News

ASUPS Student Senate recently endorsed a letter to the Code Review Committee of the APPA, which governs building codes in educational facilities, to advocate for the allowance of communal gender-neutral bathrooms on college campuses. The letter was approved by the Senate at the formal Senate meeting on Nov. 20 with a vote of 13-0 and two abstentions. Senator Kyle Chong brought the letter to the Senate at a previous Senate meeting on Nov. 18. Despite the unanimous vote, the letter was not originally on the floor for the formal Senate...

The fall 2014 ASUPS Elections ended on Friday, Oct. 31, and the results are in for the new representatives. The new students fulfilling these six positions will represent many different aspects of University of Puget Sound students in the coming year. Kent Busson is a junior with a major in biology and minor in chemistry, and he is from a town in northern Idaho called Hayden. After gaining experience in other leadership outlets like Greek Life and Residence Life, he wanted to reach out to a broader depth of organizations...

After Winter Break, ASUPS will be implementing a new price change of van rentals on campus. These new prices will affect students, faculty, and clubs that want to rent vans for general use and specific events. Vans previously cost $20 per day to rent, and now the price has changed to $40 for a day and $20 for a half day for all students. For non-students the prices have gone from $40 per day to $50. “We were spending twice as much as we were making. So, basically the increase...

The University of Puget Sound recently decided to implement queer theory into the Gender Studies program in order to expand the interdisciplinary program and strengthen the minor. “We’ve had a minor in Gender Studies and so what we did, what we are in the process of doing, is joining forces with the queer cultures because we in gender studies, we have been looking to bring in more queer theory, more the kind of contemporary work that is happening,” Alison Tracy Hale, Associate Professor and Associate Chair of English, said. “Harry...

The University’s endowment is invested in a variety of ways in order to support current and future operations. Some students, however, are calling for the University to reevaluate and be more transparent about where exactly it invests its money. As of Sept. 30, 2014, the endowment was estimated at $314 million. Puget Sound has 550 different endowment funds, which are subject to donor restrictions, such as being for a particular scholarship or Board of Trustee designations. According to the 2013 Financial Report, 99 percent of these endowment funds are pooled...

With one of the largest detention centers for immigrants in the country just down the street, students and staff are actively trying to figure out how to address immigration issues. The Northwest Detention Center is located at the Port of Tacoma and is in the top five largest detention centers for immigrants in the United States. It is a private center run by private prison company GEO Group, on behalf of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an organization under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. According to John Lear, professor of...

For over 50 years, there has been Greek life on the University of Puget Sound campus. There are currently four fraternities and four sororities. This may change in the fall of 2016. A committee has recently been assembled to examine the possibility of a new sorority on campus. Before the process even begins, the overall health of the sorority community is evaluated by the committee. “If it is deemed that another sorority would add a benefit to our community, then we put together a committee,” Director of Greek Life and...

On Nov. 6, students had the opportunity to not only familiarize themselves with the policy and procedure regarding harassment and sexual misconduct, but to give constructive feed back to what they saw as issues on the topic as well. Vice President of Student Affairs and Dean Students Mike Segawa reminded attendees that though he was proud of where our campus was on this topic, he also strongly believed that that we needed change. The meeting began with a welcome from some key figures on campus that represent students and faculty...

Every spring, the Puget Sound Sexuality Issues, Relationships and Gender Education sponsors the annual event Take Back the Night, a rally to raise sexual violence awareness. It is accompanied by weeklong activities and Green Dot training. This year, Puget Sound has decided to host a second rally, making Take Back the Night a semiannual event instead of an annual one. Lindsey Conrad, SIRGE Student Coordinator, has been vital in implementing this event and offered insight on what it is, how it differs from the spring event, why there is a...