This Week
INSIDE
UP drama,
bring us a
dream!
That’s ex-
actlywhal
the performing and fine
arts department is doing
with the current produc¬
tion of the surrealist
drama, A Dream Play,
which takes the stage in
Mago Hunt through
Sunday. The curtain on
this production goes up
on Page 7.
Adjuncts are
people, too.
So why
doesn’t this
University give
them the compensation
and respect they de¬
serve? This week’s
editorial points out why
adjunct professors are a
valuable part of this
campus on Page 2.
Basketball is
back on The
Bluff, and
both teams
tip off the season with
high hopes. Hoop action
highlights are on Pages
11 and 12.
Student volun¬
teers involved
with the REX
program get
the opportunity to put
their lives in perspective
while helping the dis¬
abled. The story on Page
5 will let you know if
this is the service activity
for you.
Dorm forums reveal University agenda
UP officials ask residents what they
think about proposed changes J
Photo by TIM CONNELLY
Rumors that Christie Hall would become an all senior dorm circulated, but it will
remain open to every class, at least for now.
By JOE FREEMAN _
Asst. News Editor
Rumors concerning dorm
reconfigurations have been circu¬
lating throughout the University
campus over the last month, but as
of now, there are no plans for major
changes.
“My guess would be that we
wouldn’t see any significant
changes this year,” said Guy Sievert,
vice president of student services.
The word around campus had
been that newly renovated Christie
Hall would become an all-senior
dorm and Kenna Hall would be¬
come solely female, clearing the
way for Mehling Hall to become
coed.
These ideas and others were
brought up in brainstorming meet¬
ings between Residence Life, mem¬
bers of ASUP and Sievert last spring
and summer. Sievert said the dis¬
cussion began last year when a num¬
ber of freshmen girls were denied
requests to live in coed housing.
“Our concern was that we were
putting a lot of girls in Mehling Hall
that did not want to be there,” he
said. “We started thinking, how can
we create more coed space?’
To answer this question, Sievert
teamed with Director of Residence
Life, the Rev.Mike Delaney, C.S.C.,
to conduct “town meetings" — fo¬
rums at each dorm in which Sievert
and Delaney solicited student input
on the dorm situation as well as
campus life in general.
“This is the opportunity to be
able to discuss anything you want.
Things we (the University) do well,
things we don’t do well and things
we should be doing,” Delaney said
during a town meeting at ^ Villa Maria
Hall last Wednesday evening.
Sievert said the goal of the fo¬
rums was to listen to students. “One
of the things students have com¬
plained about in the past is that their
voices haven’t been heard and that
the administrators here are a bit out
of touch with students,” he said.
Another issue brought up in the
brainstorming meetings was the fact
that a majority of upperclassmen
were leaving campus to live in off-
campus housing. Suggestions to
curb this exodus included reserving
certain floors in Mehling for se¬
niors and making Christie Hall an
all-senior dorm.
“I don’t like it (Christie becom¬
ing a senior dorm) because I like to
help out underclassmen, and if I
live in an all-senior dorm I can’t do
this,” said Rocky Ramirez, a junior
Christie resident.
Although a wide variety of is¬
sues were brought up at the meet¬
ings, Sievert said concerns about
the quality of campus food and the
desire to leave dorms the way they
are were the most common senti¬
ments expressed by students.
“1 think, in general, what we
found is that people were very happy
with what they had and very happy
with hall life. They generally liked
the situations they were in,” Sievert
said.
Although there are no plans now
for dorm reconfiguration, it will
still be explored and final decisions
about the residence halls will prob¬
ably be made sometime in February
or March.
Concerns about overall Univer¬
sity improvement were also dis¬
cussed at the meetings. For example.
Villa residents asked when a stu¬
dent union might be built.
Currently, a student union is one
of three buildings that comprise the
master plan of major structures that
will be built in UP’s future. The
other two proposed buildings are a
new residence hall and a new sci¬
ence hall. Sievert said there are no
plans for construction of these build¬
ings at this time. "These three
projects are obviously huge capital
projects and would depend on fund¬
raising programs,” Sievert said.
For now, the University will fo¬
cus on smaller projects such as put¬
ting an elevator in the engineering
building. According to Sievert, the
engineering building is the only one
Please see Changes
Pg.5
HIV Day Center offers
disadvantaged clients
a supportive haven
By JOAN H. RUTKOWSK1 _
Asst. News Editor
AIDS has reached pandemic
heights — spreading to every level
of society regardless of age, gender
or sexual orientation. This year, the
University’s Office of Volunteer
Services is reaching out to the AIDS
community through the HIV Day
Center, helping students understand
the brutal realities victims of this
deadly disease face every day.
The center serves the low-in-
come portion of the HIV-infected
population that is often overlooked
and neglected. Twenty-five UP stu¬
dents visit the center weekly to help
make meals, deliver lunches, and
most importantly, develop friend¬
ships. But students are finding the
center is not just about AIDS, it’s
about poverty, drug abuse and men¬
tal illness.
“A lot of the people are so poor,
and when I go there I don’t think of
them as being HIV-positive,” said
junior Scott Reis, the program’s
Volunteer Services’ student coor¬
dinator. “I just think of them as
disadvantaged.”
When a person is diagnosed as
HTV -positive, he or she is essen¬
tially delivered a death sentence
that may take years to carry out, but
poverty, homelessness and drug
addiction are daily demons these
clients must fight.
“HIV almost tends to be a sec¬
ondary concern to them, beyond
their mental illness, beyond their
drug abuse problem,” said Sarah
Schlichting, the center’s volunteer
coordinator who orients student
volunteers to the center and works
with the clients. She said 65 to 70
percent of the center’s clients are
diagnosed with both drug problems
and HIV.
Aprogram run by Oregon Health
Sciences University through the
center enlists social workers, a nurse
and a case manager to help clients
find housing, get social security
benefits and adequate health care,
and address their drug problems.
“The people that we deal with
are basically disenfranchised com¬
pletely,” Schlichting said. “They
don’ t really know how to get things
they need, and they feel like they
don’t have any power. They don’t
have any way to figure things out.”
Many clients who visit the cen¬
ter find support in each other as they
come to terms with the disease. “I
can remember the denial 1 went
through, I was blaming everybody
not wanting to take a look at myself
Please see HIV
pg. 4
Pilot soccer squads
playoff bound
In its seventh NCAA tour¬
nament appearance in
eight years, the Portland
men’s soccer team will
take on the University of
Washington Sunday at 1
p.m. at UP’s Merlo Field.
Senior midfielder and
team captain Linus
Rhode (left), the team's
second-leading scorer,
leads Portland into the
playoffs after just miss¬
ing the postseason last
year.
Please see soccer insert
Photos by TIM CONNELLY
The Pilot women’s soc¬
cer squad starts its bid
for a return to the Final
Four with a match vs. the
University of Washington
Saturday at 1p.m. at UP's
Merlo Field. Senior for¬
ward Shannon MacMillan
(right), the West Coast
Conference Offensive
Player of the Year, leads
a young team into a
matchup with a team UP
has defeated four straight
times.
