Reed’s Acceptance Rate Rises: Admissions Seeks to Grow Applicant Pool
On March 26 Reed College offered admission to 1,356 of the 2,887 applicants for the class of 2017. The acceptance rate of 47 percent marks the class of 2017 as the least selective class since 2004 and comes on the heels of what had been an unprecedented period of increasing selectivity for the college. From [...]
Read MoreFirst Biannual Bioinformatics Workshop Provides Insight Into a Booming Field
The first biannual bioinformatics and genomics workshop took place at Reed from April 13 to 14. A slate of specialists was invited to lead modules on a wide-array of key topics in whole genome analysis. More than two dozen undergraduates from Reed and Lewis and Clark College had the opportunity to study bioinformatic and genomic [...]
Read MoreWomen’s Soccer Gains Footing
While many Reedies hold some pride in their un-athleticism, some desire the presence of physical activity in their lives. Sydney Scarlata is one of them. Having swam and played soccer all throughout high school, freshman Sydney Scarlata was “burnt out” from varsity sports, and saw Reed as a respite from the intense competition [...]
Read MoreBill Cronon: Disciplines in Dialogue
“William Cronon is the foremost environmental historian of our time,” President John Kroger said last Wednesday evening. “He put the field on the map.” Kroger had nothing but high praise for Bill Cronon when he introduced the guest lecturer in Vollum Lecture Hall. Cronon came to Reed to give back-to-back lectures through the Greenberg Distinguished [...]
Read MoreImproved Band Practice Room Fosters Resurgence of Reed Bands
Two years ago, the Band Practice Room was nearly defunct. Now, it and Reed bands are flourishing. There is a thriving band scene at Reed currently, bolstered in part by an improved Band Practice Room (BPR) and an upsurge in student club involvement. Two years ago the BPR was nearly defunct and twigs were occasionally [...]
Read MoreThesis Christ: Brian Moore
Economics major and and former Student Body President Brian Moore wrote his thesis on government policy change and whether or not this effects investments made by manufacturing companies. In times of economic downturn, Moore says, many say that the government should not try to change policy, as this creates an uncertain economic environment that possibly discourages investment. For instance, “if you’re a small manufacturer, and the government is considering regulating your industry, you’re less likely to invest until you know how that regulation is going to look, or how that regulation might effect you as a firm.”
Read MoreSenate Beat: Quest Reform and the Sexual Misconduct Policy
Senator David Azrael ’13 speaks during the April 12 Senate meeting. Quest Reform For the second time this month, Senate discussed the Quest board’s proposal for a new system in which editors are appointed rather than elected. The Quest board provided an updated draft of the proposed Quest bylaws, in which changes were made to [...]
Read MoreReedies Discuss Obligation, Sanctity, and External Pressure at Union
Three months after President Kroger canceled or altered three Paideia classes, Reed community members filled out the pews in the Chapel on Friday for the Reed Union entitled “Student Autonomy: Its Possibilities and its Limits.” President Kroger attended but only spoke up twice: once to explain that he could stay for the entire Union because [...]
Read MoreHum Play 2K13 Has Some Novel Concepts
The direktors tout that Hum Play this is year will be “dirtier, raunchier, and uncircumcised, as it should be.” The show will be in Vollum Lecture Hall on April 26th at 7 p.m. A sub-free show will be the day before at 9 p.m. There is a one-butt per seat policy so students will be [...]
Read MoreThesis Christ: Clara Redwood
Clara Redwood’s ’13 thesis: “Creating Origami Crease Patterns for Curved 3 Dimensional Objects.” Clara Redwood’s ‘13 thesis desk is littered with origami paper. Clara, the only girl who is strictly a math major in her class, is writing her thesis with Math Professor Irena Swanson on folding algorithms. Clara, of Buffalo, New York explains [...]
Read MoreEileen Myles: Laughter and Short Poems
“If you were waiting for the poem, that was it,” said Eileen Myles after reading the two lines of her poem, “Tree,” to open last Thursday night’s poetry reading. The comment was met by laughter from 60 or so people gathered in the Eliot Chapel, and set the precedent for an unpredictable hour of poetry, [...]
Read MoreNew Community Safety Hires Measured for Kilts
The new Assistant Director of Community Safety, Chris Linn. Community Safety recently hired a number of new part time and on-call CSOs. Director of Community Safety Gary Granger’s standard of excellence? “Whether or not they’ll wear a kilt to Renn Fayre.” On-call CSOs are on staff in order to cover the occasional vacant shift. Granger [...]
Read MoreTimes Columnist Kristof Lectures on Empowering Women
New York Times reporter and columnist Nicholas Kristof spoke to a packed Kaul Auditorium on Monday about his book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, which he co-authored with his wife, Sheryl WuDunn. Both the book and Monday’s lecture draw their title, said Kristof, from a Chinese saying: “Women hold up [...]
Read MoreLetter: What Kind of Awareness Does Nicholas Kristof’s Talk Raise?
By Huazejia ’13 Nicholas Kristof’s talk was scheduled at 7 p.m. in Reed Kaul auditorium this past Monday. The talk was open to the public, and a lot of well-dressed folks started showing up even before 6:30. Of course, people would come early to his talk because he is not only the author of the [...]
Read MoreThesis Christ: Frank Sosa
Eight years ago, scientists at Yale University tested seven capuchin monkeys to see whether they deviated from a basic economic theory: that, when faced with an economic choice, humans (or, in this case, primates) will act rationally. Unsurprisingly, they did. But the important finding from the study was that the capuchin monkeys deviated from the [...]
Read More$25,000 Watson Fellowship Winner Announced
From left: Lillian Karabaic ’13, Maya Scherr-Willson ’13, Cole Perkinson ’13, and Lori Rodriguez ’13. What would you do if you had $25,000? Lori Rodriguez ’13, Maya Scherr-Willson ’13, Lillian Karabaic ’13, and Cole Perkinson ’13 each had elaborate plans, but ultimately, only one of them would get funding. Karabaic, Scherr-Willson, Rodriguez, and Perkinson were [...]
Read MoreReed Tackles Morality, Action, and Divestment at Union on Climate Change
Visiting Assistant Professor of History and Environmental Studies Joshua Howe speaks at Wednesday’s Reed Union. A smattering of students, faculty, and other Reed community members gathered in Vollum Lecture Hall on Wednesday for a Reed Union on climate change. Officially titled “Climate Change: Policy, Advocacy, Science,” the Reed Union hosted a panel of five speakers, [...]
Read MoreSmoking Indoors Could Mean Pricey Penalty for Reed
The cigarette butts that dot Reed’s campus now carry a potential fine of $500 each. After two anonymous complaints were filed in November for smoking violations, a Multnomah County public health inspector visited campus on March 8. The enforcement officer will return unannounced between March 23 and April 22 to re-inspect. Reed will be fined [...]
Read MoreA Tour of Reed’s Secret Garden
Behind an innocuous door on the top floor of the Biology building is a state-of-the-art, 1,000 square foot, climate-controlled greenhouse. The greenhouse is warm and humid, with sliding tables on which small plants are beginning to grow, and orange lights illuminate the rooms day and night. Biology Professor David Dalton has been working at Reed since 1987 and has born witness to many of the changes to the greenhouse over the years. He says the greenhouse was originally just a “south-facing room” with cement benches that was built along with the Biology building in the 1950’s. The structure stayed the same until more additions were made in 1990. In 2001, with the renovation of the Biology building came a further expansion of the greenhouse and the “state-of-the-art” setup students enjoy today. The greenhouse now has four main rooms, and the lighting, temperature, and cooling are all controlled by a central computer.
Read MoreReed Sees More Post-Docs in Past Two Years
The number of post-docs in Biology, Phycology, and Chemistry at Reed increased over the past two years, but their presence remains largely unnoticed. There are currently four post-docs, and one more is expected to arrive by April.
At Reed, Post-docs act as liaisons between students and facility, especially in the realms of research. In contrast, post-docs in research universities primarily deal with pursuing their own research to develop skills needed for their profession. While at Reed, the post-doc experience is non-traditional, as greater interaction with undergrads creates a mentor-mentee relationship.
Read MoreDepartment Associate Gives Physics A Different Slant of Light
Winter in Portland can make the entire campus feel like a monochromatic haze. But Jay Ewing, who is a Physics Department associate, uses a D.I.Y. full-spectrum lighting fixture to combat the malaise of the darker months. All intro physics students pass through Ewing’s lab, and many leave with a greater and more practical understanding of [...]
Read MoreThe True Dean, Nigel Nicholson
Nigel Nicholson will become Reed’s newest Dean of Faculty on June 1, 2013. Nicholson was one of three candidates subjected to round after round of interviews addressing their standpoints on academic mission, which policies to change, new majors, fund allocations, diversity, and all other topics relevant to the post. What stood out about Nicholson? Senator [...]
Read MoreAdministrators and SB Presidents Discuss New AOD Review Panel
Around thirty or forty students turned out Wednesday night for a discussion of last semester’s revisions to the Alcohol and Other Drug Policy. The discussion, hosted by Residence Life, featured dormitory Residence Directors, Director of Community Safety Gary Granger, Dean of Student Services Mike Brody, Student Body President Ari Galper, and former Student Body President [...]
Read MoreThesis Christ: Heidi Whitehouse ‘13
In the Congo in the time of King Leopold II, Belgian colonists and companies brutally exploited indigenous Congolese peoples in the name of “civilization.” Such is the premise of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, a Victorian-era novella that is touted in academic circles as a scathing criticism of racist imperialists. But with her thesis, Heidi Whitehouse ’13 points out that Conrad’s novella may not be as anti-racist as academics are prone to believe—and that, in fact, Conrad’s language bolsters the racist language of the Victorian Era.
Read MoreBeavers Take Free Reign of Canyon
While Reedies were busily studying for midterms, the beaver families living in Reed’s canyon have been quietly transforming the canyon’s east end back into the marsh that Reed Lake once was. Each night at dusk, around three beaver families migrate from their dens near the Amphitheatre to the east end of the Canyon to feed [...]
Read MoreYou Have a Package at Reed Mail Services: An Interview with Ben Lund
Every time a student receives cookies from home, a book from Amazon, or new shoes, they receive an email from a mysterious man who spells his name with no capital letters. Who is the man of mystery working in the GCC’s basement? Why the cummings-esque lack of capitalization? Can the Postal Service help you convey a coconut across the country? Staff reporter Isabel Meigs found out in in this slightly edited and condensed interview.
Read MoreLacking Time, But Seeking Love, Reedies Speed Date
This article is also available as an online radio story. Whether on the hunt for a Valentine’s Day date or just looking to meet new people, dozens of Reedies filed into the Student Union on Saturday afternoon for Reed’s first speed dating event. Students attempted to make small talk, get to know each other, and [...]
Read MoreThesis Christ: Autumn Dobbins ‘13
Sometimes, at the end of an odyssey, you have to walk around, waiting for someone to ask if your oar is a fan for winnowing grain. Sometimes you do a thesis.
Autumn Dobbins ’13, of Kirksville, Missouri is doing her Theater thesis on a new way of designing for the stage to reflect the digital age.
Read MoreA Semester in St. Petersburg
Picture eleven at night. Except “night” has become an arbitrary, meaningless word. The sun hangs by the horizon’s edge, dangling the false promise of darkness over the head of the city. In a few hours it will dip below the edge of the world and rise back up, the sky deepening to a blue without ever surrendering into the embrace of black night. It has been weeks since there has been any sort of true darkness, since you could go to sleep under a blanket of stars. The White Nights steal your sleep like a mischievous imp, begging you to come out and play before the eternal darkness of winter takes over. Staring out of a window on the eighth floor of a sixteen story monolithic concrete block, from a room that always smells faintly of dill, you can see the edge of the Gulf of Finland. You have forgotten what it means to feel comfortable. Living in someone else’s house, in someone else’s country, your tongue stumbling over someone else’s language, your body is your only home. Comfort is cage; you learn to do things that make you uncomfortable. You will never know the ways your body can move if you never try to stretch.
Read MoreJuniors’ Genebot Startup Wins $2,500 Prize
Connor LaBean ’14, right, and Ben Stephens ’14, left. Last year, Connor LaBean ’14 excitedly approached his good friend, Ben Stephens ‘14, about an idea he had: a biotech automation robot or “genebot” that could do about anything involving liquid transfer, thus saving eons on time-consuming experiments involving genetic replication that are usually done manually. [...]
Read MoreHippie Turns Half-Baked Idea into Americone Dream
Vollum Lecture Hall swarmed with Reedies Thursday night to hear Jerry Greenfield speak about the often forgotten, socially responsible aspect of business. Some came to enlighten their minds with Jerry’s wisdom, while others came with grumbling stomachs and hopes of free ice cream. This Gray Fund sponsored event granted their wishes, as an ice cream [...]
Read MoreKroger, Reedies Discuss Paideia Censorship at Community Forum
Students, faculty, and alumni filled the SU at 4 PM on Friday to discuss the controversy surrounding President John Kroger’s recent cancellation of two Paideia classes and censoring of a third over content relating to drugs and alcohol. Over a hundred Reed community members gather to hear Kroger speak, ask him questions, and express their [...]
Read MoreAn Interview with the Brand-Spanking New Student Body President
Once one enters Ari Galper’s room on Bragdon 2, the floor where he is currently HA, it becomes immediately obvious how he was elected student body president. The room is spotless, everything in its place without a hint of excess, full of calming colors and dried flowers. Now that the scene has been set, here’s what he had to say about his new responsibilities.
Read MorePoetry Night Opens Up
It is dark outside of the Student Union. Everyone inside sits on couches arranged in a semicircle, quiet, engrossed. The group this night is small; it is clear that poetry night at Reed College is not immune to the usual fatigues that plague other student groups. This was the scene the 28th of November, and [...]
Read MoreGlass, Silicone, and 11 Inches of Stainless Steel
Reedies gathered around a table piled high with sex toys, many of them of unclear purpose, in Eliot Hall last Tuesday. The Joys of (Sex) Toys, hosted by ADSAPR Jyl Shaffer and Student Educators Taylor Bailey and Gabriele Slaughter, aimed to educate curious members of the Reed community on the history, types, and uses of [...]
Read MoreThesis Christ: Danny Sellers
In the 1990s, development economist Amartya Sen formulated a controversial theory. He postulated that countries that have a free press and competitive elections are better at averting famines, and he used events in Ethiopia, Sudan, Botsawana, and Zimbabwe to prove his point. Using the same countries as Sen, and incorporating three additional African countries, Political Science major Danny Sellers ’13 will seek to challenge this theory.
Read MoreCommunism, Bureaucracy, and Tough Love: The Suede Jacket Premieres
Photo courtesy Heather Chan. The platonic form of sheep has been captured by Perry Nelson ’16 and placed in a black box. That Black Box is in the Reed College Theatre building, where The Suede Jacket by Stanislav Stratiev debuted Wednesday. It plays Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30 pm. The question of what it [...]
Read MoreCool Thesis of the Week: Katelyn Best
Thirty years ago in Managua, Nicaragua, a group of students had an incredibly rare opportunity. After the Sandinista revolution, a school for disabled children was founded, bringing over 400 previously isolated deaf children into contact with each other. Initially having no language with which to communicate, the children interacted by making up their own signs [...]
Read MoreThe Lost Dorms of Olde Reed
The men’s dorm Sisson stood across from Chittick, near the blue bridge, where Bragdon now stands. Buried deep in the foundations of Bragdon, lay memories of Olde Reed. From 1958 to 1997, two men’s dorms occupied the space where Bragdon now stands: Ackerman and Sisson. When these Cross Canyon dorms were first built, along with [...]
Read MoreComedian Under Fire for “misogynistic, racist, and homophobic” Comments
Controversy roiled Saturday at a stand-up comedy show in the Student Union. During the set of comedian Sal Rodriguez, a student took the stage and grabbed the microphone from Rodriguez to criticize him for what she called his “blatantly misogynistic, racist, and homophobic” performance.
Debate has continued since the event, with a discussion and support group hosted by the Feminist Student Union on Monday, and discussion of a possible honor case against Rodriguez. Rodriguez, for his part, said via email, “I apologize for nothing.”
Read MoreCEP Captures Ecologically Damaging Canyon Kittens
Students have eagerly adopted the numerous cats that live in the Canyon as a part of Reed lore, dubbing them “Canyon kittens,” but whether they’re a feline blessing or a grimalkin curse depends on who you ask. Canyon Specialist Zac Perry says that cats pose a threat to the health of the Canyon ecosystem. According [...]
Read MoreCommons Theft Ramps up at Semester’s End
Every day, approximately $100-200 of food is stolen from Commons. This is a recurring problem, and at the end of the semester, theft tends to be especially prevalent. One likely contributing factor is that students run out of board points, according to Vanessa van Staden, operations manager of Bon Appétit at Reed. “If the chef [...]
Read MoreCool Thesis of the Week: Wyatt Alt
Wyatt Alt’s ’13 thesis? Counting the Number of Domino Tilings in the M x N Projective Plane. “You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension – a dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of [...]
Read MoreStudents Celebrate Four More Years of Obama
Students camped out in Vollum Lounge on Tuesday night to watch the election unfold. It did not take long, however, for the outcome of the presidential election to be decided. At approximately 8:15 p.m. PST, the room erupted into applause. After winning Ohio, President Barack Obama won the presidency with 274 electoral votes; Romney had [...]
Read MoreCool Thesis of the Week: Max Maller
Much of the material academics study is the product of the elite. But Max Maller ’13 seeks to study an art form that rose out of the lower echelons of 19th Century China. His Chinese thesis, which he is working on with Professor Hyong Rhew, explores the art and evolution of Xiangsheng, a popular form of comedy in China that originated in the markets and temple fairs of Beijing during the Qing Dynasty.
Read MoreIs Secularism an Obstacle in the Search for Truth?
Reed wears its atheism proudly, and, according to Reed’s own surveys of its incoming classes, has one of the most secular student bodies in the nation. “Radical secularism in our modern western culture is bankrupting the university,” said Mary Poplin, a professor of education at Claremont Graduate School. She went on to explain that the [...]
Read MoreStudents Clash with Meghan McCain
Tensions rose at a Gray Fund event in Vollum Lecture Hall during questions between students and columnist, author, and blogger Meghan McCain. McCain, who writes for The Daily Beast and appears as a contributor on MSNBC, and is the daughter of Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona, spoke at Reed Tuesday night promoting America, You Sexy Bitch: [...]
Read MorePsychedelic Sounds Fire Up SU
Students listen to The Flaming Lips’ Zaireeka in the Student Union. Things got loud this weekend when two of indie rock’s biggest and most-loved bands descended upon the Student Union—in recording, that is. First, on Friday night, students had the opportunity to dance themselves clean at This Is Happening, a dance to LCD Soundsystem’s last [...]
Read MoreCool Thesis of the Week: AnnaLise Bender-Brown
In Western culture, female genital mutilation is regarded as a violent act against women that is a product of patriarchal oppression. Girls who are victims of this mutilation are stripped of their agency and coerced into a ritual that destroys the possibility of sexual pleasure in the future. AnnaLise Bender-Brown is out to deconstruct these [...]
Read MoreRoof Climbers Cost Reed $10,000
In 1895 Cambridge student Geoffrey Winthrop Young published The Roof Climber’s Guide to Trinity, inadvertently inventing the sport of stegophily. Unknowingly following in his footsteps, students have been climbing on the rooftops of Reed buildings for years. Recently, Community Safety reports of stegophily have increased and roof climbers have done thousands of dollars in damage. [...]
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