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Roger Ebert, famed film critic and screenwriter, died last Thursday, April 4, succumbing to the thyroid cancer he had been fighting for 11 years.

Although Ebert and his former film critic partner Gene Siskel are largely known for their creation of the phrase “Two Thumbs Up,” Ebert was revered for his in-depth and often humorous reviews that went far beyond a simple rating. His thorough knowledge and passion for film came through with every movie he wrote about, from the worst (such as Mad Dog Time and Transformers 2) to the best (films like Apocalypse Now and 2001: A Space Odyssey).

Ebert's lighthearted take on the movie industry was refreshing and engrossing to readers (Photo: New York Times)

Ebert had an uncanny ability to incorporate humor into his reviews, which distanced him from the stereotype of a snooty film critic. In his description of the 2001 film Freddy Got Fingered, Ebert wrote with his signature wit, “This movie doesn’t scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn’t the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn’t below the bottom of the barrel. This movie doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels.”

He had a lasting effect on the film industry, an important influence that has only become clearer in the days since his death, as more and more people come out of the woodwork to share stories about the pundit.

Filmmakers, writers, and actors alike have paid their respects. Martin Scorsese, when asked about Ebert’s passing, said, “The death of Roger Ebert is an incalculable loss for movie culture and for film criticism. And it’s a loss for me personally…There was a professional distance between us, but then I could talk to him much more freely than I could to other critics. Really, Roger was my friend. It’s that simple.”

Ebert is survived by his wife Chaz. Although he has no children, he will not soon be forgotten by the generations of younger moviegoers he has influenced.

Perhaps the best way to capture Ebert’s spirit is through his own words from his 2011 autobiography, Life Itself: A Memoir, in which he reflected on his death:

“I know it is coming, and I do not fear it, because I believe there is nothing on the other side of death to fear. I hope to be spared as much pain as possible on the approach path. I was perfectly content before I was born, and I think of death as the same state … I have no desire to live forever. The concept frightens me. I am 69, have had cancer, will die sooner than most of those reading this. That is in the nature of things. In my plans for life after death, I say, again with (Walt) Whitman:

I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love,

If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.”

VoteERA.org currently has two Equal Rights Amendment bills in the Oregon Legislature. (Photo: Fiona Noonan)

Equality is back on the table in the Oregon legislature, as the pro-equal rights organization VoteERA.org has introduced two new Equal Rights Amendment bills: Senate Joint Resolution 24 (SRJ 24), and House Joint Resolution 21 (HJR 21).

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)––which would guarantee equal rights for men and women––has been tossed around since 1923, when the idea was first introduced. Congress passed it once in 1972, but only 35 states ratified the amendment (three short of the necessary three-fourths), and it never became part of the Constitution.

Oregon actually ratified the federal amendment twice, and was the only state to do so. Despite this, there has never been an ERA enacted in Oregon’s Constitution.

That’s what VoteERA.org, led by Leanne Littrell DiLorenzo (mother of first grader John DiLorenzo), is hoping to change.

The organization believes that, while women’s equality may be stated under Oregon case law, that is in no way the same level of security that the Constitution could provide. Therefore, they want specific language that explicitly guarantees equality of the sexes.

VoteERA.org also believes that Article 1, Section 20 of the Oregon constitution, which is supposed to guarantee equality for all people, does not adequately protect women’s rights. That part of the constitution prevented women for voting and owning property for years.

The proposed language of SJR 24 and HJR 21 matches that of the proposed federal ERA, and states that “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the State of Oregon or by any political subdivision in this state on account of sex.”

According to statewide polling conducted by Public Policy Polling in February on behalf of VoteERA.org, 80 percent of Oregonians support the ERA. Results of the poll also showed that putting an ERA measure on the ballot in 2014 would increase voter turnout.

Already, the bills have 50 bipartisan sponsors in the legislature, including Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward (D-NW Portland/Beaverton District 17), mother of Mira Hayward ’13. Despite this early support, the bills face a tough roadblock in Rep. Carolyn Tomei (D-Milwaukie District 41), Chair of the Human Services Committee. In this capacity, she can prevent a hearing on the bill in the House, which will kill the ERA before it even reaches a vote in the House of Representatives.

She has publicly stated that she will not hold a hearing for HJR 21, aligning herself with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which also does not support the Oregon amendment.

Though Tomei and the ACLU support equality and the federal ERA, they believe that precedents set by previous Oregon Supreme Court rulings adequately protect women’s equality, and that specifying women’s rights the Oregon ERA bills could infringe on the rights of other minority groups.

The bills face and uphill battle, and the first milestone will be achieving a hearing and work session for the bills, with the hope that the legislature will ultimately grant equal rights for both sexes.

Even if the bills fail in the legislature––HJR 21 could die in the House as early as Monday, April 8––members of VoteERA.org say they will continue pushing the issue forward.

“We cannot imagine in this day and age why anyone would accept not having women’s equality directly expressed in the Oregon Constitution,” said DiLorenzo in an email. “The federal ERA is in its 90th year of still being introduced every year––should we wait another century to see if that happens?”

For more information on the ERA, or to join VoteERA.org, visit http://www.voteera.org/. 

The White team after its state competition trial against Riverdale. (Photo: Andie Pektus Photography)

Catlin Gabel Mock Trial  had an incredibly successful season. The program ran two teams this year, and both teams (Blue and White) performed well at regionals, which took place at the Washington County Courthouse in Hillsboro on March 2.

The Blue team, more than holding their own in a trial against one of the best teams in the state, Village Home, narrowly missed joining White at state. They took fourth place in Washington County.

The state competition, held on March 15-16 at the Hatfield Federal Courthouse in Portland, proved to be challenging and fun. Catlin won its first two trials against Parkrose and West Linn (#2 in the state, 2011-2012), and made it to the semifinals.

The final trial was a bitterly fought battle against Riverdale, and was decided by only a few points. Catlin lost this round, allowing Riverdale to advance to the state championship trial, which they lost to St. Mary’s Academy.

The captains (Fiona Noonan and Mira Hayward ’13, and Nama Rosas and Theo Knights ’15) and coaches (Bob Bonaparte ’73, Nell Bonaparte, Scott Thompson ’04, Anushka Shenoy ’04, and Brooke Calcagno) could not be prouder of the exceptional performances of every one of the participants.

The week of March 27, as some decorated their homes with pastel colors for Easter and some observed Passover, Hindus around the world celebrated Holi, the holiday commonly known as The Festival of Colors. Holi commences when the first full moon of the year arrives in early to mid March, and continues for two days thereafter.

Bonfires are created in town squares the night of the full moon to kick off the celebration. Before the new moon arrives, however, people begin throwing vibrant colored powders and water in the streets and at each other in anticipation and preparation for the celebration.

Women in India celebrating Holi. (Photo: New York Times)

There are several purposes for Holi, including celebrating spring’s arrival, colors, and new harvest. Holi’s religious meaning dates back to Hindu mythology, and ultimately signifies the triumph of good over evil. In some Indian cities and towns, businesses are closed during the two days of celebration.

Enjoy photos of the Festival of Colors in Nepal and India here.

The Flaming Chickens, Catlin Gabel’s FIRST Robotics Competition Team 1540, returned to Oklahoma City for the March 28 to 30 competition as the defending regional champions.

This year, their robot didn’t reach its full powerhouse potential until late into the qualification matches, after more than a day of tweaking small mechanical, electrical, and software issues. Because of this, 1540 wasn’t ranked in the top eight, and thus did not get to choose two partners for the elimination rounds. Catlin’s Flaming Chickens had, however, demonstrated their robot’s abilities as an impressive Frisbee shooter, and were chosen by the number-two alliance captain 2165, and joined by 2341, both from Oklahoma.

After some tough quarterfinals and nail-biting semis, the Flaming Chickens made it to the final rounds against the almost invincible number-one ranked alliance of 1986 and 1806, both from Missouri, and 2389, from Oklahoma. Although they didn’t manage to pull off the upset, their two alliance partners still qualified to come with them to FIRST World Championships through FIRST’s new Wild Card system. This is because 1986 and 1806 had already won another regional together, and the Flaming Chickens had qualified through their Chairman’s Award at the Autodesk Oregon Regional.

For a good idea of the game, see the links below to watch one of 1540’s later qualification matches against the best robot at the regional and the number-one alliance captain, 1986.

Watch Team 1540 at the Oklahoma Regional

The Flaming Chickens’ next stop is FIRST World Championships in St. Louis, April 25 to 27.

You can find Catlin’s Flaming Chickens on Facebook and Twitter, or visit the team’s website. For more information about FIRST, you can visit the organization’s website.

Running the Catlin Gabel School is a massive operation, and with nearly $17 million to spend on 54 acres, 751 students, and 200 faculty and staff members, the flow of money is complicated and carefully orchestrated.

The school’s budget, based on revenues from donations and tuition, is spread across the entire campus, and the organization of expenses is particularly sophisticated in the Upper School. From guest speakers to Campus Day donuts, the financial side of Catlin Gabel allows the school to maintain the unique services and traditions students and faculty have come to expect.

Revenues
Catlin Gabel holds 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status, meaning it is a non-profit organization that makes no money off of the enterprise of teaching and learning. As a result, tuition is the single biggest annual revenue source, constituting 85% of the school’s 2012-13 income. The other 15% comes from gifts and other donations.

Tuition alone covers nine to 10 months of the school’s total operating budget. The fiscal year ends on August 31, but with only tuition the school would run out of money in mid-June. The rest of June through the end of the school’s fiscal year is covered by gifts used in operations, transfer from the endowment, and various other sources of income.

Gifts used in operations means that people donate money to be used specifically to help run the school. “We get lots of gifts for various reasons,” says Joe Walsh, the school’s controller. “Lots of financial aid. We’ll get gifts in for speakers, robotics, outdoor [education].”

Catlin’s chief financial officer Terry Murphy says, “The string that is attached is [that gifts are for] for operational things. [Not] capital things. So it will never go to a building, it will go to some operating expense. And a great many of those dollars, the vast majority of those dollars come in with no specific purpose other than operational things.”

However, in the case that a gift goes to a specific purpose, that gift will run through the development office and then go to the business office. Then Murphy and Walsh ensure the funds are spent on that specific purpose, whether in the current year or further down the road.

“That’s our job,” says Walsh, “to make sure [gifts] go to the right place.”

Operational gifts, such as donations to the art building, are entirely separate from gifts to the endowment, such as the Knight gift.

About five percent of the school’s budget comes through a transfer of a portion of earnings and appreciation from the endowment. The endowment is worth $25 million, and is managed separately from other funds by an investment advisor. An endowment committee made up of board members takes responsibility for endowment gifts.

(Graphic: Emi Foster)

Expenses
Once the business office has an idea of how much money it will have to work with, the process of budgeting can begin. Allocating the substantial funds requires the collaboration of the board of trustees, Murphy, Walsh, and the division heads.

Almost 80 percent of the school’s yearly budget is devoted to paying the salaries and benefits of the faculty and staff. The remaining 20 percent––somewhere in the ballpark of $3.4 million––goes to instructional costs, information technology, facilities and maintenance, administration, and contingencies and reserves.

That 20 percent is what funds the budget decisions that run through the various committees and, ultimately, the board. Two groups, the executive team and the finance committee, primarily control how that money is spent.

The executive team is often where planning begins. The group that consists of Head of School Lark Palma, Director of Advancement Miranda Wellman (Development), Director of Human Resources Linda Yoesel, CFO Murphy, and the four division heads––Upper School Head Dan Griffiths, Middle School Head Barbara Ostos, Lower School Head Vicki Roscoe, and Beginning School Head Hannah Whitehead.

Each division head meets with Murphy and Palma to “lay out what they want to do strategically, how to balance the budget, and what they want to increase,” says Griffiths. Then the whole group will convene to determine the most important goals for the whole school, and accordingly budget requests are sent to the business office for Murphy and Walsh to process and fit into the overall budget. From year to year the forecasting for each sub-budget within the total $17 million is based on the previous year’s budget and how the need for money will change in the current year.

For the most part, budgets remain similar from year to year, but change slightly based on inflation. In the case that the school wants to devote more money to a specific area or purpose, the school has to find money to cut in other areas.

“Really we’ll capture all the numbers, and if it doesn’t look financially plausible we’ll send it back to the executive team and they’ll send it back [to us again],” says Walsh.

Once the executive team and business office have worked together on divisional budgets, the decisions go to the financial committee, which is a collection of board members, interested parents, Walsh, Murphy, and Palma. It is chaired by school treasurer and trustee Eric Rosenfeld ’83. After the financial committee reviews budgets, the board of trustees has to give the final stamp of approval.

After all the budget forecasting, deliberating, approving, and implementing are complete, the business office will have squeezed out every last drop of any given year’s budget.

“Fundamentally, we break even,” says Murphy.

Adds Walsh, “We’ll spend the whole 17 million.”

The Upper School
This year, the Upper School is at its biggest-ever enrollment, with 306 full-time students, 46 faculty members, and a $24,750 tuition rate. Therefore, the amount of that $17 million allocated to the division is significantly larger than the amount allocated to any other part of the school.

Within the Upper School budget there are funds for each department, as well as athletics, robotics, PLACE, and the outdoor education program. Much of this money comes from the “instructional costs” portion of the school’s total budget, which basically covers costs for curriculum and classroom-based needs.

Each department receives money based largely on the number of “consumable expenses” it anticipates and its yearly equipment costs. Because of this, the art, science, and theater departments receive roughly ten times as much money on an annual basis as the English, history and math departments; modern language receives a bit more than the last three so that it can fund things like the Miracle Theater performances and various field trips.

From year to year the department budgets remain roughly the same, but are adjusted according to inflation and changes in curricula or courses. The department chairs are responsible for requesting money and distributing that money to their departmental colleagues.

According to Dan Griffiths, who has sole possession of the complete Upper School budget numbers, art, science, and drama require the most materials, and keeping the curriculum current requires adapting to new equipment and supplies.

He learned this during his time as head of the science department, when he would have to carefully manage the yearly budget to cover the cost of lab kits and equipment maintenance while still planning for large future expenditures. “You have to sort of plan strategically,” says Griffiths. “It’s the same with replacing media arts equipment as it becomes obsolete.”

While art, science, and theater may need budget increases year to year, and almost invariably spend most of their money, that’s not always the case with humanities and mathematics, which require far fewer supplies. History is a prime example of a relatively low-maintenance department.
According to department chair Peter Shulman, the history department has a budget in the hundreds, and the current allotment is only half of what the department received ten years ago when he began teaching at Catlin.

“We do something that bureaucracies rarely do, which is we don’t spend our whole budget,” says Shulman. “That’s not how we roll. We have never come in over budget in my tenure as department chair.”

At the same time, Shulman says this has to do with changing technologies and teaching methods that remove consumable costs the department may once have had. “In some ways materials were more expensive before you had digital. There’s so much free material that you didn’t have earlier.”

Outside of the money that funds separate departments, each teacher receives $500 per year to spend on books, conferences, and other expenses that contribute to professional development. There’s also a pot of money devoted to bigger conferences and research projects––for example, science teacher Veronica Ledoux spent time teaching science in South African townships this summer––that any teacher can apply for through the professional development committee.

Funds like these contribute to the school’s overall aim to support innovation in all aspects of teaching while still maintaining a balanced budget. This goal also applies to how Griffiths decides to distribute money to teachers and departments.

“It’s my job to have a global view––a really tight view of what’s going on in the Upper School. And not everyone is going to agree with what we do.”

For Griffiths, the focus of budgeting should be on progress over tradition, which can also be a difficult pill to swallow for some.

“Rather than just saying, ‘Okay, you’ve done that for a while, it’s time to stop doing it,’ it’s constant examination of what it adds to the program,” says Griffiths of examining classroom funding. “If we’re just doing this because that’s just what we do, that’s not a very good reason to not fund something else. That’s kind of lazy.”

In the event that budgeting does goes over, or one program takes an unexpectedly large amount of money, there are several options for recourse. The first is that the school starts each year with a small amount of the planned expenses called “contingency and reserves” that can supplant any shortfall in the rest of the budget. As the business office finalizes the projected expenses for the year, this pool of money shrinks, but a small amount (less than four percent of the total budget) is always available for emergencies.

The more likely outcome of an overspending situation is that Griffiths must creatively redistribute the funds at the Upper School’s disposal. If one department or budget item––such as substitute teachers, for example––falls short, Griffiths will take money from another pool that may not need its total allotted budget for the year.

Ultimately, it does not matter exactly where the money is pulled from, as long as the budget is not exceeded. “At the end of the day it’s just the bottom line that counts,” says Griffiths.

Fortunately, Griffiths––and the rest of the school––has quite a bit of money to work with, and Catlin is thriving financially.

“We are hugely lucky to have the sort of resources we do and to have this much money to staff small classes in well-equipped rooms and not have to make the sort of tough decisions that public school districts regularly have to do,” says Griffiths.

Still, that doesn’t necessarily make budgeting $17 million dollars particularly easy, especially with so many departments and programs to fund.

“It never occurs to you that that’s the size of it,” says Griffiths. “This is a multi-million dollar business. Until you actually have to sit down and start deciding where to spend it. And it’s really, really easy to spend $10 million. Before you know it it’s gone.”

Technology has become a major force in our modern world, especially among teens. But what are these gadgets doing for us besides facilitating communication, research, and entertainment? Recent studies suggest that technology is actually changing the way our brains work and how they develop.

(Graphic: Marina Dimitrov)

When I do a reading for my history class, my electronics dictate how I work. A forty-five minute reading turns into an hour-long ordeal when texting, email, and Twitter interruptions take their toll. Not only do they act as distractions, but I often seek them as relief from big blocks of reading. Refocusing becomes difficult, and I frequently forget the content of the reading the following day. Such practice is common among many Upper School students, and in addition to prolonging the time it takes to complete homework and hindering information intake, it could also be affecting students’ brains.

Catchy headlines like “Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable of Rolling Eyes and Texting, to Be Euthanized” from America’s laugh-provoking fake news source, The Onion, may seem not seem so funny when one examines the extent of America’s technology use among teens.

Experts and educators are analyzing the effects of technology on young brains. In February 2011, Assistant Head of Upper School Aline Garcia-Rubio attended an annual conference hosted by the research foundation Learning and the Brain. This conference, “iGeneration: How the Digital Age is Altering Student Brains,” presented research to educators about the effects of screentime on adolescent brains, and offered solutions to implement in the classroom.

In one Kaiser Family Foundation analysis presented at the conference, the average teen’s electronics usage was reported to be twenty hours a day, with one hour representing one device (e.g. if a teen was on their phone and their computer at the same time for an hour, it would count as two hours), says Garcia-Rubio. This number is greater than that of any generation prior, appropriately characterizing today’s teens as the iGeneration.

Elizabeth Zack, PhD, of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences at the University of Washington, explains what happens in the brain with repeated electronics use. “Our brains are rapidly developing and forming connections, especially during childhood … A child’s experiences and interactions in the world influence his [or] her brain development … If a teen is engaging in sports, or music lessons or academics or learning a new skill, they will be building those connections in their brain that will become hardwired. So you can imagine that a teen that is a couch potato, playing video games and watching endless hours of TV, will be strengthening those types of connections more in their brain,” says Zack.

Both teens and adults who are always plugged in are mentally engaging in multiple tasks. Garcia-Rubio says, “only about two percent of the population can actually multi-task,” meaning the majority of people are engaging in task-switching. Task-switching reduces the depth of information intake and increases its breadth. When engaged in multiple tasks, it takes a longer time to refocus to the original task and return to the level of productivity prior to a social networking or cellular distraction.

Further negative effects of task-switching include shorter attention spans and the loss of the development of crucial social skills like listening and reading body language. Task-switchers are also “suckers for irrelevancy,” says Stanford communications professor Clifford Nass in a recent article in Stanford News, as “everything distracts them.” However, as reported at the conference, task-switching also has its benefits, including the development of better skimming ability and faster intake of information.

According to the UCLA Department of Psychology, heavy task-switchers rely on a part of their brain called the striatum to retain information while distracted, while non-task-switchers rely on another part of the brain called the hippocampus. The striatum is primarily used for learning new skills, while the hippocampus is used for processing, storing, and recalling information. This indicates that task-switching changes the way people learn, according to UCLA. This change may also explain why task-switchers have trouble retaining important information.

Garcia-Rubio says that this overwhelming amount of screentime leads to an information overload and takes away time for reflection during the day. It also hinders emotional and social development, including listening skills, by reducing face-to-face contact. The conference presented studies that concluded that extended screen use could additionally be associated with anxiety, depression, sleep loss, and susceptibility to peer pressure.

These observed negative effects of electronics are further frightening considering the possibility that society could one day become completely plugged in. Nicholas Carr, author of What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains: The Shallows, comments that “The tumultuous advance of technology could, like the arrival of the locomotive at the Concord station, drown out the refined perceptions, thoughts, and emotions that arise only through contemplation and reflection.”

Yet surprisingly, teens are more likely to report that electronics and social media use have a positive rather than negative effect on their social and emotional lives. In a 2012 study of over one thousand 13 to 17 year olds by Common Sense Media, over 50 percent said that social media helped their relationships with their friends, and 37 percent said that the sites helped family relationships by making them feel “more connected” to their families. Less than 4 percent said that their social media made them feel worse about themselves, or less confident.

And why would social media succeed if teens did not enjoy using them? Electronics use is indisputably on the rise, despite the associated drawbacks of overuse. Will I stop using my computer and phone as much as I do? The answer is probably no, yet the question of its effects on my future, and the development of even younger children’s brains, remains unanswered.

On Friday, President Obama signed the “sequester,” an order that will cut $85 billion from the federal budget by the end of September. Among the many people affected by the budget cuts are homeless veterans, more of whom will be ending up on the streets in the coming months.

Though programs run through the Department of Veterans Affairs (and the Department of Veterans Affairs itself) will not be affected, many veterans living on the streets, and in transitional or low-income housing will be, since many use Section 8 or were, until Friday night, on a waitlist to get assistance from Section 8.

Section 8, or the Housing Choice Vouchers Program, is a program funded by the federal government, which subsidizes monthly rental payments for very low-income people, including veterans. As the White House explains in a statement on its website, Section 8 will “face a significant reduction in funding, which [will] place about 125,000 families at immediate risk of losing their permanent housing,” among them veterans.

As Tom Griffith, a veteran Navy SEAL who lives in transitional housing, explained, “All [the government] is concentrating on is the people in low-income housing, and how not to boot them out” rather than concerning themselves with those veterans who are currently homeless or are in transitional housing.

Unfortunately, even veterans currently in housing aren’t safe from the sequester cuts. As the White House points out, “more than 100,000 formerly homeless people, including veterans” will be removed from their housing and transitional housing “putting them at risk of returning to the streets.”

Already, our country faces serious problems when it comes to our vastly over-represented population of homeless veterans. According to a 2011 US Department of Housing and Urban Development survey, 14% of homeless people found on the streets are veterans, while only 7% of the general population have served in the military.

In 2010, the Veterans Affairs Department, along with President Obama, announced that it would end veteran homelessness by 2015. In a 2011 count of veterans on the streets it was found that more than 67 thousand were without a home, but one year later, in 2012, that number had only dropped to 62 thousand veterans, still three thousand more than the goal that had been set in 2010.

When talking to veterans on the street and in transitional housing, nobody seemed to believe that the VA’s goal was feasible. As one veteran, Chris (last name unknown), pointed out, “there’ll always be a recurring cycle of homeless veterans–a lot of the veterans who are just getting out aren’t going to take advantage of the resources, there’s always going to be a lag.”

Tom Griffith put it simply, “I can’t possibly see [veteran homelessness ending] by 2015 when, in fact, the government is doing the exact opposite,” by cutting money to programs that get them off the streets.

Catlin Gabel’s 2013 Diversity Conference successfully addressed the theme through a kaleidoscope lens. A kaleidoscope is a pattern that constantly changes in color, shape, and element, which directly relates to the idea of diversity conveyed throughout the conference.

(Source: Catlin Gabel)

To begin the day, students gathered together for a student-led activity and speech from keynote speaker Shauna Adams. Kassi Carter-Howard and Perla Alvarez, seniors and members of Catlin’s Ujima club, led an activity in which students were asked to stand when words they identified with were called. One student said that the event was “uncomfortable in a good way.” People were asked to “look around and reflect on the significance of who was standing and who was sitting.”

The previous day, Carter-Howard and Alvarez talked to me about what they hoped their peers would learn from such activities. Carter-Howard said she “[hopes] that the conference will change people’s perception and their attitude towards diversity. [I hope] people will become more inclusive on a daily basis and that they will stop saying ‘Diversity Day.’ It’s a conference. Calling it a day implies that we only celebrate it once a year.”

Alvarez added that she wishes “people will become aware of the diversity in Catlin Gabel beyond just the color of the skin.”

Keynote speaker Adams, a De La Salle North Catholic High School counselor, PSU instructor, and social worker, addressed the topic of diversity in a way that met both Carter-Howard and Alvarez’s expectations. She talked about “The Iceberg Concept of Culture,” in which she metaphorically related subconscious and unspoken culture to the submerged portions of an iceberg. This discussion prompted the students to think about aspects of their own culture that they might not be consciously aware of, such as their body language and sense of time. Adams shared about her family history and her childhood, defining her idea of culture and how it impacts her way of thinking.

(Source: Catlin Gabel)

Following a snack time filled with a variety of homemade foods and reflective discussions, students headed to their workshops, which ranged from “The Last American Cowboy: Ranch Life In Today’s American West” to “Traditional Shoshone-Bannock-Nez Perce Storytelling.”

(Source: Catlin Gabel)

Beyond learning about these subjects, students learned about their instructors’ conceptions of culture. For instance, the “Vietnamese Cuisine” workshop, led by Catlin’s own Food Service Director Hen Truong, did not merely consist of making delicious crêpes and tasting fruits. Truong told stories about his personal experiences as a young boy in Vietnam and the differences in price, taste, and appearance of fruits he saw in Vietnam and elsewhere versus the fruits on the market in Oregon.

It is activities such as these that promote students to connect with other people and talk about issues that might not be discussed otherwise. With unique workshops and performances, this year’s Diversity Conference was a huge success that allowed everyone to become increasingly aware of the individuals that make up our community.

British architecture firm Foster + Partners has announced plans to build a moon base in partnership with the European Space Agency. The proposed habitat could temporarily accommodate four astronauts while conducting research.

In the past, the threat of possible meteoroid- and space-radiation prevented engineers from making substantial progress on creating a moon base. Foster + Partners claims to have found a solution that could protect residents from these risks. Due to the recent invention of 3D printing systems, Foster + Partners believes that it can print out a hollow, closed-cell structure using materials found on the moon.

Digital model produced by Foster + Partners of potential base on the moon. (Source: Foster + Partners)

The process of 3D printing sounds like a procedure from a science fiction novel, yet it is becoming increasingly popular. It can manufacture goods by creating three-dimensional objects from digital models. The mechanics of the printing machine involve stacking layers of thin material, eventually creating a replica of the digital model. Foster + Partners believes that this new invention would be the most efficient means to build a moon habitat.

The ability to bring a printer to the moon and use local matter would avoid the difficulty of transporting building materials. The structure of the base will be a tubular frame that can be folded up and easily transported by space shuttle. An inflatable dome will cover the frame, which will provide a shell for the protective shell. A robot-operated 3D printer will then use lunar soil to create the outermost layer.

Foster + Partners has already begun testing the proposed structure with simulated lunar soil as the building material. They have also verified that the 3D printer will function in a vacuum, or low-gravity environment.

Today, in the midst of a worldwide recession and political upheaval throughout the Middle East, the state of aeronautics programs around the world is of less concern than it once was. However, Foster + Partners’ recent announcement is groundbreaking enough to catch international attention, as it opens the opportunity to use the moon as a jumping ground to Mars. In fact, this accomplishment may just be the spark needed to reignite enthusiasm towards space programs all over the world.