Features

By CASEY KROLCZYK   It is the beginning of another academic year, and the freshman class is bringing a look of its own to campus. This incoming class is sporting higher SAT scores, more first-generation college students, a narrower gender gap and a higher percentage of students of color. Here’s how the class of 2016 breaks down: (1) 631 enrolling first years, slightly smaller than the current classes. (2) 47:53 male to female ratio, compared to the 43:57 ratio across all classes. (3) 28.6 percent self-identify as students of color...

Walking from class to class may take five, maybe 10 minutes at most. Getting to and from the S.U.B. or Collins Library is not something that takes a lot of planning beforehand. University pavements are maintained and structured to provide ease of access for students and passersby to get from place to place. Step off campus into the worn concrete of Tacoma and suddenly traversing from locations takes a little more effort. Many students have extra forms of mobility like skateboards or bikes, but the general population of those in...

In college it seems like all books ever do are collect dust on our dorm room shelves or clutter our backpacks, but what if in that mess of text books and paperbacks there was $1000? For the last three years, the Collins Memorial Library has essentially been doing just that. The annual Book Collecting Contest, encourages students at the University to develop a deeper appreciation of print material and the value of owning such works, by encouraging them to find a collection out of what they may have at school...

Plumbing problems are all too common in the domestic world. Today, our distinguished guest plumber Randy P. Ipelayer will offer up convenient DIY solutions to your flow-related problems. Domestic Dilemma #1: Hey Randy, the drain in my shower keeps backing up. Now I just take really shallow baths. Help! That sounds disgusting! I can only assume everything below your ankles is now coated in a nice crust of shame. There might even be some crusty shame on your socks. Once you get yourself clean, either by using your weird roommate’s...

When Kerry and Annie Hilton and their four children moved to Kolkata (Calcutta), India in 1999 with a mission to live with the poor, they didn’t realize that two years later they would be changing the lives of over 180 women. When they first moved into their three-bedroom apartment, they were astonished to realize how much the neighborhood changed at night. During the day, Kolkata may seem like a normal, albeit more impoverished, Indian neighborhood. At night, however, Kolkata became the largest red light district in the city of Sonagachi....

A campaign against hate? Save our wilderness in a summer? A job for an international charity? Name an issue on the progressive buffet, and there’s probably an advertisement on Craigslist to join the good fight with organizations like The Fund for Public Interest, Dialogue Direct or Grassroots Campaigns, Inc. With a promised compensation of $1400-$2200 per month, no one seems to be promising limitless riches. But to be paid anything to advocate for a personal passion might seem, on the surface, like a dream job for an idealistic student with...

While the rest of the campus community was busy catching some sun (or rain) on Saturday, March 17, the University of Puget Sound Women’s League held their annual Flea Market at the Memorial Fieldhouse. The Flea Market has been held every year since 1968. The League’s Flea Market Coordinator, Grace Mills, said, “We had a wonderful turnout, had over 1,500 buy tickets at the door, plus we had presold several hundred tickets.  It was a busy day and everyone had a good time. The vendors who rented space from us...

It is Catalina Ocampo Londoño’s first year teaching here as a Visiting Professor in the Spanish department. She’s come here by a rather circuitous route; she was born and raised in Colombia, went to school in Virginia and Boston, and in between getting her various degrees (her dissertation is still in the works), she has lived in Pittsburg, Minneapolis and now Tacoma. Ocampo Londoño is interested in melding various art forms. She is teaching a class on the essay as an art form, while her dissertation looks at the history...

Tomorrow, 12 students will pile into a Puget Sound Outdoors (PSO) van at the crack of dawn to drive the 19 hours to Burlingame, Calif. From there, they will start a five-day backpacking trip in Death Valley National Park, the hottest and driest of all national parks in the United States. The craziest part about the experience is that for two nights of the trip, the campers will separate to adventure completely alone. This spring break, PSO will embark upon three trips. The Death Valley trip focuses on giving students...