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UP Speech & Debate Union To Attend National Tournament

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Speech and Debate pictureThe University of Portland Speech and Debate Union competed at the Earl Wells Memorial Speech and Debate Tournament at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore., over the weekend of February 22-23. Based on the team’s success, the UP Speech and Debate Union will attend the Pi Kappa Delta National Comprehensive Tournament in Indianapolis, Indiana, March 21-23. Students were awarded the following honors at the tournament in Corvallis:

 

 

  • Patrick Dolan (freshman, biochemistry) won a Bronze Medal for finishing in the top 6 in the Novice division of debate.
  • Lakshmi Diener (freshman, communication studies) won 3rd place in the Novice division of Persuasive Speaking.
  • Elizabeth Hartley (junior, biology) won 1st place in the Open division of Extemporaneous Speaking.
  • Lisa Holm (sophomore, communication studies) won a Bronze Medal for finishing in the top 6 in the Novice division of debate and won 5th best speaker in that division.
  • Katie Wilson (junior, political science) won 5th best speaker in the Open division of debate.
  • Karina Agbisit (freshman, environmental studies) won 4th place in the Novice division of Persuasive Speaking.

For more information contact co-directors Brian Simmons at 8025 (simmonsb@up.edu), or Bohn Lattin at 7352 (lattin@up.edu).

Sourced from UpBeat.

Mock Trial Team Heading to Nationals, Sets Record

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MockTrialThe University of Portland Mock Trial team competed at the annual Pacific Northwest Regional qualifier for Nationals on February 22-23, at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Ore. The team set a University of Portland record with seven wins and one loss, placing third out of 18 teams, according to coach Aaron Johnson of the University’s political science department. The UP team will advance to the national Opening Round Championship Tournament being held in Washington, D.C., March 21-23. Other teams in the PNW regional competition include Gonzaga, Reed College, WSU, UC-Berkeley, Stanford, University of Washington, and others.

The UP team took five individual awards home from the tournament. Seniors Eileen Kannengeiser, Lyndsey Tsuruda, and Amanda Danforth were all awarded with outstanding witness honors. Amanda Danforth and Eileen Kannengeiser were also awarded with Outstanding Attorney honors. Team members are Brendan Bewley, Susanna Sprinson, Eileen Kannengeiser, Amanda Danforth, Lyndsey Tsuruda, London Ballard, Edward Richter, Jennifer Perkins, Elvia Gaona, Nicola Plate, Arreli Arredondo, Joshua Cleary, Triton Pitassi, Jacob San Agustin, Emily Strand, and Katherine Miller. Assistant coaches Kathya Acuna ’12 and Jeremiah Swisher, both alumni of the Mock Trial program, have been volunteering their time to help the team this year as well.

For more information contact Johnson at 7274 or johnsocu@up.edu.

Sourced from UpBeat.

Mock trial ‘A’ team heads to D.C.

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mock-trial 1-300x225UP’s mock trial “A” team will travel to Washington, D.C. in late March to compete in the American Mock Trial Association’s Opening Round Championship Series after placing third in the Pacific Northwest Regional Tournament in Corvallis, Ore. last weekend.

The “A” team won seven out of eight trials over the course of the weekend-long tournament, a record for them. They also received five individual awards, including seniors Lyndsey Tsuruda, Amanda Danforth and Eileen Kannengeiser for Outstanding Witness, and Danforth and Kannengeiser again for Outstanding Attorney. The “B” team won three and lost five trials at the same tournament.

Kathya Acuña, an assistant coach for the mock trial team, is proud of the work both teams accomplished at the tournament and this season.

“We’ve restructured the team to be a lot more competitive,” Acuña said. “The way it’s structured now, it gives the students more room to push themselves to be better and the team has done extremely well.”

UP’s mock trial teams competed against 10 other universities from the area, including Gonzaga, University of Washington and Stanford. Senior Susie Sprinson, a member of the “A” team, said it was a tough competition but their hard work is paying off.

“We just practice a lot and it showed,” Sprinson said. “I think this was the first time we’ve had a group of people on the ‘A’ team who are very dedicated to having the same goals in the competition, and that helped to bring us together and work hard over the weekend.”

The “A” team’s high placement in the Pacific Northwest Regional allowed it to advance to the Opening Round Championship Series. Different opening round series take place around the country, and the top teams from each opening round series will advance to the National Championship Tournament in Orlando, Fla. in April.

The “A” team was originally supposed to attend the Opening Round Championship Series in Newport Beach, Calif., but the team requested to attend the opening round series in Washington, D.C. because it will give them more time to prepare. Otherwise, the team would only have two weeks to prepare to compete at the national level.

Acuña said this preparation time is crucial because the case they’ve been studying all season changes at the national level. This year’s case, which involved large-scale ticket fraud in an amusement park, was originally interpreted as a robbery case, but now it has changed to a murder case.

“Newport is the first round of opening round championships, and Corvallis was one of the last regional competitions, so it gave us a short turnaround to prepare for the national level,” Acuña said. “We would have been at a disadvantage.”

Competing in Washington, D.C. will expose the “A” team to different teams and judges than they have previously encountered. According to Acuña, many of these teams, like Rutgers and Princeton, have different styles of coaching and argument that UP’s team will have to adjust to.

“They’re very intense programs that have a very high caliber,” she said. “It’s not necessarily something to worry about, but our students will need to devote full time to preparing.”

The Opening Round Championship Series will take place in Washington, D.C. on March 22-23, hosted by the University of Virginia.

Sourced from Beacon

Communication Students Give Out Roses and Chocolates for Valentine’s Day

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Valentine’s Day on the Bluff came one day early yesterday as three senior Organizational Communication students, lead by Rohan Innis, decided to give out some gifts to their school community.

The university is proud of its students, especially when they go out of their way to perform acts of kindness and spread a little happiness and joy.

Rohan Innis is part of a YouTube film team called NoBalancefilmworks and saw this as more than just a video for their channel. “I just thought it would be nice to spread some love around my campus,” Innis said, “This is a great school and it’s been very good to me. I just want to show a little love.”

The camera man for the day was Senior An Nguyen, who says,”The project was a little bit different than the stuff that we usually do. It was great to see how happy all of those people were! The other guys and I definitely want to start doing some more projects like this.”

Film team member Terran Benedict says, “the whole idea was meant to be a little humorous and lighthearted but really we have a lot of love for our school and this video shows it.”

The young men sought out a forth perspective from their friend Vanny Chao, who is studying Biology here at the University. “We needed a female’s perspective,” said Nguyen, “she helped us a lot with the approach.”

Rohan received a lot of hugs and praise from students, faculty and staff on campus yesterday.

After passing out over two dozen roses, Rohan was all smiles as he says, “Words can’t describe how pleased I am. Saw a lot of smiling faces today. Can’t ask for more then that!”

You can see more from these young film makers on their comedy sketch channel on YouTube at www.youtube.com/nobalancefilmworks

Biology Research Student Joins the Anti-ivy League

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Any student that has driven or hiked through Forest Park has probably noticed the ivy overtaking a majority of the flora. A commuter student who drives through Forest Park, junior biology and German studies major Katelin Stanley, has noticed, and was inspired to do something about it.

Stanley conducts research in an effort to solve the problem of this invasive plant species.

“We’re studying how we can fight the problem of English ivy,” Stanley said. “It’s taking over all the trees and it’s forming dense mats on the understory that we think is preventing other plants from being able to break through, so that’s suppressing the native plants from growing there.”

This is not Stanley’s first time doing experiential learning. She studied abroad for a year in Salzburg and hopes to go into biological field work or research directly after graduation.

This project has the potential to benefit the University of Portland, as well as the greater Portland community. Stanley will report her findings to the Parks and Recreation Department as part of the permit she was granted to do the research, which will be published at their discretion. Additionally, it may reinforce or challenge the effectiveness of one of the service projects typically done at UP by freshman during freshman orientation week.

“One of the service projects that they do here is clearing ivy, and we want to see if that’s an effective method for keeping the ivy down,” Stanley said. “I’m hoping to find that clearing ivy can enhance more native diversity and abundance, so we’re giving the little guys a chance.”

For this independent research project, which is being conducted in Forest Park, Stanley will remove ivy from test plots and compare what grows back there to what is able to grow under the ivy mats.

“My favorite aspect of the project is that it forces me to get out into nature no matter the weather,” Stanley said. “I also experience a feeling of triumph whenever I find a little waterleaf or bigleaf maple seedling buried beneath the ivy mat.”

The project is being taken on with the guidance of biology professors David Taylor and Christine Weilhoefer. Taylor has previously worked with students completing research projects.

“By doing research, students are getting to understand the world around them more,” Taylor said. “Understanding what surrounds us is of fundamental importance.”

Stanley will also have several students helping her with the initial stage of her project by removing ivy.

One such student is junior mechanical engineering major Blair Pearson.

“I’ve never met anyone so driven,” Pearson said of Stanley. “Doing your own research and being a self-starter is on a different level (of undergraduate research).”

Sourced from Beacon

U. of P. Speech and Debate Union’s Performance Earns No. 7 Ranking

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Speech and Debate picture

The University of Portland Speech and Debate Union’s performance at competitions this year has earned the program a No. 7 ranking among all universities in its division in the six-state Western region of the United States, according to team coach and advisor Brian Simmons, communication studies. This ranking, Simmons is proud to point out, is higher than many larger, public institutions including Portland State, Montana State, Utah State, Humboldt State, and other private institutions including Seattle University, Reed College, and George Fox University.

Speech & Debate Union Results

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Speech and Debate picture

The University of Portland’s Speech and Debate Union competed last weekend at the Fred Scheller Memorial Speech and Debate Tournament at Pacific University, according to Brian Simmons, communication studies. Congratulations are due to the following students on their impressive accomplishments at that speech and debate tournament:

Patrick Dolan (FR, biochemistry) finished in the top 10 and earned the 7th Best Speaker overall in the Novice division.

Lakshmi Diener (FR, communication studies) finished in the top 10 and earned the 1st Best Speaker overall in the Novice division.

Chelsea Roberts (JR, communication studies) finished in the top 15 and earned the 11th Best Speaker overall in the Junior division.

John Russell (SR, civil engineering) finished in the top 4 and earned the 10th best Speaker overall in the Open division).

For more information contact Simmons at 8025 or simmonsb@up.edu.

Learn More about the Noyce Scholars and Interns Program

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The Noyce Scholars and Interns Program at the University of Portland is a comprehensive partnership between the University’s College of Arts and Sciences, the Shiley School of Engineering, the School of Education, the Moreau Center for Service and Leadership at UP, Saturday Academy, and Portland Public Schools. The main goal of the program is to increase the number of highly-trained K-12 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) teachers graduating from the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) program at the University who teach in high-needs schools. The Noyce Program provides scholarships and paid internships for students and professionals in STEM fields who want to become teachers.

There are three strands of the Noyce Program. Two strands are for undergraduate STEM majors (biology, biochemistry, chemistry, environmental science, mathematics, physics, civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science). The third strand is for career-changing STEM professionals who are interested in completing the MAT degree and becoming a K-12 teacher.

Noyce Program for MAT Students
MAT Noyce Scholars will be career-changing STEM professionals enrolled in the UP MAT program.  MAT Noyce Scholars must have an undergraduate degree in a STEM field. Each scholar will be supported with a $20,000 scholarship. Each MAT Noyce Scholar will be obligated to serve for two years in a highneeds school as a requisite for receiving the scholarship. Scholars who do not complete the service requirement will have to repay a pro-rated amount based on the number of years served.

Eligibility
Applications for the Noyce Interns Program, the Noyce Scholars Program, and the Noyce Scholars Program for MAT students are due February 1. MAT Scholars must have an undergraduate degree in a STEM field. Applicants must be US citizens, nationals, or permanent residents. At UP, STEM includes physics, chemistry, math, engineering (mechanical, electrical, and civil), computer science, biology, and environmental science. Twenty-five percent of the students selected will be math, computer science, and engineering majors. Noyce Scholar (both Undergraduate and MAT) selection criteria will include financial need as demonstrated by the FAFSA, minimum 3.0 GPA, character traits of successful teachers (verbal skills, human interaction, and leadership), and strong evidence of the candidate’s ability to teach youth in a high needs and culturally diverse setting. Qualitative factors will be assessed using a personal interview, a personal essay describing why the applicant has selected this career path, and three letters of recommendation from current professors and/or employers. For Scholar applicants, particular weight will be placed on recommendation letters from a cooperating classroom teacher, summer camp employer such as SA or AVID, the discipline-specific service-learning instructor, and/or supervisory teachers for volunteer placements.
More Information
Visit the Noyce webpage at www.up.edu/noyce or contact the program PI, Stephanie Salomone, at salomone@up.edu

Pilots race and volunteer at Portland Marathon

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By Cassie Sheridan | From The Beacon

There is something inexplicable about the magic of a marathon. Maybe it’s 10,000 sets of Nikes hitting the pavement in unison. Maybe it’s imagining the amount of miles logged by those bodies in months and years of training. Regardless, on Sunday, Willamette Blvd. was part of that magic.  For some students, the Portland Marathon meant a frustrating detour and roadblocks. For others, it was a day that had been circled for months on their calendar.

The true spirit of the marathon doesn’t occur on race day, it happens in the months before. That’s when the stories and events that brought all those individuals together for the ultimate test of mental and physical endurance occur.  These stories are the reason people run.

On Sunday, UP students, whether they were runners, pacers or volunteers contributed a little bit of their own magic to the Portland Marathon.

Marathon

For senior Colin Root, the Portland Marathon represented the opportunity to set a goal and beat it.

“Last year, I decided my goal was to get under 3 hours,” Root said. “I love to test myself and my body. There is something special about going out there and doing something you don’t think you are capable of.”

Root certainly was able to accomplish something most individuals are not capable of.

“I kept a really solid 6:30 mile pace,” Root said. “When I crossed the finish, I was disoriented but knew I had gotten under 3 hours. It’s awesome to know I will always be able to say ‘In college I ran a 3-hour marathon’ even if I never run one again.”

Root said his ROTC training was essential to his preparation and ROTC provided a great support team.

Root had senior Vince Dato-on meet him at mile 20 and help him keep pace for what is traditionally perceived as the hardest three to five miles of the marathon.

“I hit runner’s wall at mile 20 and Vince met me there and ran with me,” Root said. “I was hurting and wanting to slow down but he helped me keep pace, which was essential.”

A 3-hour marathon placed Root within the top handful of finishers.

Root said he was just happy to find a good outlet for all the ROTC training.

For junior Katie Kerr, this year’s marathon was far tougher than her last.

“Last year when I ran the marathon, I trained so much,” Kerr said. “This year was a lot harder run. Luckily, I had two great friends run with me to help me stay motivated.”

Kerr loves to run the Portland Marathon because it is such a positive environment.

“All my housemates came out and cheered for me,” Kerr said. “I had junior Josh Cleary run ten miles with me and keep me motivated and Vince came back from running with Colin to help me too. The support made it so wonderful, despite the tough run.”

Kerr believes anyone can run a marathon, if they set a goal and just work towards it.

“The awesome thing about running is accessibility,” Kerr said. “Anyone can get out there and just run.  I want everybody to run a marathon. It is such a positive experience.”

Half Marathon

Ten years ago, junior Maria Etheridge lost her grandma. Coincidentally, 10 years later, Etheridge was considering running her first half marathon.

“I never thought I could run that much,” Etheridge said. “Then I just had a rough spring and really needed something to work towards.  I told my dad about my goal and he told me he would run it with me. We then found out the race was the same date as my grandma’s death and it just felt like something incredible that my dad and I could do together in honor of her.”

Etheridge said the overwhelming support from her friends and family helped her achieve her goal.

“It was so special for every reason.  My whole family came down from Washington to watch and cheer for us,” Etheridge said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better day.”

Pacers

Senior Vincent Dato-on ran alongside not just one marathoner, but two.  Dato-on met Root at the St. Johns Bridge and ran around four miles with him before looping back around and meeting Kerr to run another three miles.

“I ran the marathon last year,” said Dato-on. “However, this year I really wanted to just help motivate people to accomplish their goals. I knew Colin really wanted to get that 3-hour finish and so it was awesome to be able to help motivate him to finish strong.”

Junior Josh Cleary has never ran an official marathon, but thinks with the amount of miles he has logged pacing people he may as well have.

“I don’t have an official finisher shirt,” Cleary said. “I feel like I should though. I have almost run the whole thing a couple of times. It’s so much easier to have someone there running with you than trying to keep that pace all by yourself.”

Volunteers

For most college students, waking up at 7:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning is the last thing on their to-do list. However, bright and early on Willamette Blvd., about 20 UP students crowded around Richard Gritta, a business professor who has ran the marathon many times in the past, to volunteer.

Despite the chilly morning dew and the late supply delivery truck, volunteers persevered and handed out water until noon.

“It was really special to see so many other students come out at 7 a.m. on a Sunday morning,” said junior volunteer Megan Tienken. “Everyone worked together and collaborated to make our water station successful.”

Students dissatisfied with library hours

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By Emily Neelon | (From The Beacon)

Every night the Clark Library swells with students. After its $12.5 million renovation, the library features innovative study spaces, classrooms and technology for student use. With all that it has to offer, the library is a popular space for Pilots to both study and relax after a long day. But its limited hours have become an issue for many students. After a promise of 24-hour access, the library’s hours have been reinstated to the original hours before the renovation: 7:30 a.m.. to midnight Monday through Thursday, 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to midnight Sunday.

“We didn’t plan to have it open in the sense of it being staffed 24 hours, but we did plan to have students and faculty being able to access the library after we closed,” said Drew Harrington, dean of the library.

A few weeks before the reopening of the library, University President Fr. Bill Beauchamp made the decision to reduce the library hours. When he addressed The Beacon Editorial Board  Aug. 22, he said he didn’t see a need for the library to be open 24 hours and that it might encourage unhealthy schedules for students, but that library hours would be reevaluated if needed.

“At that time, Father Beauchamp indicated that he was not comfortable doing that, and he wanted to continue monitoring usage, so he asked us to keep our old hours,” Harrington said. “I was disappointed. I thought it was an unfortunate choice, but I respect the fact that that was his choice”.

Harrington has received little feedback about the change, but ASUP received multiple complaints from students.

“Students were certainly shocked when the library was not open for 24 hours,” ASUP President Quin Chadwick said. “Every single person on my executive board has had students complain about it or at least voice their opinion.”

Some students have found it difficult to find an alternate study space once the library has closed.

“The only other place to (study) would be my dorm in my room” sophomore Anna Stucki said. “It’s not ideal”.

Chadwick believes this issue especially affects commuter students.

“They don’t have enough time to study in the sense that they don’t have enough time in a dedicated location,” Chadwick said. “Many students, especially off campus, use the library as their source of study space”.

A common complaint from students is with the extensive renovations done to the library, students should be granted more access.

“I definitely think they have to extend the hours, especially with the amount of money they put into it,” sophomore Andrew Jacobs said.

For some other students, the library’s current hours meet their needs.

“There has not been a single time when I’ve needed to use the library past midnight,” freshman Joe Dummer said.

However, Chadwick, Dummer, Jacobs and Stucki unanimously agreed on one thing: the library’s hours must be extended during finals.

“It would actually be nice if the library was open 24/7 during finals,” Jacobs said.

According to Harrington, the hours will be extended during finals.

ASUP is working with Harrington and Provost Thomas Greene to release a survey to gather student feedback on the library hours.

“It certainly is the main focus of ASUP’s mind right now,” Chadwick said.