Lewis & Clark College

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

Volume 102, No. 4

Lewis & Clark College Student Newspaper

Pioneer Log Staff

2024-03-15

text/pdf

Text; Newspaper

For questions about rights statements, or access to the original document please contact Lewis & Clark College Special Collections and Archives http://specialcollections.lclark.edu

Lewis & Clark College: Pioneer Log / Mossy Log

Vol. 102 No. 4 FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2024 www.piolog.com
The Mossy Pod
Tune in for The Mossy Pod’s most
recent episode. Host Isaac Babus
interviews the International Public
Debate Association captain.OPINION
Group projects
Group projects are inefficient,
unnecessarily chaotic and diffuclt to
navigate.
PAGE 5FEATURES
PDX Hawaiian eats
In honor of AAPI Heritage month, we
sought out some of the best Hawaiian
food in Portland.
PAGE 7ARTS
Ceramics changes
Nicole Seisler, brings a conceptual,
unconventional approach to the
ceramics department.
PAGE 9SPORTS
Home turf repairs
Huston sports complex is renewed after
long-awaited renovations to kick off the
baseball and softball season.
PAGE 10
Residents face 18% price change, company defends sustainability goals, Lewis & Clark describes impactMENA Symposium engages variety of topics
Locals react to Portland General Electric’s historic rate increaseBy LAUREN EVANS
THE 10 th ANNUAL Middle East &
North Africa (MENA) Symposium
took place between Feb. 27-29. This
year’s theme of Language and Politics was
explored through a variety of wonderful
events that underscored the region’s
linguistic and ideological diversity.
The first event of the symposium
was a Daf workshop hosted by Yasamin Mehdian, a Portland local. Mehdain’s
experience with playing Daf, a Persian
drum, started when she was nine years
old and she has been playing ever since.
Having immigrated from Tehran,
Iran to Portland in 2015, Mehdian
shared that practicing and listening
to traditional Iranian music is one
of the most important ways she has
found to help her stay connected with
her culture.
Mehdian’s dynamic workshop
started with listening to Daf music,
then moved into a brief history of the
ancient instrument and the ways in
which it has been preserved through the
centuries. The workshop culminated in
attendees learning how to play the Daf
themselves. Although Mehdian noted
that it is difficult to find traditional
Iranian music played live in Portland,
she is always on the lookout for folks
interested in sharing this beautiful
music. You can find her on Instagram @
Yasamin_Mehdian.
The first day of events concluded
with the first of this year’s two
impressive keynote speakers. Oregon
State University’s Professor of French
and Francophone Studies Nabil
Boudraa gave a presentation titled
“Navigating the Linguistic Mosaic in
Algeria: Unraveling the Complexities
and Paradoxes of Multilingualism,”
which discussed the problems and
paradoxes of multilingualism in Algeria. Boudraa enlightened the students in
attendance with a historical overview
explaining how Algeria became the
multilingual country it is today before
offering more modern insights.
Specifically, Boudraa spoke about
how, in the past few years, Algerians
have begun to codify Tamazight, Derja
and Kabyle – the dominant colloquial
languages in Algeria. This new
movement comes after the long struggle
of Algerian writers feeling unable to
truly express themselves in their work.
This was summed up in Dr.
Boudraa’s presentation with a quote
from the late Algerian writer and poet
Jean Amrouche: “I write in French but I
can only cry in Kabyle.”
Day two of the MENA Symposium
was another full day of events. The
afternoon started off with an engaging
student research panel in which four
students presented papers on topics
ranging from queer MENA identities to
issues of aestheticization. Afterwards,
there was a catered welcome dinner.
The evening’s delicious food was
coupled with tables for attendees to
learn how to write their names in Arabic
and a table for people to pick out and
receive henna designs.
When asked about her favorite part
of this year’s symposium, co-chair Jenna
Woodring ’25 said that the welcome
dinner was at the top of her list.
“Teaching people Arabic calligraphy
was very rewarding! It was fun to watch
people write in Arabic and begin to see
it in a different light – besides looking
beautiful, it’s also quite the skill. The
learning that takes place throughout
the entire symposium brings together
a really engaged community,” she said.
The MENA Symposium’s third
and final day included another
student panel, this time covering
media portrayals of MENA topics.
Following the discussion, Fardosa
Yusuf ’26 presented a deeply moving
Palestinian poem before sharing
some of her own work.
The final event of the symposium
was the second keynote speaker, who
was also part of the LC community, Associate Professor at the Law School
Tabrez Ebrahim. His presentation,
“Islamic Theory of Intellectual Property
Law,” focused on Islamic law and the
ways in which it interprets intellectual
property law. He has a forthcoming
publication of work under the same
title to be printed in “IP Theory,” an
intellectual property law journal.
During his presentation Ebrahim
argued that, in some ways, the
reformation of the Western intellectual
property legal systems could benefit
from some of the principles provided by
Islamic Law.
The two student co-chairs for the
MENA Symposium were Jana Qasem
’26 and Nadav Ben-David ’25. Ben-David
shared his reflections on the experience
as part of a long-term planning process.
“I thoroughly enjoyed assuming
a leadership role on campus and contributing to the creation of
something impactful,” Ben-David
said. “The process involved extensive
time and planning, starting last year,
gradually fleshing out the events, our
team, and the overall concept.”
He also spoke to the aspects of both
the symposium events and the ongoing
work prior that stuck with him the most.
“Perhaps the highlight for me was
the opportunity to engage in dialogue
and share meals with our keynote
speakers, as well as the satisfaction of
bringing something new into existence,”
Ben-David said.
While the MENA Symposium has
already finished, anyone wanting to
assist in organizing, participating in or
attending next year’s events should keep
their eye on the horizon — this rapidly
growing symposium is always wlooking
for folks to engage with their events.
By EMMA AMBROZIAK
ON JAN. 1, residents in the
Portland Metropolitan Area
faced a historic increase of 18%
in the electricity rate. An increase of this
size has not occurred in twenty years,
and for individuals with low or fixed
incomes, the impact is significant.
Portland General Electric (PGE)
holds a monopoly on the Portland
Metropolitan Area, as well as many
other parts of Oregon. This is not to
be confused with Pacific Gas & Electric
or PG&E. Nearly half of the state’s
population lives within PGE’s service
area. Most other parts of Oregon are
covered by Pacific Power.
The historic increase, introduced
in February of last year, began to
appear in residential electricity bills in
early January and has been met with resistance and public outcry. Many
residents are experiencing financial
hardship amidst rising energy prices
and expressed concern about future
rate hikes. Several households have
cut back their energy consumption yet
are still facing noticeably high bills.
Between the numerous power outages
that resulted from January’s prolonged
ice storm, the cost of heating during
the winter months and the 18% price
change, residential customers have
struggled to make sense of alarmingly
high bills.
On Feb. 29, PGE proposed another
rate increase of 7.4% for residential
customers, which, if approved, would
go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
Chris Boone, a local carpenter
who has lived in Portland on and off
since 2012, took to public platforms in
mid-January to express his discontent with the rate increase. Within only a
few days of voicing his concerns, he
found that many other Portlanders
were facing much higher bills than
anticipated and were similarly
struggling to afford the rate increase.
Several individuals were paying
hundreds of dollars more than they
had in the past, and others were even
forgoing food and transportation
costs in an attempt to pay their newly
increased energy bills.
“I did my research, I looked into
it, and I found numbers,” said Boone.
“Someone had to do something about it.”
Boone shared that he paid $75 more
for an 80-square-foot apartment this
January than he did for a 180+ square-
foot apartment the January prior.
After calculating the amount of energy
used each year, Boone found that he
was being charged approximately 30% more in 2024 than in 2023 per
kilowatt-hour (kWh).
“What I noticed was that the
people in the smallest homes were
facing the largest increases, and the
people in the larger homes were not,”
said Boone. “A woman reached out to
me, a single mom with three kids, and
she doesn’t know what to do. She’s on
a fixed income.”
He organized a group on Nextdoor,
an app for neighbors to communicate,
and started talking to fellow Portlanders
to gather information. We The People,
formerly PGE Protesters, serves as a
platform for the Portland community
to talk transparently about the rate
hikes, the PGE corporation, its impact
on residents and possible steps forward.
Several members of the group reached
out to Boone and relayed their stories.
He learned that, like him, they were paying 25-35% more this January than
the year before.
Boone organized a public meeting on
Nextdoor, in response to growing concerns
about PGE accountability and affordability.
The post encouraged attendees to bring
copies of their excessive bills in hopes of
compiling information and presenting
findings to the Oregon Public Utility
Commission (OPUC). The event, called
PGE/PUC Grievances Meet and Mingle,
also proposed asking the legislature to
investigate OPUC’s justification of granting
PGE’s rate increase approval.
Several comments expressed
concern over PGE’s profits from the rate
increase. According to Simply Wall St.,
PGE CEO Maria Pope receives $6.29M
annually, made up of 16.9==% salary
and 83.1% bonuses.
“CLEAN” continued on page 3.
LAUREN EVANS/THE MOSSY LOG
Workshop invites students to learn how to write their names in arabic calligraphy.
LAUREN EVANS/THE MOSSY LOG
Two students pose with Dafs, which are Persion Drums, at MENA symposium.Theme of Language & Politics speaks to music, multilingualism, Islamic law, literature, culture
LAUREN EVANS/THE MOSSY LOG
Alphabetic characters are forms of art.EMMA FORD/THE MOSSY LOGFRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2024
NEWS 2
By FIONA EILERS
AFTER OVER A year of bargaining,
the Portland Community
College Federation of Classified
Employees (PCCFCE) will present their
strike pledge to Portland Community
College’s (PCC) board of directors
on March 21. Meryl DePasquale, the
vice president of communications for
PCCFCE, provided some insight on the
union’s decision to initiate a strike pledge.
“Our contract expired in July.
We were seeing no progress at the
bargaining table, and felt like we needed
to do something to make management
take us seriously,” she said.
Classified employees at PCC are
employed in a wide range of non-educator
jobs, such as groundskeeping, IT support
and custodianship. There are almost
700 classified employees represented
by PCCFCE. All classified employees
are part of the same bargaining unit,
typically renegotiating their contract
with the PCC administration every four
years. Negotiations set the terms of work
conditions for classified employees,
including pay and benefits.
“We began bargaining the previous
February. Ideally, we would have
reached an agreement close to the
same time that old contract expired. So
to be this long with an expired contract
is unusual,” DePasquale said.
The previous contract was negotiated
to last through 2023. DePasquale
provided some further insight into the
concerns of classified employees.
“We had a four-year contract last
time that was agreed in 2019, before
the pandemic, and all the changes
happened with the economy, including
inflation. So our employees are feeling
really squeezed right now because
their wages have not kept pace with
inflation,” she said.
Complaints about wages extend
to issues outside of inflation. The
Oregon Paid Family Medical Leave
Act went into effect September 2023.
The law is funded by a 1% tax on
payroll, with 60% of the tax paid by
the employee and 40% paid by the
employer. PCC has applied this .6%
tax on all employee paychecks since
Sept. 15.“We also have a situation where a
lot of the rising health care costs are
being passed down to employees, and
our benefits are not going as far as they
used to. So our paychecks are actually
lower now than they have been in the
past,” DePasquale said.
Many classified employees also
take issue with many of their current
working conditions.
“We’re extremely short staffed.
And so a lot of classified employees
are doing the work of two or three
or four other employees,” she said.
“That is incredibly stressful, so we
have a lot of burnout in our workforce
as well.”
Under Oregon law, mediation
can be initiated if the parties do not
reach agreement after the initial
150 calendar days of bargaining.
After 15 days of mediation and a 30
day bargaining period, unions may
strike as long as they give 10 days
of notice. Mediation between the
PCC administration and PCCFCE is
expected to begin on March 19.
DePasquale spoke about the role
of the strike pledge in the mediation
process, saying that it helps the union.
“We saw what happened with our
sibling union, the FFAP. Having a
credible strike threat and having their
union be ready to strike I think forced
management to take them more
seriously at the bargaining table and
in that mediation process,” she said.
The Federation of Faculty and
Academic Professionals (FFAP),
PCC’s union for educators, reached
a tentative agreement for a four year
contract this January.
PCCFCE hopes to work out the
contract during the mediation process.
“We’re still cautiously optimistic that
we can get this worked out; classified
employees deserve a fair contract. And we
are hoping that is something that we can
arrive at. But if management won’t hear
us, if they won’t take us seriously, then we
will be forced to go on strike for a living
wage,” DePasquale said.
A strike by classified employees
could pressure management into
hearing their concerns.
“Basically, the college wouldn’t be
running. If we were on strike, nobody would have unlocked the doors in the
morning, nobody would have opened
the parking lot so people could drive
into the campus. It would be very
hard to imagine business as usual
continuing,” she said.
DePasquale gave information on how
to support PCCFCE’s efforts, explaining
that there will be an event on March 21
before the strike pledge is presented.
“It’s during PCC’s board meeting.
We’re going to be doing a practice
picket starting at 4:30. Then we’ll all
grab some food, and then we’ll go into
the board meeting, which will be 6:30
to 9. If people are really interested,
they could come to the PCC Sylvania
campus and join us in solidarity
at that event. As we prepare more
for strike, I think that there will be other opportunities for people to get
involved,” she said.
DePasquale stated the importance
of community support to PCCFCE.
“I think it’s easy for employees, when
they see the way management is treating
us, to feel alone and powerless. The
support that we have gotten from students
when we were doing these direct actions
— from the college community, from the
Oregon labor community, from our sibling
union and other folks at the college — has
been so wonderful and has really made us
feel connected. We’re hopeful that when
we stand up for our rights, people will hear
our voices,” she said.
PCC Administration declined requests
for an interview, but provided a statement
in an email sent by James Hill, Director of
Public Relations.“We are committed to staying
at the bargaining table with the
Federation of Classified Employees
(FCE). PCC has and will continue to
bargain in good faith and to make
every reasonable effort to reach an
agreement,” Hill said. “We recognize
that inflation and an increased cost
of living have impacted many people,
including the Classified staff, and
we are prepared to address these
concerns while also upholding our
fiscal responsibility as a public
institution that receives more
than 60% of our revenue through
government funds.”
Hill also specified that the
administration had reached a contract
agreement in January with the FFAP
union which was ratified in February.Portland Community College staff plan strike
U.S. ambassador shares path to success in address
By WILL TRUNZO
THE LATEST address in
the Edward J. Perkins
Distinguished Speaker Series
at Lewis & Clark hosted Ambassador
Carmen Cantor, the Assistant Secretary
of the Interior for Insular and
International Affairs. While in
Portland, she spoke at both the
undergraduate and law campuses on
topics related to career development
and her work in the Department of
the Interior.
Ambassador Cantor had much to say
in her addresses, recounting her career
path from her education in her native
Puerto Rico to her time working in the
United States federal government.
She began working out of college
as a night shift clerk for the United
States Postal Service, and from there
decided to enter the civil service
working for the State Department
under Former Secretary of State
Colin Powell.
Taking every opportunity she
could to grow her skills, Cantor
worked through a litany of additional
federal jobs, gradually rising through
the ranks of management. Some of
these included a director position at
the Foreign Agricultural Service and
Executive Director of the Bureau
of Counterterrorism before she
returned to the State Department as
Deputy Director.
From there, it was not an easy
path to her ambassadorship. Cantor
was and still is a member of the Civil
Service, whereas most of the State
Department is made up of Foreign
Service personnel. These are two career tracks within the federal
government, with the foreign service
usually assigned overseas and the
civil service working domestically.
The number of Civil Service members
appointed to ambassador positions is
vanishingly small, about one or two a
year by most estimates.
Despite these odds, Cantor was
selected for the position and became
the U.S. Ambassador to Micronesia,
where she arrived exactly one day
before the nation closed its borders
due to COVID in 2020. During her
time in Micronesia, Cantor’s work
centered on womens’ rights.
“I also focused on empowering
women and young girls,” said Cantor.
“At the time I went to Micronesia in
early 2020, the country was one of
the two countries in the world with
no women in the legislature at all.”
Being a woman in a position of
leadership herself, she fought to help
young women see their potential for
making great contributions to society.
“We did a couple of things, for
example, we helped reestablish Girl
Scouts in Micronesia,” Cantor said.
“We held workshops and panels that
talked about economic empowerment
of women. We helped raise awareness
about gender based violence.”
While in Micronesia, Cantor also
spearheaded COVID-19 vaccination
efforts, working directly with Dr.
Anthony Fauci, then-Chief Medical
Advisor to the President of the U.S., to
provide resources to a population that
was initially somewhat skeptical about
accepting vaccines from the U.S.
In her current position at the
Department of the Interior, Cantor is continuing to work with many
Pacific Island nations and territories
to further improve relations and
cooperation. Cantor and her office
negotiate and work with US Pacific
territories like Guam and island
nations such as Palau, Micronesia
and the Marshall Islands.
Due to the effects of World War
II, many of the nations Cantor works
with a have unique status with the
U.S. In these countries, citizens are
able to travel between the US and their
countries, without a visa, meanwhile
the U.S. provides military support to
these nations.
Ambassador Cantor reflected
on what it meant to her to work in
the federal government. With an
unconventional career path, she
made an intentional decision to
dedicate herself to public service.
“I saw my values aligning with
the work that I was doing, and then
I started thinking, ‘What else can I
do?’ I mean, I’m enjoying what I’m
doing here and I know I can make a
difference,” Cantor said.
This idea of finding a career
your values align with was present
throughout her advice, as was the idea
that you should always be seeking to
better yourself and your abilities.
Cantor gave some advice to anyone
seeking a career in government service,
saying that patience is key.
“Be very patient. Number one, to
be patient and to have an open mind,”
Cantor said, “because the process is
not simple. It’s not like you have one
interview and you’re done … Before
you know it, a year and a half went
by. So patience is very important.”COURTESY OF PORTLAND COMMUNITY COLLEGE
COURTESY OF FACEBOOKPCC classified employees gear up amid growing concerns over work conditions, taxing of paychecks
Carmen Cantor recounts professional growth , promotes womens’ rights, talks about work in Micronesia
Portland Community College has several campuses across the city, the Sylvania campus being the closest to Lewis & Clark.
Cantor serves in the Department of the Interior for Insular and International Affairs.
FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2024
NEWS 3
Organizer outlines
intent for protest Clean energy costs raise questions
about affordability, accountability
Continued from page 1.
“There were several hundred
interested, but it ended up being eight of
us who sat down and spoke about things,”
Boone said. “The primary intent of the
public meeting was to get public opinion
on next steps … we all agreed we need to
find a way to make a change.”
A 2022 Report to the Oregon
Legislature describes OPUC as an
“agency led by a full-time, three-member
Commission appointed by the Governor
and confirmed by the Senate,” whose
mission is to “ensure that Oregon utility
customers have access to safe, reliable,
and high-quality utility services at just
and reasonable rates.” All PGE rate
adjustments must be evaluated and
approved by OPUC.
Currently, Commissioner Megan
Decker, Commissioner Letha Tawney
and Commissioner Les Perkins serve
as co-chairs. Prior Commissioner Mark
Thompson, whose term was set to
end in November of 2023, resigned in
September, and it was not until Feb. 15
that OPUC announced in a media release
that Les Perkins would fill the opening.
For four and a half months, there
were only two commissioners handling
proceedings.
On Oct. 31, a media release announced
the coming changes.
“The Oregon Public Utility
Commission (PUC) recently approved
an increase in rates for Portland General
Electric (PGE) customers to be effective
January 1, 2024,” the release said. The
statement estimated residential customer
rates to increase by approximately 17%.
Boone noted that both
commissioners who signed the measure
in October were Democrats.
“The PUC is supposed to be the
public voice,” said Boone. “We need
everyone’s voices.”
Shortly after the public meeting,
Boone started a petition on change.org.
Since he started the petition on Feb. 22, it
has gathered more than 3,500 signatures.
“We need 10,000 signatures to bring it
to legislature and something like 50,000
to bring it to Congress,” said Boone. “The
first thing to do right now is sign the
petition so we can get a spot at the table.”
Boone urges residents to sign the
petition and to submit public comments
expressing frustration with the proposed
rate increase. He identified Docket
ue416, which resulted in this year’s
18% increase, and Docket ue435, which
recently proposed a 7.4% increase for
2025, as public sources of information
and avenues to call for change. Both can
be found on oregon.gov.
“The more we fill up their inbox, the
more they’ll listen to us,” said Boone.
Though Docket ue435 was only
released on Feb. 29, over 180 comments
have already been submitted, expressing
a variety of opinions. Public commenters
expressed concern about increased costs
of living exacerbating the housing crisis
and hampering post-pandemic recovery,
as well as the role of individual versus
corporate financial responsibility in the
transition to clean energy. They also
questioned whether the budget estimates
for PGE’s proposed infrastructure repairs
were accurate and whether the profits
were being funneled to corporate leaders
and shareholders.
“What’s most relevant right now is
that we can’t afford this,” Boone said.
He also emphasized the
importance of public discourse
and initiative in ensuring fair and
accountable energy practices. His
leadership has prompted dozens of
conversations, involved thousands
of Portland residents in responding
to the rate increase and been shared
across several news outlets.
“This is all volunteer work,” said
Boone. “At the end of the day, it only takes
one person.”
Potential overbilling is another public
concern. Many PGE customers have
questioned their dashboards, which
showed unusually high energy usage
during days-long power outages two
months ago. Others have seen their bills
double or nearly triple. PGE Principal
Communications Consultant Allison
Dobscha explained the company’s
reasoning behind the rate increases and
potential discrepancies.“The exact amount customer bills
increased differs based on customer type
(e.g., residential vs. small business vs.
industrial), energy usage or enrollment
in one of our energy saving programs,”
she said via email. “We understand there
can be confusion around bills given the
price changes, new bill format and how
charges were pro-rated given the price
shift in the midst of a billing cycle for
some customers.”
She also noted the impact of individual
home energy usage.
“Based on your home energy system,
some people tend to see higher bills in the
winter if they use electric heating, while
other customers will see higher bills in the
summer from using AC. Customer bills
will always depend on their home energy
usage,” she said.
Another source of confusion and
dissatisfaction among PGE customers
has been the seemingly disproportionate
impact of these increases on residential
customers rather than commercial or
industrial customers. A news release
from Dec. 28, 2023 stated that residential
customers could anticipate an 18%
increase on Jan. 1, while commercial
customers could expect a 14.4% increase
and industrial customers could expect a
16% increase.
“Smaller customers usually pay
higher electricity prices than industrial
customers because it costs more to
distribute electricity to them. Industrial
customers use more electricity and can
receive it at higher voltages, so supplying
them is more efficient on a per kWh basis,”
said Dobscha. “A higher proportion of
the investments that have been made
since our last General Rate Case support
our residential customer’s needs, such
as investments in transmission and
distribution infrastructure, resiliency
measures and grid modernization.”
Dobscha also described PGE’s goals
regarding renewable energy, saying
that the company intends to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions in accordance
with the 2021 Oregon Climate Pledge.
“Oregon has some of the most
ambitious clean energy targets in the
nation. House Bill 2021 — legislation
that PGE supported and helped develop
— mandates that investor-owned utilities
achieve an 80% reduction in greenhouse
gas emissions from power served to
Oregon retail customers by 2030, a 90%
reduction by 2035, and zero emissions
by 2040. PGE was also the first North
American utility company to join the
Climate Pledge in 2021, agreeing to meet
the goals of the UN Paris Agreement 10
years early and achieve net zero carbon
emissions by 2040,” she said.
She noted that PGE has already made
considerable strides towards this goal.
“We are well on this path, having
already achieved a 25% reduction in
emissions,” Dobscha said. “Our 2023
combined Clean Energy Plan & Integrated
Resource Plan describes our strategy
moving forward to decarbonize while
maintaining reliability and affordability.
PGE’s approach includes procuring
significant quantities of renewable
energy resources (like wind and solar)
as well as capacity (resources that can
store energy, like batteries), investing in
transmission solutions that enable access
to broader resource diversity, supporting
the development of community-based
renewable energy resources, and
encouraging customer participation in
programs that help shift or optimize
energy delivery.”
PGE announced that in the
upcoming year it plans to open a new
wind farm in Montana. They also will
be adding 475 megawatts of battery
storage, which allows them to optimize
power from renewable energy resources
and partnering with Public Utility
Districts in Washington to ensure
reliable hydropower.
In a world where clean energy
solutions are becoming increasingly
prioritized, it is still difficult to know the
extent to which clean energy necessitates
rising energy prices for residents. As
countries around the world navigate
the shift towards renewable energy in
different ways, businesses and residents
experience the challenges of ensuring
sustainability in different ways. PGE
emphasized that the financial pressure of
increased rates would be short-term.“The clean energy transition will exert
short-term pressure on rates, but as we
move away from fossil fuels, which are
subject to global and regional pricing and
supply effects, we are moving toward
resources that have more controllable
prices,” Dobscha said. “Electrification
can also save customers money as they
transition from fossil fuels to lower-cost
electricity to power their vehicles and heat
their homes. PGE’s primary purpose — and
our central challenge — is to decarbonize
Oregon’s power grid while maintaining
reliability and affordability. We work
hard to keep the cost of electricity as low
as possible while delivering increasingly
clean energy to customers.”
Lewis & Clark Director of
Sustainability Amy Dvorak, spoke to the
impact of this year’s rate increase on the
school’s budget and sustainability efforts.
“We get rate increases for
electricity, natural gas, water, garbage,
housekeeping, dining, like everything
that we’re paying for generally
increases in rates every year,” Dvorak
said. “So it’s not uncommon for us to
be dealing with different rate increases
… On the residential side, it might
be more shocking, but for us, it’s not
(particularly surprising).”
Dvorak emphasized the difference
between the energy staff and the
sustainability staff.
“Energy staff is outside of the
sustainability budget,” she said. “Our
utilities are all priced through facilities.
So gas and water and all that stuff goes
through them … But it’s all part of common
services, which is coming from tuition.”
She connected rising costs and the
topic of energy usage to her work within
the Office of Sustainability, referencing
a recently started program called the
Energy Efficiency Revolving Fund.
“We’re trying to reduce our energy
use below our baseline average over six
years,” she said. “And so whatever we
reduce and are able to save, we’re gonna
keep those savings to invest into more
energy efficiency.”
She noted that the Office of
Sustainability is also involved with several
other programs through the government,
such as the Portland Clean Energy
Community Benefits Fund and a program
through the Energy Trust of Oregon
called Strategic Energy Management.
“The idea is you do this kind of holistic
energy program that includes occupant
engagement and behavior change,
but also changing our equipment and
tracking our energy use really closely so
that we can control our energy use over
time,” she said. “Which will help us with
some of these changes in rates.”
Dvorak shared that the office receives
funding through federal money, state
money and local money to do energy
efficiency work.
“There’s all this money out there.
There’s state legislation coming, and
then also rate increases, so it all adds
up to do the things now,” she said. “I
do feel like there are resources out
there for people to address this ...
Now’s the time.”
She emphasized that there are
currently several jobs and resources
available in this field to help fund
clean energy.
“It’s cheaper to do it now than it is to
do it in five years,” said Dvorak.
The Climate Accord, while ambitious,
is necessary for the preservation of
a sustainable planet. While this is
important, so are the financial needs of
customers. Post-pandemic inflation has
no doubt played a role in businesses
raising prices, but not every resident
is able to afford increasingly high
electricity rates, especially when
paying utilities comes at the cost of
food, rent and other monthly bills.
Each home, business and institution
adjusts to rate increases differently,
but the hope within the field of
sustainability seems to be that the
short-term sacrifices will pay off in
the long run.
As utility and electric companies
play an increasingly important role in
the health of our environment, residents
are calling for more transparency and
regulation in hopes of ensuring that
budgets for new infrastructure are being
spent accordingly and corporations are
being held accountable. ROSALIE ZUCKERMANN/THE MOSSY LOGDozens of students line up for protest outside Watzek Library in support of ceasefire.By ELLA DUNN
IF YOU PASSED by Watzek Library
on Friday, March 1, you probably
noticed the large group of people
congregating quietly outside the
entrance of the library. Student
protestors were holding paper signs
demanding a “CEASEFIRE” and to
“FREE PALESTINE.” The student
who organized this silent protest,
Maddie Selby ’25, has organized
protests in the past and wanted to
use their knowledge to create an
accessible on-campus protest.
“I’ve had a lot of people question
why I would do this on a campus
where a lot of people agree with you.
I think people don’t realize that our
campus extends beyond the immediate
community,” said Selby. “We have
Palestinian students here, tours that
go around and students on campus
who want to get resources for future
protests and learn how to contact their
representatives for a ceasefire.”
Selby discussed their idea with
friends before putting it into action
by spreading a graphic around
social media, in addition to printing
physical flyers and placing them on
campus cork boards.
“We were also standing in a
centralized place on the academic
campus, where people were passing
often and had the opportunity to join
us if they wanted to. I think a large
number of the people who did join
did so because they were passing by
between classes,” Selby said.
There has been discourse on campus
since the event about the sensitivity of
the topic of the protest. Many students
have differing opinions on the matter,
and some have claimed that the
demonstration may have been alienating
to Jewish students. Selby kept this in
mind when planning the protest.
“I’m in the process of converting
to Judaism, and many of my Jewish friends wanted to create a space
where they could protest,” Selby
said. “We were very intentional in
the language we used. I was looking
at every sign to make sure nothing
antisemitic occurred, and every time
I have heard somebody state that (the
demonstration) was antisemitic, I
have heard no reason why. They have
not provided evidence for that.”
Selby also kept careful track of
the signs that were made, making
sure that the message of their protest
stayed true to their intentions.
“We included no language that
was specifically anti-Zionism because
that means a lot of different things to
different people; the word itself is
nuanced,” Selby said.
Selby’s main goal was to create an
ideal environment for meeting other
students and community members
who are interested in taking action.
“We now have an email list of over
seventy people who are interested
in action for a ceasefire,” Selby said.
“(The protest) gets people talking
and shows solidarity with Palestinian
students on our campus. (The
actions we intend to take include)
continuing to hold spaces for Jewish
people on campus who may not have
identity in the state of Israel, and
don’t want their identity to be fully
associated with that. It will also be a
continuation of spreading resources
— people have been talking about
holding weekly sit-ins to continue to
show our support.”
Selby has suggestions for members of
the wider community and for the general
public to get involved in the cause.
“Contacting representatives is
first and foremost. Local politics
are incredibly important. When
people have the finances, donating
to reputable Palestinian aid is also
helpful,” said Selby. “Showing
solidarity with people is accessible
and a great show of support.”
Protesters hold signs saying ‘CEASEFIRE NOW,’ and ‘STOP BOMBING GAZA.’ROSALIE ZUCKERMANN/THE MOSSY LOG
By JESSIE SHAW
ON THE MORNING of March
1, I had a midterm in my
State and Local Politics
class, which consisted of
a mixture of multiple
choice and
short answer
questions.
Although I
reviewed the
concepts and the articles
I read for the unit, I only did
minimal studying from Monday
to Wednesday, as I had to focus on
assignments from my other classes.
The night before the midterm, I
stayed up until 2:30 a.m. skimming each
article and writing notes to remember
their key points for the midterm. As
a result, I was very tired and burned
out from the late night studying on
the morning I took the midterm.
Here is my main advice to anyone
having upcoming midterms: do not do
what I did. Although I may have started
studying four days before the exam, the
first three days involved very minimal
studying while 90% of the studying
happened the night before the exam.
Even if you have assignments
that you have to finish sometime
during the week of your midterm, I
strongly suggest that you prioritize
the midterm over other assignments,
unless these assignments are also
major. For instance, if you have a paper
from another that is due the following
Monday while you have midterm at
the end of the week, I recommend
you write little bits of the paper while
simultaneously an equivalent amount
of material for your midterm each day,
spreading out the workload for each.
Personally, I find midterms more
stressful and difficult than finals, since
we are not provided a “midterms week.”
As a result, students can have midterms
on different weeks, they can overlap, or i n
some
cases,
classes
will not
offer a
midterm
at all. In some classes,
the midterms are worth just as much
of your grade as the final exam, which
is the case in my State and Local
Politics class, in which the midterm
and final are each worth 20% of the
overall grade. Because I had classes
to attend and other assignments
to complete during the week, this
gave me much less time to study for
a midterm that would weight my
grade as much as the final exam.
If so many professors place
great importance on the midterms,
I strongly suggest for Lewis & Clark
College to establish a “midterm
week,” where any class that holds
a midterm must have them happen
during a certain week. Furthermore,
LC should also establish at least two
reading days to give students time
to prepare for midterms — basically
an equivalent to finals week. If
establishing a “midterm week” is
not an attainable option, I strongly
suggest that professors de-emphasize
midterms by making them worth less
of the overall grade than the final.
Midterms may be difficult but I
believe in you! As long as you take care
of yourself by managing your time wisely
to study and getting at least eight
hours of sleep, everything will be okay.
By ELI KESSLER
DO YOU THINK it is necessary
to go to every single class? How
important is it and what does
it mean to you? For me, it is super
important to attend each and every
class. I feel very accomplished being
able to check the box in the course
evaluation form at the end of the
semester that says you went to every
class.
That being said, I have certainly
skipped class for reasons other than
actually being sick. Sometimes I
feel like I need a little break. Maybe
I procrastinated on studying for an
exam and now I need to skip my other
classes of the day to study. I know I
cannot be alone in this. Perhaps you
just want to get yourself a sweet little
treat from that bakery downtown.
The point is not to demoralize or
judge you for not attending class, but
to share insights and perspectives on
what it means to go to class and to
explore the potential benefits it may
have on your academic performance
and your future.
One potential reason attendance
is deemed vital in school might be its
direct correlation to one’s academic
achievement and success. It allows us
to actively participate in classroom
discussions, better understand lessons
and build relationships by engaging with
peers. All of this is not accomplished as
easily by individual learning.
Lewis & Clark’s Academic
Policies and Procedures states that
“students are expected to attend
classes regularly,” and that it is
crucial for your academic success, as
you are unable to get the same class
participation outside of the classroom.
To explore the validity of this statement, I asked a few of
my professors their opinions on
attendance. Associate Professor of
Psychology Yueping Zhang agreed
with LC’s policy.
“You can’t learn everything by
yourself because you miss out on
interactions with peers with whom
you learn things,” said Zhang.
Visiting Health Studies Assistant
Professor Dr. Deeksha Vasanth-Rao
shares this perspective.
“In my view, students who do not
regularly attend class miss out on
valuable opportunities to actively
engage with the course material
alongside peers,” she said.
Essentially, one potential benefit
of regularly attending class appears
to be how it helps to enhance
understanding of the content,
retention of information and physical
application of what was discussed and
learned in class.
Another reason you should think
twice about skipping a class is the
thought that you are practically
wasting money by not showing up. We
are paying to be here, and college is
not cheap, especially at this school.
“Students have invested significant
financial resources into their
education,” said Vasanth-Rao. “By not
attending class, they are essentially
wasting the money they have paid for
the program.”
Furthermore, regular attendance
facilitates a meaningful and supportive
relationship between professor and
student. Coming to class regularly
allows our professors to understand
our individual needs better. Building
a relationship with your professors
and showing your presence in class
helps when you need to ask them for
accommodations like extensions. The more they get to know you and the
more you engage with the class, the
more likely it is that they will make an
exception for you.
If you do have to miss class, I
would highly recommend emailing
your professor at least a few hours
before not showing up. It shows
that you care. Not showing and not
emailing prior makes you look like a
ghost. How are you going to graduate
as a ghost?If you choose not to go to class,
you should know that there are many
things you are potentially missing out
on. That being said, choosing to not
go to class while sick is respectable.
Most of us appreciate you staying
home to get rest and not pass on
sickness to others, which would only
cause more absences. Especially after
COVID, professors are a lot more
lenient of you staying back if you are
feeling sick. Sickness aside, your class time is
extremely valuable, and your grade in
the course, along with the educational
benefits you get out of it, depend on
you putting in the effort to show up
to class. Take advantage of the chance
to learn by going to class. Your future
self will surely thank you. This is
your opportunity to contribute to
your own development and create a
strong foundation for a successful and
fulfilling life. FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2024
OPINION 4
Students should prioritize consistent attendance, professors emphasize importance of interactive learningSeparate week for
midterms neededPedestrian etiquette should be
prioritized on campus walkways
Class time irreplaceable in value, not to be skipped casually
Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed in the Opinion section are NOT those of The Mossy Log and are held by the authors.By JAY NELSON
GETTING AROUND campus
has always proved to be an
interesting affair. There is no
need to drive due to our college’s size,
and bikes, scooters, skateboards or
other similar methods of transportation
tend to struggle on the hills and
rough brickwork. Naturally, this leads
people to walk on the narrow, twisting
passageways that stitch the campus
together. Even on a sunny day, these can
be difficult to navigate.
If you happen to be a particularly
speedy walker, a biker or, God forbid,
traveling in a group, things get worse.
We have all been stuck behind a group,
we have all wondered if we could pass the
person in front of us without ramming
into oncoming foot traffic and if you
have ridden a bike on campus, you will
know the struggles of getting it through
certain places without going head-over-
handlebars. Something needs to happen
about this, but what?
First, we need to talk about the
limitations of what could actually
be done. We cannot go the route of
America’s finest civil engineers and add
just one more lane to the sidewalks,
we cannot enforce rules about how
to walk properly and we cannot put
some of the burden on other means
of transportation. After all, even if we
encouraged biking, they would still
be riding on the same pathways that
everybody is walking on. What we need
is etiquette.
As far as enforcing rules go, no
method works better than the threat of
(minor) social ostracization. We know
that cutting in line is wrong, we know
that eating food with a fork rather than
shoveling it up with your hands is polite
and we know that taking groceries out of
somebody’s cart before they have paid
is impolite. There is no steadfast rule
about these, sure, but we still do not do
them due to etiquette.Now, what should this etiquette
entail? As a certified fast-walker, I would
like to see some level of sorting take place
on the paths, similar to how it is done
on the highway. Slower walkers farther
off to the side, fast walkers, runners or
bikers closer to the center. To a degree,
this has already implemented itself
into the underlying social ruleset of the
college, although it would make things
much more efficient if it was followed
more often. When there are two people
walking almost exactly the same speed
side-by-side, it can be difficult to pass.
Additionally, it can be especially
difficult to pass if somebody starts to
waver back and forth. If somebody is
walking slow, sure, that is acceptable.
But if somebody is walking slow because
they are zig-zagging across the sidewalk,
it is just plain frustrating. I can walk past somebody if they are just moving
straight, but somebody that cannot
decide if they want to go right or left or
straight takes up all the space that they
are winding through. Please just pick a
direction and stick to it.
Groups on thin paths are always
rough. Two people side-by-side is
manageable. Three people almost always
take up far too much of the sidewalk,
not just for the people going in the
same direction as them, but also for the
people moving opposite. Sidewalks are
not exactly one-way and taking up both
flows of traffic for a conversation is plain
inconsiderate. I do not care what deep,
philosophical debates you are holding.
If you plan on having an important talk
with three or more people, please find
someplace more convenient to do it. I
am walking here.
THE MOSSY LOG ARCHIVES
While the bridge over the ravine is picturesque, congestion can prevent easy passage.COURTESY OF LEWIS & CLARK
By AMELIA DOYLE
LAST FRIDAY was March 8,
International Women’s Day,
which serves as a focal point to
the women’s movement worldwide.
Last spring, I studied abroad
in Santiago, Chile. On March 8,
the city shut down. It was only my
third day of school, because the
semester started late and when I
showed up, the campus was empty.
In fact, all the students had voted
not to come to school because it was
International Women’s Day. This
was so bizarre for me because never
in my life would someone suggest
that schools shut down to celebrate
the holiday. Women crowded in the streets and the city erupted in
protest. It was crazy to me that the
entire city of eight million people had
stopped and protested because of the
International Women’s Day.
This year on International
Women’s Day, people protested all
over the world. In Pakistan, people
called for an end to violence against
women, with thousands of people
demonstrating in the streets of every
major city. In Kyrgyzstan, women
rallied with signs that read “We need
rights 365 days a year.” In Italy,
thousands of people took to the streets
in protest of the murders of women
by their boyfriends and husbands. In
Spain, tens of thousands marched in
all of the major cities. In England, women dressed up as “handmaids”
from the bestseller “The Handmaid’s
Tale” by Margaret Atwood. In the
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
women marched through the streets
of the largest city in protest of the
ongoing conflict in the region. In
Poland, thousands of women took to
the streets of Warsaw to protest the
government’s failure to move quickly
reforming abortion laws.
While women all over the world
were protesting, I was sitting in class
as usual. Something about that did
not sit right with me; why did I feel
like I had to attend class that day?
Why were there no protests that I
could attend?
The United States ranks 43 out
of 146 countries for gender equality.
According to the United Nations,
Mexico, Peru and Colombia all
rank higher than the United States.
According to the National Domestic
Violence Hotline, over one in three
women in the U.S. will experience
some form of intimate partner violence
during their lifetimes. Since the
overturn of Roe v. Wade, women all
over the country, including all women
in my home state of Tennessee, do not
have access to safe and legal abortions.
In the United States, women are
granted only 12 weeks of unpaid
maternity leave, and there are currently
no laws protecting paternal leave.
According to the International Labour
organization, women should be granted
up to 18 weeks of paid maternity leave.
This list of well-documented inequalities
goes on: chairs, countertops, cars, office
temperatures, phones, computers, voice-
recognition, construction equipment
and even seat belts were all designed for
the average man (5’8”, 200 lbs).
We should be angry. We should
be protesting. So why are we not
protesting? Why are we not canceling
school and taking to the streets and
screaming for our rights? In the
United States, why are women not
taking a stand on this day? Even
Portland, which is considered one of
the most liberal cities in the country,
does not have an International
Women’s Day Protest. Lewis & Clark, where the population is 60 percent
women, why are my female classmates
having to raise their hand while my
male classmates feel comfortable just
blurting out the answer? Why do our
“gender neutral bathrooms” in JR
Howard have urinals in them? More
importantly, why have we accepted
this as our reality?
The world does get better, as we
have seen. Just over 100 years ago no
women could vote in the U.S., and it was only 60 years ago that women of
color gained the right to vote. In the
past 50 years, women in the U.S. have
gained the right to no-fault divorce,
a credit card in their own name and
having birth control while unmarried.
Yet we are still seeing inequalities
all over the world. We should not
be treating March 8 as another day,
we should be treating it as a day for
women to continue fighting for equal
rights for all.FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2024
OPINION 5
Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed in the Opinion section are NOT those of The Mossy Log and are held by the authors.ROSE BIALK/THE MOSSY LOGGroup projects pose unnecessary hassle, social frustrationWomen’s Day deserves more active recognition
Impossibility of scheduling, disinterest of peers limits efficiency of collaborative homework assignments
By ELLA DUNN
I HATE GROUP projects . I know
that statement may come off a
bit strong, and in actuality, there
are pros and cons (though obviously,
in my opinion, the cons outweigh the
pros) to the wonderful experience of
being forced by a teacher to work with
your lovely peers.
In high school, group projects were
a nightmare for a few reasons: People
lacked the drive to try and had no sense
of integrity whatsoever about their actual
role in the project. They also never checked
their emails, so it was a waiting game,
where I went back and forth on whether I
could work up the courage to actually talk
to my group members in class about it.
People still do not answer their
emails now, but in college, it is because
they are ignoring you, not because they
are 16 and have no reason to use email as
opposed to text. One of my main issues
with group projects is having to talk to
people and have awkward conversations
about the material while continuously
forgetting the names of group members
and referring to them as “you.”
Another one of the biggest problems
is scheduling. Everyone in college is
so busy. Students have work, sports,
extracurriculars and more to fill up
their schedules. I, for one, have two
jobs, which eats up a lot of my time. The
most straightforward part of high school
scheduling was that everyone started and
ended school at roughly the same time.
Here, classes are in session at all hours of
the day, people have labs at 6 p.m., work
in the middle of the day and the list goes on. Among all of that, people have to travel
to the Bon or Troom for meals and, lastly,
people have to study for other classes.
I hope my teachers are not reading
this, but for my most recent group
project, we had to meet two separate
times due to lack of availability, and the
two subgroups did not talk as one until
we were leading the class discussion.
That said, it went very well and everyone
got the chance to speak and express
their ideas. One of the pros to having
group projects is that it does help take
pressure off of individual students.
One of the worst situations when
it comes to working in a group is
when it is just a worksheet or a short
assignment, able to be done in one
class period, and the professor says
to “find a partner.” If you do not know
anyone in the class, you are utterly
doomed. You are forever fated to sit
alone, crouched over your sad little
worksheet that has several blanks
labeled “Name,” but only one filled in
with your own. People are all happily
chatting with their friends around you,
but then somebody walks over to you
and asks if you “need a partner.” You
do not NEED a partner or anything …
but, yeah, it might be nice.
Above all of these existing minor
inconveniences, I am an introvert,
and apart from that, I also happen to
love working alone. I will admit that
idea generation is productive within
groups, but when getting actual work
done, I am the most organized and the
least anxious on my own. If you are a
professor reading this, please steer clear
of assigning group projects, I beg of you.United States’ indifference toward holiday highlights ignorance of international activist efforts
J FRANK/THE MOSSY LOG
COURTESY OF ARMEND NIMANI
Demonstrations in Kyrgyzstan call for gender equality, end of violence against women.
By LILLIAN SMALL
SANDWICHES are a universal
on-the-go meal. Whether you are
making a Bon turkey sandwich
to eat between your 11:30 and 12:40
classes, picking up a bánh mì from the
Vietnamese deli or satisfying a hangover
with a hearty burger, these items do not
always have to be limited to convenience.
Portland food truck Tokyo Sando
is honoring the sandwich like no other
kitchen in town. You will find a menu
dedicated to Japanese flavors and
techniques, from katsu to curry filling
in their signature pillowy milk bread, a
product unique to Tokyo Sando’s bright
red truck.
Tokyo Sando is the product of chef
Taiki Nakajima. Nakajima was born
in Japan, raised within his father’s
family-run restaurant. Before settling
in Portland, he spent much of his young
adulthood exploring the world and its
diverse cuisines, until Nakajima set
his aspirations on opening a food truck
in the hipster capital we call home.
Bringing authentic Japanese meals to the
Pacific Northwest remains Nakajima’s
mission. Tokyo Sando’s Instagram story
frequently showcases its mouthwatering
sandwiches alongside the catchphrase
“We’re sharing our Japan.”
The current location is the Harvey
Milk Street Beer Garden, an enclosed
food truck pavilion with covered seating
and a stage for live music. Lewis & Clark
students can access the shop off of the
1st and Harrison Pio stop downtown,
and then make a 15-20 minute walk
north to the intersection of Harvey Milk
St. and 5th Avenue.
Price-wise, a sandwich runs
between $14-16. While expensive, it is
a typical price for a thoughtful lunch
item in the Portland economy these
days. One sandwich (or two halves, I
split mine with a friend to maximize
variety) left me thoroughly satiated,
and I can confidently say that the
experience was worth my money.
I tried the original Naka Sando,
and the rotating special which was the
curry-pan sando. The Naka is a classic
chicken katsu sandwich; between two
slices of fluffy milk bread lies a golden
chicken katsu, topped off with a tangy
slaw. As a lifelong purveyor of fried
chicken, this might be one of my new
favorite preparations.
The curry pan was equally delightful,
featuring delectably panko-fried bread,
encasing a warmly-spiced Japanese
curry, soft-boiled egg, garnished with
black garlic. The contrast of the crispy
panko, soft curry and egg meld perfectly, the umami of the black garlic cutting
through the richness. This sandwich
invoked the comfort of a hug, which is my
personal ultimate seal of approval. While
the curry pan is no longer available, the
current special looks just as tantalizing,
the Tokyo Gyoza Scotch-Egg Sando.
The food truck has gained
widespread popularity in the local
food scene, garnering features in food
review website Eater. The love for their
sandos has even traveled to our corner
of Palatine Hill. Cole McCorkendale ’25
has become a devoted customer over
the past year.
“Part of it is honestly the people
there because Mr. Nakajima and Ms.
Kazuyo, who helps him there, are all
super nice people. I really liked them
all. And they started recognizing
us at some point which was cool,”
McCorkendale said. “It’s just nice to
have a rapport with the people that
you’re ordering food from. The food
is some of the best food I’ve ever
had in my life. It is so enjoyable to
eat every time because they make it
consistently really good and almost
the same every time.”
McCorkendale reflected on their
favorite sandos.
“My favorites have been the curry
and the Naka with the chicken. But we
have also tried the eggplant one, the
egg salad one and the dessert mango
one which was delicious. Something I
love is that all the sandwiches have a
fried component,” McCorkendale said.
Tokyo Sando has opened and closed
several times over the years due to
Naikajimi returning to Japan to help
with his father’s restaurant. This year
his father was considering retirement,
but ultimately decided to continue
running the restaurant to allow Tokyo
Sando to operate in Portland.
“I was distraught. That is the best
word to describe it. I was in tears. We
wrote them a little letter because we
were so sad that they were leaving.
And we made sure all of our delivery
instructions included heartfelt little
messages about how sad we were they
were leaving,” McCorkendale said.
They summed up their appreciation
for Tokyo Sando’s owner and employees
as “the unsung heroes of Portland.”
The food truck remains a must-try
spot for every Portland foodie. Outside
of selling delicious sandwiches, Tokyo
Sando will also host collaborative
pop-ups with Oh!Nigiri. Oh!Nigiri
is owned by beloved Tokyo Sando
employee, Ms. Kazuyo, who can
often be found at the window taking
customers’ orders. By EMMA AMBROZIAK
LEGALLY FAT , a student group on
the Lewis & Clark Law Campus,
became an official club in March of
2023. The group, though still establishing
its footing, is one of the first advocacy
groups that addresses anti-fatness at a
law school in the United States. Audrey
Sylvester ’24, vice president of Legally
Fat, is a third-year law student. Sylvester
spoke on the group’s work on and off
campus, the role anti-fatness plays in the
legal world and the origins of anti-fatness
in anti-Blackness.
“Right now, our primary focus is
outreach on campus, becoming more of a
fixture of the law school community and
becoming more of a place that students
can come to when they feel isolated
or have issues or need some support,”
Sylvester said.
One of the barriers fat lawyers face
is accessibility to professional clothes
that fit comfortably. Business clothing
is expensive, and secondhand clothing
resources do not always carry sizes that
meet the needs of different bodies.
“Dress codes were one of the first
things that we started looking at, because
so many people were very reticent to
claim the word ‘fat,’ which was one of the
reasons that we put the word out there so
much,” she said. “They’ll use these gentler
terms like larger, bigger, plus-size, when
really the word you’re looking for is ‘fat’.”
Sylvester explained why Legally Fat
started their own community closet for
the law campus.
“We would ask people … Have you
ever struggled to find something that fit
you or that made you look the right way, or
have you been told that you need to wear
this article of clothing and this article of
clothing, like a skirt and a blazer, and you
weren’t able to find those in your size? Or
you were and it was so uncomfortable that
you weren’t able to perform at your best?”
she said.
According to Sylvester, there were a
lot of people who identified inaccessible
or uncomfortable dress codes within the
legal world as a huge issue on a daily basis.
“You’re expected to walk in heels, and
I just can’t do that,” she explained.
Sydney Klupar ’24, president of
Legally Fat, elaborated on the importance
of the law school community closet.
“That’s our legacy, because the
current community closet on campus I
believe only had up to a size medium.
That’s a huge barrier for anybody who’s
above a size medium,” said Klupar. “It
reinforces one of the biggest things that
I think sparked the club, which is that I
don’t see a lot of fat lawyers and fat legal
advocates as the people we’re revering
and the people we see as the important
people.”
Sylvester emphasized the role the
broader Portland legal community has
played in helping the club get on its feet.
“We have reached out to fat
influencers and authors who would be
interested in doing clothing swaps for
fat and plus-sized people or people who
have written books and works about the
fat experience who might be willing to
come and do a speaker series with us,” she
said. “We have worked on developing a
mentor program so that fat and plus-size
attorneys or people working in the legal
field could potentially take on members
of our group as student mentees and help
them enter the legal field.”
Klupar shared how special it was to
connect with and learn from the lawyers
beyond LC.
“We’ve had such an immense
outpouring of support from the attorney
community and gotten so many donations
from them,” she added.
Right now Portland is perceived as
a liberal city with increasing leniency
in the business world when it comes to
tattoos, piercings and other forms of self-
expression. However, Klupar referenced
Oregon’s history of racism and outdoorsy
culture as factors that affect fat people in
the professional world.
“Oregon has this robust history of
excluding Black people, and in that,
there are these huge groups of bodies
that have been historically excluded,”
she said. “Then so much of Portland is
around being outdoorsy and hiking and
oftentimes when we’re talking about outdoorsy activities, there’s no inclusion
of anybody, of any disability or anything .”
Klupar described the complexity of
Portland in this context.
“Portland is a really interesting space
to have this and I love it,” she said. “I think
that other parts of the country are more, I
guess, progressive in terms of accepting
fat people and having accessibility
because they have more of them, based
on their history.”
Sylvester also highlighted the
openness of self-expression in Portland as
an advantage for fat law students entering
the legal world.
“In Portland specifically, there’s a
developing leniency with the ways you
present in a legal area. So an attorney
going into court with tattoos or dyed
hair, or a colorful suit or colorful shoes
or piercings is much more common now
than it ever was,” she said. “And that
was something that they actually told us
coming into law school when we were like
‘Oh, do we have to wear the black blazer,
white shirt, black pants, what do we do?’
And people here would say ‘Oh no, you
find somewhere to inject your personality
into your professional attire. Be yourself
first and then be an attorney.’ That’s really
important. And that’s not the way it is in a
lot of other regions.”
Sylvester elaborated on their group’s
statement on their website, which
identifies the origins of anti-fatness in
anti-Blackness.
“We focus on the shared experience of
being othered,” said Sylvester. “Members
of our group have different gender
expressions, different racial backgrounds,
different ethnicities, different classes,
socio-economic experiences … But the
one overarching theme is that we have
all experienced this sort of exclusion. So
it was important to us to note going into
this that the origins of anti-fat bias are not
just anti-fat bias, but that they stem from
racial bias and systemic racism.”
She identified “The Belly of the
Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as
Anti-Blackness,” a book by Da’Shaun L.
Harrison, a fat, Black nonbinary author, as
a relevant reading that orients the reader
in the origins of anti-fatness through a
historical and racial perspective. Sylvester
briefly explained the role colonization
played in modern anti-fatness, and why
the group identifies anti-Blackness as
relevant to the origins of anti-fatness.
“During the slave trade and the
developing of the Americas, the U.S., the
colonized states, there came this need
to differentiate between the white body
and the black body, or the white body
and the brown body, and one of the ways
that early ‘race scientists,’ would do that
was by demonizing the Black skin, darker
skin,” Sylvester said. “So another thing
that these scientists would do is bring in
the softness and the largeness of Black
women, and say, this is different. This
is other. This is bad. And as these racial
stereotypes developed, for example, that
Black individuals were lazy or not hard-
working or dim-witted, those coincided
and became associated with fatness.”
Sylvester noted that reactions to
fatness were different before the colonial
shift and the slave trade.
“In old paintings and old artworks
and historical accounts, voluptuousness
and fatness in white people used to be
something that was in Europe: ‘Oh, this
is good, this means that you’re affluent
and you’re wealthy and you’re intelligent
and all this,’” Sylvester said. “As soon as
racism ‘officially’ entered the picture,
that’s when that change started to happen,
and people started to be more concerned
with differentiating their bodies.”
She highlighted the importance of
recognizing the origins of anti-fatness as
anti-Blackness when advocating for fat
acceptance.
“It’s very important for us to not
allow the mission of our group to fall into
white victimization,” Sylvester said. “I
am vulnerable and attacked because I’m
fat. We have to understand where that’s
coming from. And how some members of
our community and some members of our
group are going to be targeted differently
than other members. Because if we’re not
doing that, then our work is not really
substantial at all … Then it allows us to go
into spaces and take up space from people
that are trying to do different things.”She shared that, this semester, Legally
Fat has focused on connecting with other
groups, in ways that do not detract from
other student voices.
“Rather than amplifying our voice,
(we’re trying to use) our platform to
help magnify and amplify the voices of
other affinity groups on campus, such as
the Disabled Law Student Association,
the Black Law Student Association, the
South Asian Law Students Association,”
Sylvester said.
Klupar spoke to the experience of
working with clients and with the legal
world beyond law school, and how fat
lawyers need to prove their competency in
different ways than thin lawyers do.
“I remember coming to law school
and being like, I don’t even know if they’re
going to let me in,” she said. “As I’ve
been here, I’ve been seeing all the ways
in which we’re excluding fat people from
the conversation entirely. When I had
my interview to come here, I chose to do
it over the phone, because I didn’t want
them to see me and make a judgment
based on my appearance. I’d seen so few
fat lawyers.”
She described how it was difficult not
fitting the typical stereotype of a lawyer
when first meeting with clients.
“When people look at me, they don’t
see an attorney,” she said. “And so they
won’t accept that I am one.”
Klupar said that the fat bias she faces
shows up differently between judges,
attorneys, accountants and clients, and
that she struggles most to earn respect
with clientele.
“For the most part, judges I’ve worked
with have been really conscious of their
power and the bias they can hold,” she
said. “There are good attorneys and bad
attorneys. Some of them respect you and
some of them don’t, but I think clients are
the hardest ones to convince to let me help
them because this person is somebody
who’s traumatized, who needs help. So
they’re on fire and they see this young,
fat woman come and be like, ‘I’m going to
help you,’ and they’re like, ‘You don’t look
like a lawyer.’”
Klupar acknowledged that it was
rewarding to cultivate that relationship
and earn the trust of clients, but that it
was exhausting to need to perpetually
prove her competency as a lawyer whose
body doesn’t fit the stereotype of a female
lawyer.
“Yeah, no, my tall, slender friend John
is not experiencing the same issues with
communicating with clients,” she said.
Klupar spoke about how many offices
and courthouses are built for smaller
people, and how one aspect of Legally
Fat’s mission is advancing accessibility in
legal spaces.
“There is an accessibility barrier,” said
Klupar. “So many of the chairs at my office
have these rigid arms that dig into my legs
… and there’s an easy way around that.”
Klupar also shared her view on the
frequent, problematic comments she
encounters in her advocacy work.
“A very common thing that people will
say to fat activists is ‘I’m worried about
your health,’” said Klupar. “What I have
to say to those people, is respectfully, it’s
none of your fucking business. And more
importantly, I am worthy of respect and
you have to take me seriously, regardless
of if you think I’m healthy. You wouldn’t
treat a smoker this way. You wouldn’t
treat anybody who makes a ‘bad’ lifestyle
decision this way, except for this group. So
I always ask people to examine that.”
Legally Fat is primarily focused
on ensuring that it can live on after its
current executive board graduates, and
is planning to hold a mixer for Portland’s
legal community and law students who
are advocating against anti-fat bias.
Several law campuses have reached out
to the group in hopes of creating similar
clubs.
Klupar mentioned that they are
rigorously documenting their events
and work in hopes of paving the way for
future law schools to more easily establish
their own fat activist groups and create
accessible spaces. She enthusiastically
encouraged anyone who may be
interested in doing so to reach out to her
or other members of the executive board.
Their mission and contact information
can be found on law.lclark.edu, or on
Instagram @legallyfatlc.FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2024
FEATURES 6
Law students’ organization
advocates for fat acceptance
CASPER JAMES PIERCE/THE PIONEER LOGJapanese food truck
serves savory sandos
LEILA DIAZ/THE MOSSY LOG
The delectable Naka Sando features chicken katsu, red cabbage and tartar sauce.
LEILA DIAZ/THE MOSSY LOG
The Tokyo Sando food truck is in the Harvey Milk Street Beer Garden pavillion.By MAYA MAZOR-HOOFIEN
LEWIS & CLARK is a beautiful
campus, welcoming those from
all walks of life. One group in
particular is near-universally popular,
even earning the coveted role of our
mascot. Dogs are truly the best friend you
can have, and the dogs of LC are some of
the very best our community has to offer.
Elizabeth & Rhubarb
Many know Associate Professor of
International Affairs Elizabeth Bennett
for her popular Political Economy
courses, but equally important is her
frequent teaching companion, Rhubarb.
Rhubarb has been a staple of Bennett’s
classes since the fall of 2014, and the
11-year-old yellow Labrador retriever
fits right into academia.
“Rhubarb absolutely loves college
life. She loves the energy of the students,
the beautiful campus to run around, the
excitement that people express when
they see her joyfully chasing a ball,” said
Bennett. “It has been just wonderful for
us to be able to spend so much time on
campus and together.”
Like so many of us, Rhubarb looks
forward to seeing all her LC friends
whenever she comes to campus.
“She’s always excited to arrive and
run around and say hi to friends that she
sees. She’s always excited to see people
that she knows from class, or people that
she’s met before. So she’s on the lookout
for friends,” said Bennett.
School is not just about socializing,
and a seasoned collegiate dog like
Rhubarb knows that her academics
must come first.
“She comes to class and watches
the lecture, sometimes eats a snack out
of someone’s backpack when they’re
not looking. You know, one time in the
middle of a very exciting conversation in
International Political Economy, she did
vomit in the middle of the class discussion.
So we took a break,” said Bennett.
Throughout a long day of walks and
lectures, Rhubarb needs her rest. She is
understandably particular about her need
to rejuvenate in a space that is her own.
“It’s really important to her
that Hans Morgenthau, the other
International Affairs Department dog, does not lay on her dog bed,”
said Bennett.
Keeping your energy up is
important when taking on a full day
of classes, and Rhubarb knows how to
keep herself sustained.
“I would say the snack that makes
Rhubarb the happiest is a piece of pizza
that’s been discarded in a bush,” said
Bennett. “She has a knack for smelling
something, doing a U-turn, completely
engrossing herself in a bush and then
coming out with a slice of pizza, and I
can not tell you how many times this
has happened on campus. And that is
probably the greatest look of joy I’ve
seen on Rhubarb’s face.”
Even when there is no pizza to be
found, Rhubarb enjoys exploring lots of
different areas on campus.
“There is a bush where I think some
of her friends must leave notes for her
because she’s always intent on smelling
it,” said Bennett. “She also occasionally
likes to check out the Pio mascot outside
of the gym, and even though he’s a
statue, somehow it doesn’t stop her from
smelling him as if he’s an actual dog.”
Her favorite spot on campus, however,
is where she can find friendly faces.
“She’s always excited to go into
Howard Hall because she knows she’s
going to see students that she knows,”
said Bennett.
Kate & Arlo
As Kate Etzold ’24 is nearing the end
of her time at LC, so is another beloved
Pio. Arlo is a four-year-old International
Affairs major and an Entrepreneurial
Business minor. He is an Australian
cattle dog mixed with German shepherd,
border collie and collie.
“He has been to every single day of
school at LC,” said Etzold. “He comes to all
my classes, he comes to the gym with me
afterwards … And then we go home and
we sit on the couch. And he’s a cuddler … I
bring him everywhere with me. But school
is a lot different in the sense (that) you’re
in a lot of close conversations with people.”
When Etzold started bringing Arlo to
school, he was practically still a puppy.
Like any first-year college student, it took
him time to adjust to the environment.
“It was hard for him to first kind of
understand, being that he’s a service dog, that when somebody comes into my
space, it’s not like he immediately needs
to get the attention from them and play
and all that stuff … this was definitely his
first real-world setting of being in close
quarters with people, but still kind of
having his job,” Etzold said. “He’s a very
loving dog, which is a great quality. But
that was hard for him to kind of adjust to,
so I think it took like the first semester of
him really like ‘Oh, we just sit in class for
an hour or an hour and a half? Okay.’”
Two years later, Arlo is now a
collegiate pro.
“Now (it’s) second nature. He
knows where we sit and he’s got his
unassigned assigned seats and he
just sits underneath them and usually
sleeps,” said Etzold.
Long, studious days are sure
to work up an appetite, and that is
certainly true for Arlo.
“He’s kind of a picky eater. He will
beg for everything under the sun: fruit,
candy, meat, chocolate, you know, all the
things. But he’s pretty much a carnivore.
I would have to say he loves chicken. I
have caught him on top of my counter
eating chicken breasts although he won’t
admit to that,” said Etzold.
Whether begging for a snack or
a head rub, Arlo can find amenable
companions everywhere.
“I think it helps that he’s so friendly.
He immediately sees people and lights
up … It’s the eyebrows, the eyebrows
draw everybody in,” said Etzold.While LC students embrace Arlo as
an adorable classmate and canine pal,
one community member has yet to fall
for his charms.
“Rhubarb doesn’t much care for
Arlo. She’s an old little yellow lab lady.
And Arlo I think would love if Rhubarb
loved him a little bit,” said Etzold.
“They’re on good terms now in the sense
that she just ignores him. He used to get
like barked at. I would say Rhubarb is
his older lady crush.”
Adam & June
Adam Hintze, Area Director of
Copeland, is a vital part of the Campus
Living team. Perhaps even more vital
is his dog, June, who lives with him in
his on-campus apartment. Like many
dog owners, Hintze used a DNA test to
identify June’s specific breed.
“She is mostly German shepherd
and American Staffordshire mix, and
possibly part wiener dog, which comes
out a lot in her personality,” said Hintze.
Unlike her breed, June’s age is a
little tricky to pin down. She was a
stray in Texas before she came to LC,
so Hintze is unsure of her exact age,
but estimates she is around seven
years old.
As an Area Director, Hintze’s days
are packed with lots of important
meetings and events. June, however,
lives a more luxurious life.
“A typical day is about 16 hours of
napping,” said Hintze. “Since I live on campus as a live-in staff member, I do
get a lot of opportunities to stop home,
give her some pats, say hi, take her on a
little extra walk once in a while. Yeah,
she’s very lazy.”
As a “couch girl,” June spends a lot
of her time at home sitting in front of
the TV. But even when her body is at
rest, her mind is hard at work.
“We try to change the channels, but
I mostly leave it on TED Talks,” said
Hintze. “I’d put her up against any
baby genius, parented baby. Who’s got
the real education?”
Outside the apartment, June enjoys
exploring campus and enriching
herself with all that LC has to offer.
“We go between Evans and J.R.
Howard, and anytime — I believe it’s
the ensemble practice room — there’s
like brass musicians playing there,
her ears really perk up at trumpets for
some reason. She always can pull me
in that direction,” said Hintze.
While June loves classic dog
treats, her taste for the finer things
certainly includes her food. She loves
yogurt, but prefers an even more
luxurious snack.
“She’s developed a taste for lox,
like salmon lox, recently,” said Hintze.
“Yes, she’s pampered in that way.”
Life is pretty good for LC’s canine
population, from the veterans to the
near-graduates to the most genteel.
“It’s a pretty wonderful life, I think,
to be a dog,” said Bennett.FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2024
FEATURES 7
Charming campus canines capture hearts of communityBy EMMA FORD
HAWAIIAN FOOD is one of the
ultimate fusion cuisines in the
world’s culinary catalog. As a
people, a nation and then an American
state, Hawaii has a complex history
that has seen the comings and goings
of a vibrant array of people. Each
group brought their own techniques
and flavors, evolving the classic dishes
into luscious concoctions of local and
imported ingredients alike.
Traditional native Hawaiian food is
so married in modern consciousness to
the imports that have changed it today
that it can be hard to distinguish a pre-
colonialist recipe from one coming after.
But the island had many of its most
beloved ingredients in abundance before
colonists arrived in the 18th century.
Pork, seafood, banana, taro and coconut
have all been staples for centuries, with
preparations like kalua pork surviving
generations of colonialism.
The kapu system (a religious
system most directly translated as
“taboo” or “sacred”) determined
when food could be consumed and
by whom, but was abolished in 1819
by King Kamehameha II. Since then,
the cuisine has been democratized in
creation and consumption, bringing
outsiders to the table and the kitchen
to cook and eat together.
Some of the earliest influences on
Hawaiian cuisine came from Asian,
European and American settlers. Asian
settlers from Japan, China, Korea and
the Philippines brought rice (their
replacement for the staple taro dish known as poi), soy, ginger and green
onion. Japanese techniques for working
with raw fish married into the island’s
abundant seafood to influence modern
iterations of poke. Surprisingly, being
one of the most iconic symbols of modern
Hawaii, pineapples were brought to the
islands by Spanish settlers in the 1700s
and are not native to the islands.
America’s influence on Hawaiian
cuisine starts with the importation of
wheat flour and beef by missionaries in
the 1700s, but their real marks were not
made until after Hawaii was brought
into the U.S. Interest in “Polynesian”
cuisine exploded in the US in the 1930s
thanks to restaurateurs like Don the
Beachcomber and Trader Vic Bergeron
and the popularity of the Hawaiian
islands as a tourist destination. As such,
“tiki bars” became ubiquitous across
the US, and Hawaii imported dishes
like macaroni salad, a part of the iconic
plate lunch.
During World War II, the reliance on
Spam as a protein source incorporated
the canned meat into local cuisine,
combining Japanese sushi techniques
to create the iconic dish Spam musubi (a
roll of sushi rice, nori seaweed and fried
Spam slabs).
Today, following movements
highlighting the traditional aspects
of Hawaiian cuisine that began in the
1990s, Hawaiian food scenes are some
of the most exciting and interesting in
the world. Here on the mainland, the
availability of non-local ingredients
allows those of us not on island time to
experience kalua pork, char siu, fried
chicken, mac salad, Spam musubi, poke and a variety of tropical sweet treats in
our own neighborhoods.
Hawaiian communities have thrived
in the Pacific Northwest since the late
1700s fur trade brought ship workers
from the tropics to the redwoods. Today,
from Seattle to Portland, Hawaiian
community members bring their unique
culinary traditions to their neighbors,
starting restaurants and food trucks to
serve plate lunches and sit-down dinners
with local and imported ingredients.
We went to three local spots near
campus for some of the tastiest and most
accessible examples of Hawaiian cuisine
in South Portland.
Roxy’s Island Grill
We got takeout from Roxy’s Island
Grill, from their Tualatin location, a plate
lunch of teriyaki chicken and kalua pork.
Hawaiian plate lunches are traditionally
a meat or fish dish, with white rice and
macaroni salad on the side. As a comfort
food classic, they came about in the mid
20th century, and have been an enduring
part of Hawaiian cuisine since.
The kalua pork was very flavorful,
and portions were also very sizable.
However, the pork itself was a little dry.
The teriyaki chicken was excellent, with
plenty of sauce. It was well-cooked, and
the portion size was, again, excellent. The
mac salad was top notch, absolutely no
complaints. For an easy takeaway with
lots of accessible locations, Roxy’s is it.
808 Grinds
“Grinds,” the Hawaiian pidgin term
for food (think “grub”), is exactly what
you will get at 808’s food truck location outside of the Gigantic Brewery near
Reed College. Even with cooler weather,
sitting outside at picnic tables while the
setting sun painted the sky pink was as
pleasant a way to spend an evening as one
could ask for.
808’s most popular dish, their
katsu-inspired 808 fried chicken, is
served as one protein option for their
take on plate lunch, a delightfully crispy
pile of chicken bits over shredded
cabbage, rice and their mac salad (808’s
version includes peas, a controversial
but welcome adaptation). Their kalua
pork was moist and tender, with just the
right fat content, made even better with
their spicy habanero teriyaki sauce.
Not interested in plate lunch? My
dining companions and I tried their take
on Spam musubi, an expertly-sauced
version of the classic, and found it
delightful. The butter mochi (think pound
cake made of rice flour, not the ice cream
ball) was bouncy and rich. They also offer
a wide range of poke, which we did not
try, but next time we will.
Ohana Hawaiian Cafe
Out in Milwaukee, the family-friendly
Ohana Hawaiian Cafe is less likely to
be affected by bad weather, with their
casually egalitarian dining room dishing
up plate lunch at a slightly higher price
tag than our other options.
Their Loco Moco (two hamburger
patties smothered in brown gravy on a
bed of white rice with two eggs cooked
to order on top) is not to be missed,
because even at the $20 price tag it fed
me handily for two meals. My dining
companion’s salmon was not quite as remarkable as we hoped, but it was
well-prepared and filling.
Hands-down the best part of the
meal were the Hawaiian sweets. From
a list including Sweet Potato Haupia
(coconut custard) pie and Banana Cream
pie, our charming server recommended
the Lilikoi Dream Cake. A chiffon cake
layered with lilikoi (passionfruit) mousse
and topped with fresh raspberries and
raspberry sauce, it disappeared from
the plate almost before we could take a
picture. A dream indeed.
In the doldrums of winter, dreaming
of a tropical escape is something everyone
does from time to time. Thanks to the
Hawaiian communities of the Northwest,
and the rich history preceding them, we
can all have a taste of sunshine before it
returns to us this summer.
From classroom to dormitory, these darling dogs belonging to staff, student certain to delight, dazzle
Bougie June stands before her domain. Portland Hawaiian cuisine honors long history
Packed plate lunches, sensational Spam musubi highlight taste of ‘ono grinds in Pacific Northwest
Arlo bashfully poses behind the grass. Rad Rhubarb is a super senior of 11 years.
COURTESY OF ELIZABETH BENNETT COURTESY OF KATE ETZOLD COURTESY OF ADAM HINTZE
808 Grinds serves tasty plate lunches.EMMA FORD/THE MOSSY LOGFRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2024
ARTS 8
By J FRANK
THE MUSIC Department’s
Fridays @ Five performance
is a weekly chance for music
students to perform for peers.
On Feb. 16, the concert featured
original songs by Ivy Mead ’26, Bryn
Bollimpalli ’25 and Anais Batiz-
Fischetti ’25. Last semester, Mead
and Bollimpalli were part of a group
of musicians who wrote original
music to accompany the student-
produced play “The Tragical History
of Doctor Faustus.” Mead and Batiz-
Fischetti are in a band called Pretend
You’re Sleeping, or PYS (pronounced
“piss”) for short. They all also happen
to be friends.
Mead is a Music Performance
major, with a concentration in bass.
She began songwriting only a year
and a half ago. She first attended
Denver University but felt restricted
by their programs and wanted more
creative control to express herself
through music.“The school was like, ‘you do jazz
all the time forever, or you do classical
all the time forever,’ and I wanted to
do everything,” Mead said.
Batiz-Fischetti has always thought
of themself as a songwriter, since
their father is a musician and fostered
their love of music.
“I got my first guitar when I was
four and I would write songs, but the
songs were kind of just me strumming
the out-of-tune guitar and talking
about my day, and like (sings) ‘the
girls at school were mean today,’” said
Batiz-Fischetti.
Bollimpalli is also a composition
major though she did not originally
plan to pursue composition in
college. She found herself doing it
by chance, aided by and, aided by
her new understanding of music
theory, enjoying it.
Generally, the three of them feel
that earning a music degree has given
them tools to mature as musicians and
has given them a better understanding
of their songwriting, but believe that music remains largely intuitive, and
does not require a formal education.
“The most important part in any
sort of musical thing is being able
to apply what you already know, no
matter how big or small, and then
your creativity will shine through
that,” Mead said.
Mead added that her education has
increased her understanding of her
songwriting, which has pros and cons.
“Pros are, I can choose to do
something because I like the sound,
and know why it works, but on the
other hand it’s also given me so
much more to think about, so it’s a
little harder to decide on things,”
Mead said.
Similarly, Batiz-Fischetti noted
that songwriting has a basis in folk
music, and is therefore based more on
emotions than formal compositional
rules. Nevertheless, their education
has allowed them to be more
intentional in their writing.
“I’m a lot more aware of song form
and how to write interesting music,
where before it was just vibes-based,
and now I can be like, ‘at some point in
this song, I should change key,’” said
Batiz-Fischetti. “Now it’s intentionally
vibes-based.”
All three agreed that songwriting
is an intensely personal process
and that their songs inevitably end
up a reflection of themselves, even
when they draw inspiration from
other sources.
“I have two songs now based
around characters from the Iliad,
and obviously I am not fighting in
the Trojan War, but they still feel
very deeply personal and profound
to me,” Bollimpalli said. “I think
even when a song is not necessarily
related to you, it’s hard not to
have it resonate in some capacity
with something you understand
about yourself.”
For Mead, songwriting has pushed
her bass playing in new directions.“Deciding to write my own songs
has affected how I think about my
instrument. … I want to see how close
I can get my electric bass to sound
lyrical rather than a ‘yeah, you play
the bassline’ type of instrument, which
has limitations,” said Mead. “A lot of
that has come from using almost like
a guitar-style picking pattern, or it’s
almost like a banjo-style type thing,
and understanding my instrument as
more of a collection of chords rather
than a collection of notes.”
Batiz-Fischetti has a complicated
relationship with the guitar.
“I need my guitar, but I do get a
little frustrated with the fact that I’m
not amazing at it,” Batiz-Fischetti
said. “Part of that comes from the fact
that I have a small physical disability,
and music takes a physical toll on you,
and so I kind of have to figure out a
lot of ways to play interesting things
without ruining my hands forever.”
Working around this limitation,
however, has forced them to develop
their songwriting in creative ways.
“One songwriter I’ve been
compared to by many teachers over
the years is Joni Mitchell. … She had
polio as a kid, and so the way she
plays guitar is restricted because she
can’t move her hands that much,”
Batiz-Fischetti said. “I relate a
lot to Joni’s struggle, and I can
only hope to be at her level of
musicianship. She’s able to write
(meaningful songs) with basically
just barre chords.”
Batiz-Fischetti, Bollimpalli and
Mead all feel that their queerness
influences and informs their art to
some degree.
“A lot of my songs are often
about the nature of change, and
the dauntingness of changing as a
person. You will change throughout
your life, and that is a scary process,
but it’s gotta happen, and that feels
like a very trans/queer theme,”
Bollimpalli said.Batiz-Fischetti also thinks that
queerness brings a unique perspective.
“Realizing that you’re queer in
the first place takes a lot of inner
reflection and a little bit of turmoil,
and it requires a lot of sacrifice,
because you’re giving up at least
pretending that you’re a normal
person, and putting yourself willingly
into the possibility that people will
not accept you,” Batiz-Fischetti
said. “That internal dialogue that
you continuously have to have with
yourself requires you to be very self-
aware, and I think that helps when
it comes to making art, because you
have to be self-aware about what
it is you’re thinking and feeling if
you want to be able to put that into
a musical form.”
All three of them hope to pursue a
career in music one day, but remain
realistic in their expectations.
“There’s something about writing
music where you need it to be heard,
and need people to hear what it is
you’re saying.” Batiz-Fischetti said.
Mead feels similarly concerning
prioritizing creativity over fame.
“My dream profession is to be a
local gigging musician, where I can
play my own tunes and have people
show up, but never grow more than
that; be important to local folks, and
be considered fun to play with or fun
to listen to, but not on a bigger scale,”
Mead said.
In the immediate future, however,
these LC songwriters are in the midst
of various projects, so keep your
ears peeled.
“PYS band. Keep an eye out for
PYS. And then I want to release some
of my own stuff too. I want to record
stuff,” said Mead.
Bollimpalli is also trying to release
an album by the end of next spring, and
Batiz-Fischetti is planning to release
music soon, too. You can look out for
Batiz-Fischetti’s upcoming projects
on their Instagram, @anaisbatiz.Songwriters reflect on journeys, inspirations
By ELLA DUNN
THESIS SEASON is in full
swing at Lewis & Clark, with
students in many departments
working hard on completing their
final projects before they graduate.
Fir Acres Theatre in particular
is bustling with activity, even
more than usual, as graduating
theatre majors work on their big
culminating projects.
Seniors are doing everything
from choreographing dance pieces to
creating shows from the ground up.
They are all working to bring their
visions to life one last time at LC in
performances that are truly their own.
Phoenix Cox ’24 adapted his
thesis show from Madeline Miller’s
“The Song of Achilles” along with a
script he found online. Through this
mythological story, he is putting a
spotlight on desexualized queer and
trans relationships.
“I want to tell a queer and trans
story where queer and trans people are
allowed to just be. They are allowed to
love and lose and fight and mourn,”
Cox said. “I really want this piece to
highlight that there are different ways
to be a man; you can be a Greek god,
tall, golden-haired, strong man, but
you also don’t have to be a Grecian
god to be a man — you can be more
emotional and on the sidelines, and
still be seen as just as much of a man
as a warrior.”
Cox is the lead artist of this piece
and is also playing the lead role of
Patroclus. Because the cast is so
small, he selected a non-senior, Ava
Lockwood ’26 to direct his play and
help shoulder the burden of running rehearsals. Lockwood also has an
unique attachment with the material
of the show.
“It just is about queer love,
un-hypersexualized queer love, which
is important to me,” Lockwood said. “In
wider social media, queer relationships
are often tokenized; You have really
in-depth tellings of other characters
and queer characters in the show are
just like ‘the gay guy,’ and that’s all you
get about their character. Our show is
not about the fact that they are two gay
characters, but it’s about how these two
humans are just so in love with each
other, the other half of one another. It
touches on the intricacies that we don’t
get to see in greater media.”
Two seniors pairing up for a thesis
project is another option in the theatre
department; usually, one person
directs and the other plays the lead
role in the show. Skylar Vayda ’24 and
Ruby Keyes ’24 are creating an adapted
version of “Misery,” a stage play based
on the novel by Stephen King. Vayda
is directing, and Keyes is starring as
Annie. The team is using this show as
a statement on common stereotypes
about women, specifically women of
color, in the media.
“What drew me to (this show) is
the way that it positions women in
fandom, and the positions that a lot
of female fans have in bolstering the
careers of creatives, especially male
creatives,” said Vayda. “Their fandoms
are usually, depending on what genre
they cater to, entirely made up of
AFAB people and women. It’s about
the relationship dynamic and tension
between the author of a piece, who
can at times degrade their audience if
they are of the ‘wrong demographic,’ and the audience themselves who take
back ownership of the content that
they love and create a beautiful culture
around work.”
It was Keyes who had the idea of
doing this piece for a thesis, as she
got attached to the story after reading
King’s original novel.
“I felt like Annie deserved a better
story than she got, so I really liked
the idea of doing the play from her
lens, with her as the ‘hero’ in a way,”
said Keyes. “In starting to re-read
the book, and taking notes on it, I
noticed that the characterization of
Annie brings up feelings of animosity
towards women that I don’t think are
intentional but are there. What we’re
focusing on is mostly our take on it, our
reading of it, and the way that we felt
about the work.”
This year’s theatre thesis lineup has
so many interesting shows, including
horror plays, musicals and long-form
dances. To see all of the shows, be sure
to go to both Evening A and B. Tickets
will be available soon on the Theatre
department’s website, so prepare
to show up and support your peers
majoring in theatre!
J FRANK/THE MOSSY LOG
Cox ’24 and Lockwood ’26 get to work.Three student musicians share their compositional process, experience, share aspirations for future
Theatre seniors craft poignant
retellings of novels for thesesJ FRANK/THE MOSSY LOG
Bollimpalli ’25, Batiz-Fischetti ’25 and Mead ’26 pose in front of Evans Music Center.
Pickathon to reprise:
new permit granted
By LILLIAN SMALL
JUST A 30-MINUTE drive away
from Portland you will find a
charming town, adequately named
Happy Valley, which is home to the
annual music festival, Pickathon. The
name Pickathon refers to the bluegrass
style of picking a guitar, banjo or
stringed instrument, however, a variety
of genres are represented at the festival
extending beyond its American roots
tradition, including rock, punk, indie,
international and more.
Situated on the 80-acre Pendarvis
Farm, the festival features local food
trucks and vendors of an eclectic
variety. Pickathon typically occurs
over the first week of August, but
this year the festival’s continuation
was in question.
Happy Valley had issued Pickathon
a permit to operate on Pendarvis
Farm from 2014 to 2023, meaning
the upcoming 2024 festival would
need to acquire a renewed permit.
In the past decade, Happy Valley
has expanded and plans to build a
town center in the plot of land
currently used as the parking lot for the
festival. In addition to the decreasing
land availability, Happy Valley
residents have complained about the
noise, congestion and other various
externalities a bustling musical festival
brings to a quiet suburban town.
Nonetheless, on Feb. 27 of this
year, the Happy Valley Planning
Commission held a public hearing
in which they decided to renew the
Pickathon permit for the next 10 years.
Public support was cited as a major factor in the granting of the festival’s
permit. Fans of the festival sent in over
1,500 letters of support, outweighing
the cases in opposition.
In an interview with Willamette
Week before the hearing, Pickathon
CEO Zale Schoenborn expressed
his appreciation for the backing
they have received from fans and
community members.
“It’s humbling, that level of support.
I feel like a lot of that comes from
being really transparent. We’re pretty
vulnerable in this. It either happens
and we continue, or it doesn’t and we
don’t,” said Schoenborn.
In addition to crowdsourcing
support for the permit renewal,
Pickathon has collaborated with a
local venue, The Showdown, to present
local artists in the bluegrass/country
scene every week. The “Showdown
Saloon” series was launched in
January and will continue up until the
festival in August. The series features
line and square dancing lessons on
Mondays, DJing on Tuesdays and live
music on Wednesdays and Sundays.
Unfortunately, all events at The
Showdown are 21 and over, meaning
underage fans cannot attend.
Pickathon has served as a hallmark
resonator of bluegrass in the Pacific
Northwest for 19 years, and fans of
the festival can rest assured in the
continuation of picking at Pendarvis
Farm for years to come. With the
announcement of the permit renewal,
pre-sale tickets have been released
and are available for purchase on their
website pickathon.com.
FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2024
ARTS 9
GALLERY OFFERINGS
Oregon Society of Artists:
Leading into Abstraction
On view until April 5
2185 SW Park Place
PDX Contemporary Art:
Work After Work: PDX Staff Show
On view through March 30
1825 B NW Vaughn StreetTHIS WEEKEND
15 - Film: “I can Steal Your Mother”
7 p.m. @ Siren Theater
15 - Music: “Conducting Business”
with Marianna Titchey
5 p.m. @ Evans Auditorium
15-17 - Culture: St. Patrick’s Day
Weekend
All Day @ The Pharmacy
16 - Music: Foamboy
1 p.m. @ Mississippi Studios16 - Music: Allison Miller Trio feat.
George Colligan
8 p.m. @ Jack London Revue
16 - Music: Portland Opera presents
Thompson’s “The Snowy Day”
7:30 p.m. @ Newmark Theatre
16 - Theater: “Wolf Play”
7:30 p.m. @ Fir Acres
17 - Culture: St Paddy’s Day Parade
1 p.m. @ Fernwood SchoolAND BEYOND
22 - Art: Outer Voice: Kinds of Time
Gallery Opening
12 p.m. @ Oregon
Contemporary
23-24 - Culture: Thriftapalooza
9 a.m. - 3 p.m. @ Portland Expo
Center
25 - Culture: “Legacy Lost” book
reading
7 p.m. - 8 p.m. @ Annie Bloom’s
Books24 - Music: Slow Hollows
8 p.m. @ Mississippi Studios
26 - Music: Remo Drive
8 p.m. @ Mississippi Studios
27 - Music: TORRES
8 p.m. @ Mississippi Studios Upcoming Events - MarchBy ROBERT MANGER
THIS PAST YEAR, Nicole Seisler
joined Lewis & Clark’s Art
Department as its very own
new assistant professor of ceramics.
With over 30 years of professional
experience at multiple universities,
Seisler sums up her relationship to the
art form neatly.
“This thing with clay and me, it’s
been going on for a while,” Seisler said.
One of the most striking
things about Seisler’s work is her
determination to shift the traditional
vantage of ceramics as a practical
art form to one that encapsulates
something more broad and conceptual.
“When we say utilitarian or
functional ceramics, we usually think
of like cups or bowls. Maybe toilets,
maybe sinks, things that have use
value,” Seisler explains. “And what we
do here, and what I do in my practice,
is much more idea-driven than use-
driven. However, I think that when
we say so-called functional ceramics,
we are doing a kind of a disservice
by only associating that with
utilitarian objects.”
She rejects the preconceived
notions of ceramics as something that
holds merely instrumental value and
reestablishes its role as an artistic
medium for expression.
“Really what I see is a much broader
definition of what functional ceramics
actually means,” Seisler said. “How
does it function in the world? Can it
function to connect us to each other?
Can it function to connect us to place?
Can it function to record?”
Seisler’s answer to all these
questions is a resounding affirmative.
In fact, with an endearing tone,
she asserts that the act of creating
is useful.“I will often say that clay makes me
functional and it’s like this relationship
where I feel very much myself,”
Seisler said.
Seisler’s work draws upon the
relationship between the artist,
collaborator and viewer. Some of her
works begin with a solo endeavor which
becomes more public and participatory
over time. In this way, she facilitates
the participation of meaning-making
through a collaborative work of art.
Seisler is the founder of a continual
project entitled the “State of Ceramics.”
The project hosts virtual meetings that
act as a global forum for dialogue
concerning the state of affairs of
ceramic art. She emphasizes that
all are welcome, whether they have
been a tenured professor of 30 years
or embraced their newfound passion
three months ago. While these were
once held in-person, the COVID-19
pandemic was the cause for the switch
to this virtual format, which provides
the added benefit of bringing together
more interested parties than was
once possible.
The most recent “State of Ceramics”
meeting examined how bricks — one
of the most durable building materials
in architectural history — have
produced and reproduced hegemonic
systems throughout American history.
The group discussed how European
settlers intentionally chose brick
as the material with which to build
prisons, schools and courthouses
on indigenous lands to ensure their
generational survival. The ceramicists
explored in detail how artists can
use the medium of brick without
reifying the same colonial structures
of the past.
Seisler firmly believes in
dismantling barriers to entry for
those with equal passion in the field. This is partly why she also founded
A-B Projects. A-B Projects is an
educational program, which offers
critical dialogue with community
members, material research and
experimentation and an A-B Projects
ceramics certificate.
“I’m creating a set of very
specific parameters in which people
can participate to create meaning
collectively,” Seisler said. “I think
that A-B projects is really indicative
of this aspect of my work, where it’s
an educational platform that exists
outside of academia and is trying to
embrace non-academic roles or, let’s
say, fewer roles, and less hierarchy.
It’s much more of a shared learning
environment where there’s no teacher,
there’s no students, there’s just
participants. And yes, some people
have more of a guiding role in things,
myself included.”
For those looking for a more hands-
on experience that similarly incorporates
discourse surrounding ceramics, Seisler
also directs “Studio Sessions,” which is
an online platform where ceramic artists
guide each other through topic-based
material experiments.
Seisler thinks of “Studio Sessions” as
the cousin to “State of Ceramics.” In a
smaller group of collaborators brought
together virtually under a specific topic,
participants can expect to experiment
with materials toward a specific goal.
While joining “Studio Sessions” requires
a fee, scholarships are available for
those in need of financial aid, another
way in which Seisler attempts to remove
obstacles to participation and creation
via clay.
Seisler describes her current ceramic
practice as a tripod, where the three
legs are directing and curating, teaching
and then making. Each of these aspects
feed into one another. For instance, her work often comes
into the classroom, and research
in the classroom may influence
A-B Projects.
Seisler notes that, given it is only
her second semester here at LC, the
development of the ceramics program
is still in the early stages. She offers
the following for those curious as
to what to expect from one of her
ceramics courses.
“People can expect from
our ceramics program that it’s
unconventional and that they are
going to come here and their kind
of preconceived notions of what ceramics is will not be reinforced.
What someone’s going to encounter
in a ceramics class here will be the
unexpected experimental, the idea-
based, not the utilitarian,” she said. “In
my experience, there’s an expectation
from a lot of students that they’re going
to come here and they’re going to get
on the wheel and they’re going to throw
some pots, and that’s probably the last
thing that they’re gonna end up doing in
the class.”
For more information on Nicole
Seisler and her various projects, visit
A-B Projects.com, NYSProjects.com or
read her profile on the LC website.Seisler shifts art from utilitarian to conceptual
Assistant Professor encourages students to explore creativity in ceramics rather than practice functionality
By ALEXANDRA FLORY
ON A RAINY Thursday, Powell’s
Books was calming down after
a busy day of sales. Customers
meandered around the store looking
for one last book and employees
quietly chatted to one another about
the happenings from the day. But
if a customer were to venture a bit
deeper into the store, walk up to the
third floor and enter the used book
room, they would find a more lively
atmosphere. Here, Cory Doctorow,
an intelligent and energetic author
and blogger, was invited to Powell’s to give a book talk on his newest book,
“The Bezzle.”
The event occurred on Feb. 27 at
7:30 p.m. and was a great success;
every seat in the room was filled
and still more people stood in the back,
lining an entire row of books. The talk
featured passionate monologues about
the technology and finance industries,
Doctorow reading a short excerpt from
“The Bezzle” and, of course, answering
questions from the audience.
Powell’s Books hosts author events
almost every day, inviting authors to
Powell’s to share their work with the
Portland community. The events are completely free, but signed copies of the
books are available for purchase online
and at the event if desired.
Many attendees had a copy of “The
Bezzle” in their laps as they eagerly
listened to the writer speak. Doctorow
began the event by immediately
captivating the audience’s interest with
his high energy level and charisma. He
joked about “The Bezzle” being one
of nine books that he wrote during
quarantine in 2020 and the second
book in a series that he is writing in
reverse order.
Doctorow explained that the “first”
book in this thriller series is “Red Team
Blues” which is set in the present day
and documents the last adventure of
a forensics accountant named Martin
Hench. Hench works to unravel
cryptocurrency schemes and reveal the
shady side of many financial business
deals. But in this book, Hench must
work from the side of the enemy in a job
like he has never done before.
“Red Team Blues” is supposed to act
as the final book in a series about Hench
and his feats, but the catch is that there
were no other books in the series when
he published it. Doctorow explained
gleefully that this means he does not
have to pay attention to foreshadowing
as he writes the rest of the books in the
series because the finale has already
been written. Therefore, “The Bezzle”
is a prequel to a book series that will continue to go farther and farther back
in time with each new publication.
In “The Bezzle,” the time is
2006 and Martin Hench vacations
on Catalina Island off the coast of
California. It is there that he uncovers
a financial scheme involving fast food
and bison. But at the heart of the story
is Hench’s friend who gets arrested
for drug possession and ends up in
prison. Together, the two friends work
to unravel another scheme taking
place at the prison which involves
the ultra wealthy trading inmates like
stock shares.
After a quick synopsis of the book,
Doctorow went on to passionately
engage the audience in a discussion
about the private prison system.
Doctorow carefully explained the
private sector tools that are used
in prisons to maximize profits
while disregarding the inmates.
For example, one scheme that
prison-tech companies use is giving
prisoners devices, such as phones
and tablets, which end up replacing
in-person visits and costing much
more than typical phone calls from
prison. Such schemes like these
treat disadvantaged and other
marginalized people like guinea pigs
for large companies to test out their
technology on. Doctorow’s outrage
at this scheme lies at the core of
“The Bezzle.” After his reading, thoughts of
prisoners and capitalism swirled in the
minds of the audience, and Doctorow
seamlessly answered their questions.
What was perhaps the most noteworthy
and inspiring aspect of the event was
Doctorow’s ability to spin miserable
situations into actionable problems to
solve.
The main takeaway from the event
was that there are always alternatives.
We can change the way the world works
by changing norms and laws that control
how we are in the world. Doctorow even
has an entire blog called “Pluralistic:
Daily links from Cory Doctorow” which
basically acts as a journal that he posts
online for the entire world to see. It is
truly amazing how Doctorow is able to
write extensively about anything and
everything, even enough to create an
entire book.
The event ended in raucous applause
and people lining up to have Doctorow sign
their copies of “The Bezzle.” Thankfully,
Doctorow is not the only one who gets the
opportunity to share their passions and
stories at Powell’s. Almost every day, there
is a new speaker whose ideas can inspire —
all you have to do is seek them out.
Author events occur at both Powell’s
locations in downtown Portland and in
Beaverton. They can be found on Powell’s
website under “Author Events and Talks.”
Copies of “The Bezzle” can be found online
or in-store for $27.99.Powell’s highlights innovative new mystery novel
Sci-Fi author Cory Doctorow releases thrilling techno anti-capitalist sequel to Martin Hench Series
Seisler funds and facilitates participation in artist dialogue called A-B Projects.COURTESY OF NICOLE SEISLER
ALEXANDRA FLORY/THE MOSSY LOG
New York Times bestseller “The Bezzle” flies off the shelves before popular event.
FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2024
SPORTS 10
By WILL TRUNZO
EACH WEEK, the Lewis & Clark
athletics department chooses
two athletes who have made
outstanding contributions to their teams.
These athletes are named the Pios of the
Week. This past week, baseball player
Owen Eisen ’27 and lacrosse player
Finley Allen ’27 were given the award.
Eisen, a pitcher on the baseball
team, pitched six innings against
Puget Sound. Over the course of those
six innings, Eisen achieved three
strikeouts, allowing just two walks,
three hits and no runs.
Eisen, however, redirects praise
onto his teammates.
“I mean, I did pretty good, but it
was also thanks to the team,” said
Eisen. “A lot of them put in some work
not getting many strikeouts and letting
the defense work.”
Coming off of an incredible season
last year, the baseball team is looking to
repeat their accomplishments.
“We’re working our hardest; the
coaches are all helping out. We’re doing
what we need to do as a team to allow
ourselves the best chance to repeat
what we did last year and get to another
regional,” said Eisen.
Allen, a first year midfielder on the
newly formed LC Women’s Lacrosse
Team, has made her presence known
across the three games the team has
played so far. She has scored goals in
each game, along with a total of 10
turnovers and 10 ground balls.
As a new team this year, and with
lacrosse being a predominantly East Coast
sport, the formation of LC’s team has
taken incredible effort and determination
from players and coaches alike.
“I love my team’s commitment,” said
Allen. “We’re really focusing on a culture
of commitment and being able to trust
your teammates”.
Allen reflected further on her
teammates and the cooperative and
supportive environment they are
building together.
“I really love my teammates, they’re
really great,” said Allen. “They push
me, they know when to push me, they
know when not to push me. I love the
friendship we have on and off the field.”
Both the baseball and lacrosse
teams are looking forward to an
exciting season ahead, and you can
find information about their upcoming
games on lcpioneers.com.
TANVI SHUKLA/THE MOSSY LOGHuston Sports Complex renovations
boost softball, baseball opportunitiesPioneers of
week start
new season
By TOR PARSONS
LEWIS & CLARK’S softball and
baseball teams are finally back
on home turf, this time literally.
On Feb. 23, the Huston Sports
Complex, named after LC’s longtime
football coach Joe Huston, reopened
after an eight-month renovation. The
renovation of the baseball and softball
fields near the law school campus
added state-of-the-art press boxes
for journalists, brand new seating
and the first artificial turf field in the
Northwest Conference.
Previously, the stadium’s plastic
seats were secondhand, salvage d from the Kingdome arena in Seattle when it
was torn down in 2000.
Huston Sports Complex opened
in 1979 as a softball field, while the
baseball team moved there from an
off-campus facility the next year. It has
undergone periodic updates since then.
The baseball field added press boxes
in 1993 and the softball field got a new
electronic scoreboard in 2005. However,
the complex had never had a thorough
renovation before, and it showed.
“Huston has been in need of repairs
and upgrades for well over a decade,
and we are so thankful to our
Administration and President Robin
Holmes-Sullivan for supporting this effort,” said Head Softball Coach
Shawna Cyrus.
The $2.5 million renovation started
in July 2023 with a groundbreaking
ceremony attended by President
Holmes-Sullivan and Director of
Physical Education Mark Pietrok.
It was nicknamed the “We Believe!”
project, after the “I Believe!”
catchphrase of Jerry Gatto, who
coached LC’s baseball team from 1981
to 2002. The new baseball diamond is
officially named Jerry Gatto Field.
The renovation is already winning
praise from coaches and students
alike. “We are very excited to have
this beautiful complex,” Cyrus said. Cyrus mentioned the turf playing
surface as a huge improvement over
the grass-and-dirt field the team had
previously played on, as home games
are no longer threatened by the too
often muddy field. She said that before
the renovation, softball players would
regularly have to miss class midweek to
make up games that were canceled due
to mud.
Head Baseball Coach Matt
Kosderka shared this posthumous
gripe with the old field, and the
frustrating conditions the baseball
and softball teams had to deal with.
“Both teams have practiced in the
gym and at Griswold for years, due
to poor weather making the fields at
the Huston Complex unplayable,”
Kosderka said.
He hopes that the new facilities will
free up space in Griswold and Pamplin
for other students and teams to use them.
Both of the soccer programs as well as
women’s lacrosse will also be able to
use the new Huston Complex fields as a
practice space.
During the Fall 2023 season, the
baseball and softball teams practiced at
Ida B. Wells High School in the Hillsdale
neighborhood, while so far this semester,
they exclusively used Pamplin and
Griswold. Cyrus says her team’s first away
games were a challenge, as the players
had little experience playing on an
actual field.
The baseball team’s first game at
their new field was on Feb. 23. The
softball team opened their new digs on
March 9 with a doubleheader against
Willamette University, crushing the
Bearcats 7-0 in the first game and 10-1
in the second.
“I’m so happy for our student-
athletes and alumni to get this kind of
upgrade,” Cyrus said.COURTESY OF LEWIS & CLARK
Updated facilities will allow athletes to practice on campus, and the turf surface will prevent weather related cancellations.
COURTESY OF LEWIS & CLARK
COURTESY OF LEWIS & CLARK
Finley Allen expresses team gratitude.
Pitcher Owen Eisen hopes for regionals.Take me out to the ball game, enjoy eventsFRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2024
SPORTS 11
Injured student athletes reflect on
experiences going through recovery
By LESLIE SANTIAGO
ANDRES
STUDENT ATHLETES , in their
constant efforts in multitasking,
seamlessly juggle the demands of
academics and athletics with the precision
of a seasoned tightrope walker. What
happens when they are injured, and are
thrown off the balance they have worked
so hard to create?
Jordan Lahusky ’26 and Bethany
Ballesteros ’25 both shared their
experiences of being a student athlete
with injuries. Lahusky is both on the
football team and the track and field
team. Ballesteros is on the volleyball team
and was previously also a member of the
track and field team. Both have sustained
impactful injuries, causing them to miss
parts or all of their respective seasons.
As Ballesteros recalled her various
injuries, she
recounted
the many
different
times she
had been
injured,
some
minor and
others more
extreme. During
her volleyball
season, Ballesteros
sustained a concussion
that did not allow her
to play for two weeks
while she recovered.
Around that time, she
also sustained an ankle
injury which caused
her to be put in a boot.
Ballesteros recalled how she
had tried to force herself to
recover faster, not wanting
to sit out, her eagerness to
rejoin the team leaving her body
significantly stressed.
Although her concussion did not
interfere with a majority of the volleyball
season, the stress caused by attempting to get better quickly contributed to her ankle
injury, causing her to miss the track and
field season. The road to recovery proved
to be a tough one, especially since when
being treated for her concussion she was
advised to get lots of rest, something
she mentioned she does not prioritize.
During this time, Lewis & Clark’s
different resources proved to be really
helpful to Ballesteros.
She recalled how unmotivated
she felt and how difficult it became
getting herself to class or anywhere in
general, she explained how helpful her
athletic trainers were in getting her
the resources she needed. They helped
report her concussion, assisted her in
getting academic accommodations and
extensions through the Office of Student
Accessibility. This allowed her to get back
on track with her assignments and in turn
not fall too far behind in her academics.
Ballesteros then explained how
walking around in a cast proved difficult,
remembering that it felt as if she was
losing her independence. She was relying
on others to help her get around, further
demonstrating how much of a mental
challenge this experience was. As she
worked towards recovery, she explained
that her calves were two different sizes,
and how her rehab process was a mental
battle more so than simply a physical
one. She emphasized how her mental
health deteriorated.
“(It) felt like there was nothing
I could do, like my body was just
broken and I couldn’t help it,”
Ballesteros said.
Her
trainers
put
her
in
touch
with the
counseling
center here at LC if she needed someone
else to talk to.
During this process Ballesteros
remembered a program started by one of her classmates, the Mental Health
Validation program designed for
student athletes going through similar
experiences such as Ballesteros to
learn about mental health
and the resources that are
readily available to them.
This program focuses on
providing holistic wellbeing
to athletes and provides
group sessions, workshops
and on-campus counseling
drop in hours for athletes
as well as resources off-
campus. Ballesteros knew
this was a resource she
could utilize, providing
her with a greater sense
of support.
As she recovered, she
came to the realization that
doing both volleyball and
track were not beneficial
to her wellbeing as she was
overworking herself. Having
an impossible decision to make,
Ballesteros decided to withdraw
from the track team in order to
focus solely on volleyball. As she
recounted her experience, she
offered a piece of advice to athletes
struggling with mental health as a
result of injuries.
“It’s a hard journey but it’s one you
have to take, at the end of the day, it’s
worth it to see the growth you make
from recovering from your injury and
being able to play again, just seeing
how much you grow in that time, not
only do you get physically stronger you
get mentally tougher,” said Ballesteros.
She also stated how she did what
she had to do to get back to doing what
she loved. Ballesteros is just one of the
many student athletes here at LC that has
struggled with substantial injuries and
balancing other aspects of her life.
During Lahusky’s first year playing
football, he pulled his hamstring. He
recalled that because the trainers were
there, they were immediately able to help
him. They had him do physical therapy, start rehab and the team doctor was
able to get him a full evaluation.
Similarly to Ballesteros, Lahusky
recalled how his injury was
more of a “mental battle
than a physical one.”
He explained how
having a close support
group and system helped
him to keep a positive
mindset and attitude.
Having previously torn
his ACL during his senior
year of high school,
Lahusky was able to
pull strength from his
previous experiences
with injuries and take
physical therapy very
seriously. As it was his
first year playing college
football, he knew it would
not severely impact his
football journey.
Lahusky offers his advice
to injured student athletes.
“Keep a positive mindset,
take physical therapy very
seriously, focus on getting healthy
again, talk to friends and family, and
know that it will be okay and life will
move on so you gotta keep moving
with it,” said Lahusky.
Student athletes face injuries
all the time. Working to manage
those injuries while being
able to balance other things
such as academics and their
mental health is difficult. As
both Ballesteros and Lahusky
recounted their experiences,
they commend LC’s resources
and support. The road to
recovery is not an easy one and
it is motivating to see how they
have grown and learned from those
injuries. Knowing you are not alone
is an important aspect in recovery.
Their stories provide valuable
understanding and insight into how
one can prioritize their well-being
when faced with an injury.
Editor-in-Chief
Amelia DoyleManaging Editor
Rosalie Zuckermann
News Editors
Emma Ambroziak
Ava FrisonOpinion Editors
Corrina Chan
Tanvi ShuklaFeatures Editors
Leila Diaz
Olivia Fendrich Arts Editors
Caroline Drew
Corryn Pettingill
Sports Editors
Lillian Small
Will TrunzoThe Backdoor Editor
Emma FordVisuals Editor
J FrankCopy Chief
Maya Mazor-Hoofien
Head of Broadcasting
Isaac BabusBusiness Manager
Lauren EvansOutreach Coordinator
Summer Dae BinderWeb Manager
Claire BakkeFaculty Advisor
Molly Robinson
Writers Photographers & Illustrators
Robert Manger*
Ella Dunn*
Alexandra Flory
Leslie Santiago AndresTor Parsons
Fiona Eilers*
Jay Nelson
Eli Kessler
Jessie Shaw*Rose Bialk
Eli Kessler
Ella Dunn*
Olivia Larios**Members of staff teamBy OLIVIA LARIOS
Across
1. With 29 across, phrase often
followed by “goteem”
4. Za baa ba doo da to a Jazz musician
7. How a person might react to being
sliced in the ankle by a razor scooter
8. Service you might call if you have
a flat tire
10. Abbr. for the chocolate capital of
the U.S
11. A roll, en español
13. Famous supreme court case vs. Wade
15. By way of; through
17. Song by Chief Keef with lyrics “it
want this, then want that, swear my
cash is __”
18. “It’s basically like you’re shook”-
Ricky Dillion describing this term
19. The infamous initials of Regulus
Black
21. How some might describe turning
24. Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa song
with lyrics “If there’s marijuana-
ology, I’ll be your mentor”
26. 2012 virtual pet mobile game starring a cute brown “blob”
27. “With _ Without You,” song by U2
28. The popcorn bucket of the second
edition of this movie has gone viral
for looking supple
29. With 1 across, phrase often
followed by “goteem”
Down
1 The means by which Mike Wazowski
might enter a child’s bedroom
2. How you might react to suspicious
smells coming from the Watzeck
bathrooms3. “__ Shang hao”-John Cena
4. Vulcano, one of four impractical
jokers
5. College Board curriculum that tests
students on a scale of 1-5
6. Mongeau, influencer who hosted
a convention that left multiple fans
hospitalized
9. Cuarón, Mexican director of
“Roma” and “Gravity”
11. Less than historically accurate CW
drama about Mary Queen of Scots
12. Female gland in which the eggs are
formed 14. Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master
16. Individual Retirement Account
18. “Norwegian __,” song on Rubber
Soul by The Beatles
20. How you might respond to
someone’s fire freestyle, i.e. “Hold up,
ain’t you Nathaniel B”
22. _ Coin, NFT that many Elon Musk
fans worshiped
23. A large beer or wine cask
25. Elieen, Olympic freestyle skier
27. “__ __, there’s never much love
when we go __”- DrakeDe-stress from midterms, soak up some sun outside with your friends while you solve our fun, new puzzle
LILLIAN SMALL // THE MOSSY LOG
LILLIAN SMALL // THE MOSSY LOGUpcoming
games
Take a study break, march into spring with our new crosswordFriday, March 15
Baseball
vs. Vassar College
Huston Sports Complex
3:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 16
Men’s and Women’s Golf
at Willamette Valley Cup
Creekside Country Club - Salem OR
Rowing
at Oregon Small College Regatta
Henry Hagg Lake - Forest Grove OR
Track and Field
vs. Electric Forest Collegiate Open
Griswold Stadium
Women’s Tennis
vs. University of Oregon Club
Lewis and Clark Tennis Dome
10:00 a.m.
Baseball
vs. Vassar College
Huston Sports Complex
11:00 a.m.
Softball
vs. Pomona-Pitzer
Huston Sports Complex
12:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 17
Men’s and Women’s Golf
at Willamette Valley Cup
Creekside Country Club - Salem OR
Women’s Lacrosse
vs. Pacific University
Griswold Stadium
1:00 p.m.
Men’s and Women’s Tennis
vs. Bellevue College
Lewis and Clark Tennis Dome
1:00 p.m
FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 2024
12Birthday shoutouts in the Backdoor, going
cheap! Like everything else about us...
Spring Break is coming, even if you may not be
Mid-semester getaways accommodate narrow budgets, combat crippling dread about outside world
By ROSALIE ZUCKERMANN
WELL FRIENDS, we have finally,
nearly made it to Spring Break.
After more than sufficient
bitching about Fall Break being one day
off instead of the usual two that we oh-so-
rightfully deserve (screw you, leap year),
the second mid-semester reprieve has
rolled around, not a moment too soon.
Yet perhaps in the panicked haze of
all your Red Bull-fueled late night essay
writing sessions (spiked Yerba Mate-
fueled 11:59 p.m. Moodle posts, I mean),
you have forgotten to make plans for this
most eagerly awaited week. Gasp! With
how you have been marking off the days
on your Instagram story countdown, one
might have thought this desired date
was going to rival that trip to Italy you
went on with your grandparents when
you were 10 and will not shut up about.
Instead, you now face an intimidating
stretch of time you must make the most
of, because how else would you show all
those assholes from high school that you
have been Straight Up Thriving?
Lucky for you, I have compiled an
expert list of Spring Break plans in which
you are sure to find something that tickles
your fancy. Whether you like a lavish week
of sunbathing on beaches (oh my god
beaches? Sooo funny you say that, this is
reminding me of the time I went to Italy!)
or hibernating in a nest of dirty sheets,
empty Dorito bags and your ex’s Disney+
subscription, this last week of March has
something special in store for you.
Bougie on a Budget
Have you been lusting after the Spring
Break of the movies you saw about college
back when you were 13 and did not know
that wine spritzers do not come in spray
bottles, but Cancun is out of your budget?
Fear not, humble citizen. Simply roll up
to the delicatessen of plastics that is your
average big box store and load up the
essentials: one (1) kiddie pool, f(n) lawn
chairs, f(n) beverages, f(n) silly straws
and (optional) one (1) plastic flamingo.
“N” being the number of people you
commune with — there, I dredged up high
school pre-calc to throw in a joke for you
math majors.
I have since been informed by another
editor that my math is “not correct.” This
is what happens when you let English
majors out of Miller. My sincerest
apologies to Isaac Newton’s ghost, Maya
Mazor-Hoofien and my uncle who wanted
me to be a chemist.Depending on your budget and
whether you have taken Econ 100, you
have a few options. You can shoplift
said items (I bet that “retro” jean jacket
you stole from your dad’s closet could
hide a kiddie pool), take out a bank loan
(filed under your sugar daddy’s name, of
course) or actually buy them with your
hard-earned money from those morning
Bon shifts (I speak from experience. It is
a dark time emptying cantaloupe from
giant buckets at 7 a.m.)
Next, set up your haul on one of
campus’s many lawns, invite your friends
and camp out with your feet in the pool
and a wine spritzer in hand (look how far
you have come!). Soak up the blissfully
temperate 65 degree Portland spring and
bask in your luxurious frugality — you
can practically feel the warm sand of the
tropics between your toes. Oh wait, that
is the Costco sized Fun Dip that Derek
spilled in the pool. Same difference!
(Warning: You may need to fill up
your kiddie pool in a dorm bathroom.
It is okay, I promise. You will not get as
many weird looks as you did when you
gave your cat a mullet over the sink.)
Full Worm Mode
Is social interaction feeling like too
much work? Is the joy of seeing the sun
again fading now that you have to put
on sunscreen? Is the prospect of leaving
your residence hall burdening you with
the soul-crushing weight of human
existence? Simply give in (said in a
reassuring and empowering tone).
There is no need to succumb to the
pressures of FOMO; instead, build your
own FOMO (Free Of Motherfucking
Obligations). Stock up on frozen
pizzas and do some teeth exercises
to strengthen your molars so you can
chisel away at that rock-hard pepperoni
without having to warm it up in the oven
like your average wimp. Build a blanket
cocoon and crank up your box fan to the
highest setting to stave off heat stroke.
Most important of all, leave your
laptop plugged in 24 hours a day so
you never risk it running out of battery,
lest you be forced to use a typewriter
by candlelight or some other caveman
shit. The possibilities on this magical
screen are endless: binge watching Love
is Blind, DMing the long distance lover
whom you have never met or playing
some video game I have never heard of
because apparently I live under a rock
(fine, I love typewriters and candlelight
too, you got me!!).Please Get Me Out of Here
Neither of these options making
your timbers shiver with excitement?
I suppose I can pull out one more
idea, likely with the success that most
pulling-out attempts result in.
You have made it to the end of this
article because you have an itch for
traveling that has not been scratched
by a plastic flamingo (or because I am
hilarious and charming, that is probably
it). So, let us get off Palatine Hill in
whatever way suits you. Plane, train,
even the back of a motorcycle if you
insist on being that sexy.
Maybe you have deep pockets and
can fund that Miami AirBnB you have
had your eye on. If so, please bring a
swimsuit. “Any beach is a nude beach if
you are naked” is not a great policy in a
state with more retirement homes than
unbanned books.
Maybe you play it closer to home
and take a jaunt up Mt. Hood. After
all, lodging is free if you are willing to
sleep on the ground. College Outdoors
kids will either lend you a foam pad or
teach you how to love the backaches —
it hurts so good! Other perks of camping
include: Pooping in a hole gives you
ripped squatting muscles (what are
those, quads?), Bon food will taste
amazing after a week of freeze dried
soups and nobody will be around to
hear the weird-ass sex noises you make
with your polycule.
Alternatively, get a friend who
has tons of extended family scattered
around the country and stay with them.
This will be my third time spending
Spring Break with my roommate’s
aunt, and it is not even the same aunt!
How many does she have? The mystery
continues to unfold.
If you decide to go this route, I highly
recommend buying tiny plastic babies
in bulk to hide around your host’s
house. The power trip of imagining a
woman you just met emptying her ice
cube tray to find a small toy infant now
floating in her diet Coke is unmatched.
So there you have it, brethren of
Lewis & Clark. No matter how you spend
this ever-so-special blip in the chaos
that is the sprint between midterms
and finals, I have the surest confidence
you can find something to brag and/or
complain about. After all, how dare they
take away one day of Fall Break? We
should get two weeks for Spring Break!
A month! You know what, let us just go
home for summer now and call it a year.
From monsters to members, Mt. Rushmore glows-up
Sociological, anthropological research proposes new visage for outdated symbol of American exceptionalism
By OLIVIA FENDRICH
AS A SOAN major , I often find
myself confronted with our
campus’ harshest realities:
athlete team-cest, the proliferation of
white Hispanic Studies majors and the
ever-relevant myth that you can smoke
enough weed to get off. My studies
have taken me from the depths of the
Hu Media Lounge to the trail in Tryon
where my roommate got her back
blown out. But for my thesis project,
I have decided to examine an issue at
the heart of modern American politics:
Why the fuck have we not updated
Mount Rushmore?
I spoke to dozens of LC students
to determine who should replace our
geriatric heads of state upon that
beauteous mountain range. It is high
time LC leaves its mark on this country
for something other than colonialism
(the fact that Mt. Rushmore itself
is a symbol of colonialism with a
controversial history of contentious land
ownership, did not occur to me until it
was too late to back out).
My first interviewee was Ella D.
Generous ’24.
“Yeah, Hunter Biden, for sure,” she
said between epic bong rips. “Keep it
in the family! Modern presidents don’t
deserve to be there, but he did coke, so
he’s cool.”
Indeed, Mr. Biden’s known penchant
for speeding through residential neighborhoods and drug indulgence
makes him an appealing role model
for the average LC deadbeat looking to
branch out into the harder stuff.
It is worth noting that the looks I
got from studying Mr. Biden’s lewds
on the Bon TVs indicate that not every
student is in agreement. Apparently
riding water slides with hookers while
nude is not as based as it seems. God
forbid a man likes to smoke a little
crack once in a while.
While making my stoned
evening trudge to the Tamarack
vending machines, I tripped over
Psychology major Carlie Jung ’25
who was lying prostrate on the floor.
Jung was watching TikToks like
pre-cancellation-Shane Dawson watched
cat videos, with a twisted fascination for
the limits of the human body. Naturally,
I had to ask her who she thought most
deserved their bulbous form carved into
the nation’s landscape.
“Personally, I’m pro-Gypsy Rose
Blanchard. Bitch has a freaky side,” Jung
said. She peeled herself off the floor
revealing a cropped t-shirt that read
“It’s Four Loko Friday” and a red, mildly
infected belly button piercing. Cute!
At this point, I was certain I had
the answers to my research question.
But just to be sure, I consulted with my
upstairs neighbor, Gay Mike ’24. Gay
Mike, named so for his sexuality and
NOT because he is mirthful, has had
his finger on the zeitgeist since he came flying out the womb. I followed the
sound of Troye Sivan’s “Rush” blasting
through the Juniper hallways, making
my way toward this beacon of truth.
I knocked on Gay Mike’s door and he
opened it with dramatic flair. I explained
my research undertaking.
“Wig,” Gay Mike said, with a pop of
his tongue.
Gay Mike proceeded to spill his
poppers on me, giving me mild chemical
burns. Luckily, this has happened to
him before and he was able to use his
WFR (Wet Fucking Rectum) training
to administer first aid. Between gasps
of agony and hits of my pen, I decided
it was the perfect time to ask him who
he thought deserved to replace our
presidents on Mount Rushmore.
“Lady Gaga!” he responded,
performing a triple Axel jump into a back
handspring. “Wait!” he said, giving a
dramatic pause. “Drake’s dick,” he said.
Gay Mike arched his eyebrow and pursed
his lips, mewing with the resoluteness of
a true genius.
“That’s it!” I realized. The
single greatest unifying force of our
generation — Champagne Papí’s, ah,
champagne papí.
I raced back to my dorm room,
eager to inform my thesis advisor of this
revelation. My research has the potential
to start a national movement. Until the
day Mt. Rushmore the Remix drops, I
will see you at the Chromatica Ball, you
filthy sluts.COURTESY OF NOAH BOYARSKY
ELLA DUNN/THE MOSSY LOG