WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2010 • PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY • VOLUME 64, ISSUE 102
Event of the day If you’re interested in volunteering for this year’s Roots Festival, make sure to attend today’s planning meeting. The festival theme this year is multicultural sustainability.
When: 2 p.m. Where: SMSU Multicultural Center
WWW.DAILYVANGUARD.COM • FREE
INSIDE NEWS
Help for students in distress
Chiron Studies program seeks new leadership Hallman, coordinator of the unique program, leaves large shoes to fill PAGE 2
Resources for Students Campus-based Resources Counseling and Psychological Services: 503-725-2800 Dean of Students: 503-725-4422 Vice Provost for Student Affairs: 503-725-5249 Campus Public Safety: 503-725-4407 (non-emergency number) Outside Resources Multnomah County Crisis Line (24-hr): 503-988-4888 Cascadia 24-hr Urgent Walk-in Clinic: 2415 SE 43rd Ave. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK
ARTS
Hazard: Explosively telepathic women
Palo Verde has no idea what they will play tonight PAGE 4 Game Maker
Warioware DIY puts you in the developer’s chair PAGE 4
Vice provost’s office provides information and resources for crisis prevention Vinh Tran Vanguard staff
Putting a face to strangers
Gus Van Sant shows off his newest artistic endeavor PAGE 5
OPINION
The right to peaceful Park Blocks
Angry religious preaching needs to go PAGE 6 Disturbing protections Open-air street preachers have every right to preach on campus PAGE 6
Liana Shewey/Portland State Vanguard
SHAC: A resource for students in need of counseling.
Following the death of a student nearly two weeks ago, the Student Affairs office released a letter to the university community advising how to look for signs of distress in students.
The death has impacted the community heavily, and Student Health and Counseling Center counselors and support staff have been providing counseling for classes and students, said Jackie Balzer, vice provost of Student Affairs. The university is committed to providing an environment conducive for students to learn, grow and succeed. Supporting students who may be experiencing personal or emotional distress is an important aspect of that commitment, according to the letter.
Balzer highlights some of the signs that a student who is distressed might exhibit, which include: excessive class absences, declining academic performance, poor emotional control, excessive moodiness, changing sleep and eating habits, excessive concern about personal health, bouts of depression, talk of suicide and engaging in risky behavior. This is a high-risk time for some because, as the season changes and many people’s moods begin to lift, those left suffering with depression can feel isolated, Balzer said.
OIT upgrades and fixes PSU expands digital storage space and recovers from McAfee anti-virus update Sharon Rhodes Vanguard staff
Last Friday, the Office of Information Technology implemented an upgrade which temporarily disabled access to certain student network drives. During the upgrade, students and faculty could not gain access to files because OIT was working on that specific portion of PSU’s computing system, said Sharon Blanton, chief information officer for OIT. “We specifically chose Friday night so it wouldn’t be a busy time,” she said. The OIT staff completed the upgrade on schedule, allowing students and faculty to access their files by 6 a.m. on Saturday. In addition, no one encountered difficulties and the upgrade went smoothly, according to Blanton. The upgrade was performed to update the Storage Area Network, in order to increase storage space.
“We just keep consuming space,” Blanton said. A SAN is a “network whose primary purpose is the transfer of data between computer systems and storage elements,” according to IBM’s Introduction to Storage Area Networks. Essentially, it connects a server to the physical storage devices. According to Blanton, many classes at PSU use programs that create really large files, such as Geographic Information Systems courses and art classes. Overall, Portland State’s growing population and the increase in the use of technology for the purposes of both education and research require larger and larger amounts of digital storage space. Recently, OIT was also faced with the McAfee anti-virus software problem, which has since been eradicated. The update McAfee released on April 21 inadvertently deleted a file essential to the Windows operating system, causing many campus computers running Windows XP to shut down or shut down and reboot incessantly, Blanton told the Vanguard.
Marni Cohen/Portland State Vanguard
Jackie Balzer
McAfee released a software fix later that day and OIT staff began testing immediately. According to Blanton, about 750 computers required the fix distributed by McAfee. “You just feel so bad when people are in a class and computers are going berserk,” she said. However, by the end of that night, OIT staff had restored all of the affected computers to their original capacity.
She also advises friends and family to get students in distress in touch with professional resources on campus. The Student Health and Counseling Center offers confidential counseling to students from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. on Monday through Thursday and from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Friday. Additionally, SHAC advises students to call the Multnomah County Crisis Line, which is available 24 hours a day at 503-988-4888.
“We had everything recovered by the time people came back the next day,” Blanton said. No one at PSU lost data and the McAfee bug did not adversely affect any hardware. According to the Computer Action Team’s website, which operates and maintains the computers of the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, the faulty McAfee update affected no more than five of the MCECS computers. Unlike OIT, the CAT does not instantly install automatic updates, and therefore did not suffer nearly as much from the update as the rest of campus.
Liana Shewey/Portland State Vanguard
OIT: Making upgrades to accomodate the need for additional data storage space.