University of Portland - Log Yearbook (Portland, OR)

Page 6 text:

PDRTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY NINETEEN HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-TWD OO O OTOGR S OSE BY STUDE TS D FRIENDS OF SITY

Page 5 text:

3 l parted company with the army three years ago. ltwasz typical hitch. You know, all those hot, dusty, dirty little forts in the south, then Nam, and finally Alaska. It was likeathree year long sauna bath complete with cold shot When I finally QOT out I ended up in Portland but it could have been LA. or Bismarck, South Dakota, jus as easily. l didn't start going to P.S.U. immediately. l mean I kind of sat around fora little while, put in some 'road time' after that and finally went to work for private detective agency. It wasn't at all like lvlannix. I don't know which l hated thi most: the actual work l was doing or just work in general. l started at P.S.U. two years ago when l needed money an had to choose between robbi a bank or letting the U.S. government put me through school. School seemed the wiser decision at the time. Af first l hated it but after a while I got to like the idea of a school that wasn't full of the usual rah-rah bullshit. Now l'm majoring in English and l could even dig going to graduate school here. Don't get me wrong, this university has plenty of flaws, problems etc., like giant classes, a teacher shortage and people who would trade grass for cement, leaving the Park Blocks looking like some kin- of bad dream from the 21st century. I guess the best part of going to school here is the fact that nobody pushes you- If you want to get involved, you can. On the other hand, i you don't, you can be as anonymous as Harold Stasse

Page 7 text:

Something happened this ye Greg Wolfe said that it vvas a state of financial exigency' Others said that the students were tu rned-off by rhetoric, burned-out by confrontatioi turned inward in despair. But, the important truth vvas more nearly that vve took a good look at ourselves and at PSU and vve laughed For if laughter is a catharsis for grief, novv then our mourning is over. We laughed quietly at first, then ironically, then with increasing confidence as vve looked around us at the waste and foolishness, the petty decisions, the arbitrary impediments to learning, the absurd system of accounting that curtailed spending for needed academic programsvi allowing superfluous buildinq to continue unchecked ani vve settled dovvn to change the University, with a little help from our friends. i