Fr. Bill talks about sustainability, expanding the campus and newspapers at the Fireside Chat
Once a semester Fr. Beauchamp sits down to informally answer whatever questions students may have for him in what is called a Fireside Chat. (Kevin Kadooka -- The Beacon)
By Elizabeth Vogel, Staff Writer -- vogel11@up.edu
"I'm sorry if you can't understand me, I'm suffering from a cold," warned UP President Fr. Bill Beauchamp, C.S.C. before he opened the floor for questions Tuesday night in The Anchor.
There were about 20 students in attendance. Some hot topics at the semi-annual Fireside Chat were sustainability, the new Bauccio Commons, and the recent decision to cut the men's and women's varsity golf teams to add women's varsity crew.
The first question, and many more throughout the evening, regarded sustainability. Beauchamp said he envisioned UP becoming greener as time goes on, but he stressed that there are some things that are not feasible on this campus.
"The only message I've given (to the sustainability committee) is ‘Let's not come up with stuff we can't do,'" he said.
An example he gave was composting.
"It would attract rats and vermin and there's just not enough space," he said. "Sure, it's a good idea, but it's not something we can do."
Beauchamp asked the students his own questions about the functionality of the Bauccio Commons. Students voiced concerns about food service time windows, the layout and students stealing food.
Beauchamp indicated that this first semester is a sort of test period to work out kinks in the way The Commons is run.
"I see part of the ‘problem' is this first semester we're trying to figure out the schedule. It is a learning process," he said.
As for the layout, ASUP Treasurer Ben Thompson brought up a concern about the location of drinks in a corner, and wondered if the open-air refrigerators were sustainable. Beauchamp said that an outside design company was hired to design The Commons and that there were problems with the refrigerators.
"They were supposed to be designed to keep all the cool in," he said.
As for students stealing food, Beauchamp's advice is for students to police themselves. "If you see someone stealing, you don't let them get away with it," he said. "We don't want to have police all around The Commons."
Another hot topic was the expansion of UP's campus to, the 35-acre "Triangle Park" property, now known as the River Campus, which UP purchased in 2008.
Right now, the University is going through the process of proposing a mitigation plan to the City of Portland, which addresses some of the City's environmental concerns along the Willamette River.
The UP mitigation plan, on which the Portland City Commission is tentatively scheduled to vote on Dec. 1, proposes planting several species of trees and native grasses on the property.
Beauchamp said that, ultimately, UP hopes to build a parking structure into The Bluff.
"It's long in the future," he said. "Right now, what we've done is security, fencing, lighting, taking down buildings and worked on getting EPA approval."
Beauchamp acknowledged that some local residents oppose the University's riverfront development plans.
"No matter what we want to do, a couple people won't support us. We've got full support of the City," he said.
One student asked about UP stopping delivery of Willamette Week and the Portland Mercury to the Pilot House. Over the summer, the administration decided to allow delivery of only The New York Times and The Oregonian.
"Some of the papers were problematic, " Beauchamp said. "But instead of saying, ‘This one's OK, this one's not,' we decided to stop them all."
He added that some material in certain publications contributed to the decision to pull the papers.
"Some things were totally inappropriate for a Catholic university," Beauchamp said. "One front-page story was pure trash. It was not appropriate for any university, so we got rid of all, including The Catholic Sentinel. Not all of them were problematic, but they were not necessary," he said.
The decision was also part of an effort for sustainability and to clean up the Pilot House, where visitors often come, he said.
One freshman was concerned about the fact that the University seems to be continuously growing and asked if UP would take steps to maintain its small class sizes and other benefits of a small university.
Beauchamp assured the students that class sizes would not increase.
"We plan to get (the number of new students) back to around 830," he said. "We're looking at getting more control over the admissions process."
Thompson asked Beauchamp to expand on the recent decision to cut varsity golf and add varsity women's crew.
"Golf didn't make sense because of few people involved, cost and interest on campus. The cost is the same as crew, about half a million dollars," Beauchamp said. (For the full story, see page Goodbye Golf... Hello Crew in Sports).
The questions slowed down after about an hour, and as Beauchamp left, he said to the students, "Have a good week, a good Thanksgiving, and a happy Christmas."
