good resolution of the case, and she
could become a pawn in a bigger political
battle.”
In 2019, an Israeli woman was arrested
in Russia for the possession of cannabis.
Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed
to use the case as a means of negotiating
Russian control of an area in Jerusalem,
but the Russian government denied
any link. The woman was subsequently
pardoned.
Griner’s legal team is headed by
Alexander Boykov. Boykov has argued
that Russian officials illegally detained
the American athlete, holding her for
approximately 16 hours after she was
detained at 11 a.m. Additionally, the
defense argues that prosecutors delayed
charging Griner and providing her with a
defense team. For these reasons, Boykov
believes Griner should be able to await
trial while on house arrest. The women’s
basketball team in Ekaterinburg also
supplied letters vouching for Griner’s
character.
More recently, after over three weeks
of detainment, Griner was finally granted
access to representatives from the U.S.
embassy.
“Brittney has always handled herself
with the utmost professionalism during
her long tenure with USA Basketball, and
her safety and well-being are our primary
concerns,” USA Basketball said in a
statement after Griner’s arrest.
The WNBA, the Phoenix Mercury, the
WNBPA and several U.S. politicians and
celebrities have made statements about
her detainment. Overall, little information
has been released about Griner’s case for what the State Department describes as
privacy considerations. With consulate
access leading up to May 19, more updates
about the case are expected.
“ T h i s s i t u a t i o n w i t h B r i t t n e y G r i n e r
reminds me of some other situations.
The one that comes to mind first is with
Sha’Carri Richardson who wasn’t able to
go to the Tokyo Olympics because of a
positive test for marijuana,” Johnson said.
“I think because she is a female person
of color, the situation and how she was
viewed as an athlete definitely turned
down a different path than if this kind of
situation happened to someone who was
white or even a male athlete.”
Griner has been very open about
her sexuality as a professional athlete,
coming out during her rookie year
in 2013. Some worry this may cause
further harm in her case due to Russia’s
legislative and social discrimination
against LGBTQ+ people.
Laurel Marchant ’22 has also played
on the LC women’s basketball team for
the past four years as a point guard and
agrees that the treatment of women,
particularly LGBTQ+ women, in
professional sports has substantial room
for improvement.
“I was a social media intern for a
clothing company that’s sole purpose is to
promote female athletes and I found that
on social media, many female athletes
are constantly being sexualized and also
many openly LGBT+ female athletes are
being harassed,” Marchant said via email.
Johnson and Marchant share the
desire for women to be better respected
both in and beyond the realm of
professional sports.
“I hope that women athletes can get
the attention and praise they deserve
in the media and in public opinion in
general,” Johnson said. “I think young
women who look up to female athletes in a
sport they are interested in should be able
to see the same kinds of things that a male
athlete would see in players like Lebron
James or Steph Curry, but female stars
like Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi.”
The WNBA season is still set to begin
on May 6.By GABE KORER
THE LEWIS & Clark baseball team
is having one of its best seasons
in recent memory, as their record
of 15-12 has them only a half game back
from a spot in the Northwest Conference
(NWC) Playoff Tournament. With six
wins in their past nine games, and a five
game win streak earlier in the season, the
Pios have fully come into their own as the
season has progressed.
As one of the team’s leaders, third
baseman Jack Thomson ’22 has had a
major impact on their success. The 4-year
starter has amassed an impressive resume
throughout his time at LC, garnering 125
hits and 111 runs through only 111 career
games. This year, he is leading all of
Division III baseball in several statistical
categories, including home runs, doubles,
walks and runs scored.
In the past two weeks, Thomson has
twice been named the NWC Position
Player Student-Athlete of the Week for
his performance. When asked about the
strides he has taken this year, Thomson
credits Hitting Coach Eric Del Prado, who
he says helped him improve his swing
over the years.
“He does a great job not just with me
but with all the hitters,” Thomson said.
“He puts in a ton of time and effort, and
I kind of just listen to what he says. It’s
seemed to work so far.”
According to Thomson, Del Prado
has occasionally had the players wear eye
patches during batting practice in order to
improve their eye hand coordination and
visual awareness. Although unorthodox,
the technique has paid dividends on the
field, where the Pios are averaging nearly
nine runs a game and are ranked third
in the nation in home runs. Thomson
fondly recalls how Del Prado was labeled
a “madman” upon making the change. As a coach, Del Prado has been
thoroughly impressed with Thomson’s
growth as both a player and teammate.
Having joined the coaching staff the
same year Thomson came to LC, he has
enjoyed being able to work with him
these past four years.
“Jack has had an incredible impact
on our program,” Del Prado said. “He
shows up to work everyday and takes
great pride in all the work that he does, which definitely rubs off on all of his
teammates.”
Thomson’s strong passion for
baseball influenced his decision to attend
LC. Growing up in Millbrae, Calif., he
quickly developed a love for the sport
after playing it at a young age. Upon
meeting Head Coach Matt Kosderka,
he was struck by his firm belief in what
the team would eventually be able to
accomplish.“Coach Matt Kosderka was hired the
year before, and he kind of sold me on the
vision he had for the program,” Thomson
said. “I wanted to be a part of something
to try to turn the program around and get
it headed in the right direction.”
Four years later, the Pios have been
able to do just that. Their 15 wins this
season marks the most they have had in
over two decades, and they are leading
the nation in several offensive categories. Just one season removed from going
9-23, the team is now squarely in the mix
to make the conference playoffs.
For Thomson, the success this year
has been especially gratifying, as it
represents the culmination of everything
he and his teammates have been working
toward.
“The whole goal my three years, and
the guys in my class and the guys ahead
of me, was to try to create a culture
of winning, of doing things the right
way,” Thomson said. “(Knowing) that
eventually the hard work would pay off.
Even though it took us four years, it’s
nice to see some wins going up on the
scoreboard.”
Throughout the season, Thomson has
placed an emphasis on being a leader,
specifically by mentoring some of the
younger players and being more vocal.
Kosderka initially encouraged him to take
on this role, and he has fully embraced it
as one of the more experienced players.
Pitcher Ryan Harvey ’25 attests to
the leadership Thomson has shown this
season.
“He’s a very team-focused guy,”
Harvey said. “He really cares about
winning, other people succeeding.
You can just tell he really cares for the
program as a whole.”
Moving forward, Thomson and his
teammates will try to finish the rest
of the season on a high note. With six
conference games on tap, and eleven
more overall, the Pios will continue to
make a push toward the NWC playoff
tournament. Although they have
exceeded expectations so far, Thomson
insists the work is not over.
“Before the season, our goal every year
has been to finish in that top four so that
we make the conference tournament,”
Thomson said. “If you can get into the
dance, anything can happen.”Jack Thomson ’22 leads team with stellar play
Russian authorities detain WNBA star after arrestPHOTO COURTESY OF JACK THOMSON
Thomson has had his best season yet, batting .463 with 12 home runs and 33 runs batted in through 27 games in the spring.
GRETA BURTON/THE PIONEER LOG
Decorated basketball player Brittney Griner is being held abroad after violating foreign drug lawsBaseball player dominates Northwest Conference in several statistical categories amid historic season
FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022
SPORTS /gid00483/gid00483
By KAMRYN FORD
LEWIS & CLARK A t h l e t i c s
recently hired Seth Orensky
as the new Director of Athletic
Communications. Orensky has
replaced Ryan Goff, who held the
position for the past several years.
As most of LC’s athletic teams begin
to return to a new semblance of
normalcy, Orensky has high hopes for
the start of his career at LC.
After graduating from Boston
University, Orensky applied his
degree in broadcast journalism at the
University of Massachusetts Boston,
where he served as assistant director
of athletic communications for the
last ten years. Orensky had always
hoped to run his own department,
and the position at LC seemed to be
the perfect opportunity to do so.
“My boss sent (the job opening)
to me,” Orensky said. “I had been
narrowly looking in the Pacific
Northwest and Denver, so I threw
my application in not knowing what
would happen. It’s been a whirlwind,
spring season here seems to be the
busiest season ... but it has been really
exciting. Everyone has been kind and
warm.”
Journalism has always been
Orensky’s passion, particularly in the
realm of sports. During his time in
college he was particularly interested
and active in the school’s radio and
broadcasting teams.
“I have always had a passion
for broadcasting and writing about
sports,” Orensky said. “I worked for the student radio station, broadcasted
a lot of basketball, soccer, hockey,
(and) softball. I also wrote for our
radio station website.”
With the official start of the Spring
2022 season, Orensky has found
himself busy covering the multitude
of LC sports teams competing all
over the Pacific Northwest. While
the new position has brought a lot of
excitement, Orensky also has begun
tackling issues he finds pertinent to
the success of the athletic programs.
“The biggest thing I noticed that
surprised me was the lack of social
media during the pandemic,” Orensky
said. “I think a lot of people have had to pare things down and not do as
much, but the one thing I think that
student-athletes are interested in the
most is social media.”
While Orensky is just one man, he
is determined to provide each team
the coverage they deserve and get to
know them on a personal level.
“Even though I am learning on
the job … I am hopefully making
these student-athletes feel like they
are getting the full coverage, … and
making it feel like they are getting
some love from the sports information
office,” Orensky said.
The new director intends to
continue building on the school’s current athletics website, utilizing
both video and photography in
order to display each athletic team’s
skill and potential. He also hopes
to showcase athletes beyond their
athletic abilities by highlighting some
of the activities and jobs they partake
in outside of sports alone.
“Every single team has some
exciting things going on,” Orensky
said. “There is a lot to honor and a
lot to talk about. It seems like there
are a lot of fantastic stories, and I do
not know any of them yet, but I am
really excited to sit down, talk to the
coaches, talk to the student-athletes
and do some interviews.”Mark Pietrok, Head Athletic
Director, is immensely excited about
Orensky’s arrival, and foresees
positive change on the horizon for LC
athletics.
“I am very excited to welcome
Seth to the Pioneer Family,” Pietrok
said via email. “He will be an integral
part of our department and will be
instrumental in getting our message
out to parents, alumni and friends
of the department. He is a seasoned
professional and Lewis & Clark is
fortunate to have someone of his
skill set providing the narrative
about our student athletes and their
accomplishments.”Orensky named director of communications
Blazers face hardship
as season comes to endAfter Ryan Goff’s departure, Seth Orensky undertakes massive role for LC’s athletics department
By GABE KORER
THIS YEAR HAS m a r k e d a t u r n i n g
point for the Portland Trail Blazers,
and not in a good way. With their
entire starting lineup this season either
traded or injured, the team is purposefully
tanking for the first time since 2011, the
year before they drafted Damian Lillard
with the sixth pick in the NBA draft.
Having already announced that Lillard
will miss the rest of the season due to
abdominal surgery, the Blazers seem
likely to continue their descent down the
Western Conference standings.
What makes matters worse for their
fanbase is the departure of Lillard’s
longtime teammate CJ McCollum, who
was traded in a blockbuster deal to the
New Orleans Pelicans in exchange for
several players and three draft picks. The
move, while not unexpected, has struck a
chord with the Portland community and
members of the organization, who have
become accustomed to seeing McCollum
on the court after nine seasons. Most
notably, it signals an end to the successful
partnership of McCollum and Lillard,
who were perennial playoff contenders
and disruptors throughout their eight full
seasons together.
In a letter to The Players Tribune,
McCollum described what it was like to
receive news of the trade, and shared
several memories from his time with the
organization.
“This connection we have runs so
deep,” McCollum wrote. “It’s more than
words. It’s more than the W’s … For me,
it’s nine years of laughter and pain and
heartbreak and joy and spiritual growth.
It’s everything.”
Lillard also released a statement on
social media wishing McCollum well as a
new member of the New Orleans Pelicans.
“We knew this day would come but it
doesn’t make it any easier,” Lillard said.
“Hurt my heart to know (everything)
won’t be the same but the love gone
always remain C! You know what time it is
with me always. All the best going forward
my brother.”
Less than a week prior to trading
McCollum, the Blazers traded away
forwards Norman Powell and Robert Covington to the Los Angeles Clippers.
The deal netted them three role players
and a second round draft pick, while
also allowing them to continue the
development of their young players.
According to NBA insider Adrian
Wojnarowski, in an interview with ESPN,
these moves were primarily designed to
give Portland more cap space to trade
with or sign free agents over the summer.
Just by dealing McCollum and Powell,
the Blazers erased more than 140 million
in future salary obligations, leaving
them with plenty of roster space moving
forward.
In a press conference on Feb. 10,
General Manager Joe Cronin doubled
down on the trades, saying “we have
numerous ways to acquire high level
talent.” Cronin made it clear that
he intends to make good use of the
newfound financial flexibility as soon
as the offseason begins, where the team
will likely pursue high profile free agent
players.
Currently, the team is 27-45, 12th in
the Western Conference. Injuries to point
guard Anfernee Simons and center Jusuf
Nurkić — who were leading the team in
scoring with Lillard out — have kept the
team’s tank going, of which the ultimate
goal is a coveted top draft pick in June. It
remains to be seen what moves the team
will make in the offseason, but they seem
intent on surrounding Lillard with the
talent to compete for a championship.FIFA bars Russia of international
play as war on Ukraine continues
By NATHAN OAKLEY
VLADIMIR PUTIN’S u n i l a t e r a l
invasion of Ukraine has
resulted in dire repercussions
for Russians, Ukrainians and the
world alike. Western governments
have largely resorted to canceling and
boycotting random Russian economic
and cultural icons in response. One
such sector facing stiff penalties is
Russia’s national football teams and
leagues, which have been indefinitely
suspended from FIFA (Federation
Internationale de Football
Association) and UEFA (Union of
European Football Associations)
competitions.
FIFA announced at the end of
February that Russian national teams
have been barred from competing in
famed competitions such as the FIFA
World Cup, scheduled to be played
this fall in Qatar. It is one of the first
times FIFA has banned a national
team for political reasons. Usually,
FIFA sanctions teams for sporting
reasons, such as cheating, or specific
individuals that were already under
investigation for sporting or financial
violations. Russia hosted the previous
World Cup tournament in 2018,
where its national team bowed out
with a respectable quarter final finish. It was Russia’s best World Cup finish
since the dissolution of the Soviet
Union in 1991.
Following their decision to
suspend Russian teams, FIFA and
UEFA released a joint statement to
the public.
“Football is fully united here and
in full solidarity with all the people
affected in Ukraine,” the statement
reads. “Both Presidents (of UEFA
and FIFA) hope that the situation in
Ukraine will improve significantly
and rapidly so that football can
again be a vector for unity and peace
amongst people.”
The initial pressure for an outright
ban of Russia came from football
officials in Poland, Sweden and the
Czech Republic, whose national
teams faced the prospect of playing
against Russia during the World Cup
playoff in March. Officials in the
United States, France and England
supported the boycott, refusing to
play Russian teams until further
notice. The indefinite ban on Russia
extends to its club teams, meaning
that Spartak Moscow, Russia’s
last remaining representative in a
European competition, will no longer
be able to compete in its Europa
League knockout game against
Germany’s RB Leipzig.UEFA went a step further. It
announced that it had ended a
sponsorship agreement with the
Russian energy giant Gazprom. The
deal was worth a reported $50 million
a year to European football.
The Russian Football Union
(RFU) called the ban discriminatory
and vowed legal action.
“Such actions split the
international sports community,
which has always adhered to the
principles of equality, mutual respect
and independence from politics,”
the RFU said. “We reserve the
right to challenge the decision of
FIFA and UEFA in accordance with
international sports law.”
Critics point to the hypocrisy of
FIFA in its move to ban a country
for political reasons. Saudi Arabia, a
country that has waged a systematic
campaign of violence against civilians
in Yemen for years, just qualified for
the World Cup without repercussions
and was even celebrated by FIFA.
The United States, a country that has
unilaterally invaded several countries
in recent decades, has long competed
in FIFA competitions without issue.
Despite the penalties Russian
teams face, many Ukrainian players
and coaches are still stranded in cities
such as Donetsk, Kyiv and Kharkiv.
Some prominent Ukrainian athletes
have even taken up arms to defend
Ukraine. Yuriy Vernydub, one of the
most famed and successful Ukrainian
football managers, returned to defend
his hometown.
“When I make a decision, I will not
change it,” Vernydub said to the BBC.
“I’m not very far from the conflict.
The toughest battles are probably 120
km away from our location. But I’ve
made my decision, so it’s okay. I’m
not afraid.”
The 2022 FIFA World Cup will be
played in Qatar this fall. So long as
the war in Ukraine rages on, players
from Russia and Ukraine will face
unnecessary barriers to competition.
FIFA’s move to ban Russia sets a new
precedent on how political actions
can affect international sports.
Seth Orensky hopes to build on the current structure of LC’s athletic communications. Orensky documents LC baseball from the press box at Huston Sports Complex.
SOFIA REEVES/THE PIONEER LOG
FAITH GALLEGOS/THE PIONEER LOG PHOTO COURTESY OF SETH ORENSKY PHOTO COURTESY OF SETH ORENSKYBy FRANKIE SPURBECK
THE NEWEST student union is
penetrating campus life down
to its core.
The Bottom Student Union, or
SUB, has formed to promote equality
and sexual liberation. In its own words,
SUB is “dedicated to destigmatizing
bottoming by providing education and
resources surrounding bottoming.
We strive to build an inclusive
community for bottoms of all races,
genders, sexualities and abilities
across campus.” Club president,
Andreas Vega ’23 and vice president
Moss Stern ’24 shared what SUB has
planned for this semester.
The organization initially used
the acronym BSU, but was met with
heavy resistance from the Black
Student Union, who has been using
the acronym since 1990.
According to Vega, SUB’s top
priority is recruitment. An official poll
conducted by Lewis & Clark found that
nearly 85% of LC students identify
as bottoms, and there are suspicions
that the other 15% are liars.
If the statistic is accurate, tops
could be described as a metaphorical
unicorn. They might in fact exist, but no one is sure where to find them.
At the moment, the club has two
members on their leadership board,
and its weekly bottom support group
meetings have approximately five
to 10 attendees. Vega is primarily
recruiting via posters, which he
has posted around campus. They
especially targets areas where SOAN
majors congregate.
Stern takes a more aggressive
approach to recruitment.
“Everytime I see a freshman with
a hickey, I walk up to them and ask if
they wanna join SUB,” Stern said. “So
far, I’ve been mocked pretty viciously,
but that just proves exactly why we
need a group like SUB.”
Once SUB has increased their
visibility on campus, they hope to host
a meet and greet event. Vega explained
that “Being a bottom can be such an
isolating experience, and knowing
you’re not alone means a lot.”
Casey Chime ’24, a self-identified
top, overheard this portion of the
interview. Afterwards, she approached
me and gave her opinion on the
situation.
“This campus is chock-full of
bottoms,” Chime said. “They’re
literally not a minority. I don’t understand why they need a union.”
What Chime fails to recognize,
according to Vega, is the decades of
oppression that bottoms have faced.
"That is a very typical response
we encounter from tops,” Vega said.
“The SUB traces its roots directly to
Marxism and the need for the masses
to rally against the power of the elite,
those with decision-making power."
For many bottom rights activists,
bottoming itself is considered a form
of praxis.
A longer term goal of SUB is
developing and implementing bottom
sensitivity training for professors. Vega
and Stern have observed that many
professors are casually anti-bottom
in their lectures or the reading they
assign. Vega and Stern believe that this
attitude comes not from hate or spite,
but ignorance, which can be addressed
through education. When I inquired
further on what anti-bottomphobic
training would look like, leadership
admitted they did not have any
concrete ideas yet, but stated that they
“had started the Google doc.”
Starting a new club is not all fun
and games. Controversy has already
threatened to split the club in half.
At the first meeting of the union’s support group, an attendee raised
the question of who exactly the
club is for. In the traditional sense,
bottoming refers to gay men who
recieve anal penetration. Should the
club be limited exclusively to them?
Or should the club take a broader
approach, and allow in anyone who
is more submissive in bed, or who,
as Vega said “likes things put in their
holes?”
On this issue, Vega stated
“bottoming is specific to anal sex,
and it’s kinda appropriative for other
people — people who do sex other
than anal — to use the term. This
is a bottom student union, not a
submissive student union. That would
be a great thing to have on campus,
but we shouldn’t conflate the two.”
Stern took the opposite position.
“I’m a big-tent bottom,” Stern
said. “Bottoming is about more than
what is in your rectum. It is just as
much about what is outside of you
than what is inside. It’s a culture. We
all face the same discrimination, and
we would all benefit from helping
each other. I see no reason this club
needs to limit its membership.”
I asked how the club planned on
addressing this difference in opinion. Was a schism possible? Should the
campus prepare for a second Bottom
Student Union? The consensus among
leaders was no, there would not be a
second branch.
“It’s honestly a miracle we were
able to start a club by ourselves at all,”
Vega stated.
“We’re bottoms,” Stern agreed.
“We don’t get stuff done.”
/gid00483/gid00484FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2022
The Backdoor is a work of humor and fiction
By GRETA BURTON
THE GAME of BINGO has
been at the forefront of
entertainment for centuries.
Dating back to the Romans, this
riveting spectacle attracts people
of all kinds, young and old, rich
and poor, who seek the thrill of
that moment when life experience
mingles with chance.
Gladiators who were crowned
victorious brought glory to their
families, as encapsulated by the
Roman phrase: VINCIT QUI BINGO
VINCIT (one conquers (all) who
conquers BINGO).
Over several decades, various
members of the Lewis & Clark
administration have stealthily
worked to keep this intoxicating
spectacle far from campus, but at
long last, we at the Backdoor have
brought this recreational favorite to
Palatine Hill.
The rules are simple: Cross off
any squares you have completed.
Cross out an entire line of squares,
and you win. For continuing
students, check off what you have
accomplished thus far, and discover
what college experiences await you
at this illustrious institution. For
graduating students, take this as
an opportunity to reminisce before
facing the impending doom of post-
graduate life.
Any winning cards should email
photographic proof of their claims to
vpsl@lclark.edu for a chance to win
a piece of the now defunct TriMet
bus stop.
A traditional BINGO card is a
5x5, for each letter in the name of
the game. However, due to bugetary
limitations, we were only able to
print a 4x4. To accommodate this
difference, we tried to shorten it to
BING, however, we received a vague
and meandering cease and desist
order riddled with advertisements
from the search engine of the same
name. Thus, we opted for BONG to
avoid any copyright infringement.
From those of us at the Backdoor,
we hope this activity brings the
LC community together. Whether
playing with old friends or new, we
encourage you to pass the bong.BINGO gets fresh start, rebranded as BONG
Most competitive game on campus since days of "pin the tail on the institution president"
Student union demands bottom-up reform on campus
Co-founders discuss details of sexual liberation, school politics after tension within new organization
GRETA BURTON / THE PIONEER LOGGRETA BURTON / THE PIONEER LOG