By Philip Ellefson and Cassie Sheridan
The Class of 2015 has watched campus change drastically both physically and culturally over their four years on The Bluff. Below lists the changes that have occured since graduates walked onto campus in the Fall of 2011.
Library In August 2013, UP opened the brand new Clark Library, which had not been updated since the ‘70s. The Class of 2015 suffered through sophomore year without a library (save for a cramped computer lab in the Terrace Room) and is the last class to remember studying in the old library
Rec Center In May 2014, the University broke ground on the Beauchamp Recreation & Wellness Center. It will open this August. The recreation center will replace Howard Hall, which was built in 1927, as the primary space for exercise and recreation on campus. While the recreation center will be remembered as a mainstay of life at UP, the Class of 2015 will have no memories of it.
Pilot House Starting next week, the Pilot House will be closed for the summer as renovations begin. Opening next fall, the new Pilot House will include a pub and be a dedicated social space with room for concerts and other events. Between The Commons (renovated in 2009), The Library, The Recreation Center and the Pilot House, the University’s student life will soon be organized differently.
River Campus The University first purchased the 35 acres on what is now the River Campus in 2008, but it sat undisturbed and grossly polluted for several years. In 2012, UP oversaw environmental cleanup and regrading of the land, which had been an EPA superfund site for years. In August, students got the opportunity to use River Campus for the first time at the Riverboat, which CPB aims to make an annual tradition. Eventually, UP plans to build new facilities on River Campus.
Redefine Purple Pride protest On Feb. 28, 2013, students, faculty and staff gathered in the Academic Quad holding signs and covering their mouths with duct tape in an effort to push for a change in the University’s nondiscrimination policy, which at that time did not cover sexual orientation. The protest grew out of group of students uniting in the wake of what they saw was an insensitive remark about LGTBQ faculty from then-President Fr. Bill Beauchamp. The Board of Regents changed the policy to include sexual orientation in fall 2013.
Tuition goes over $40,000 As UP’s reputation has gone up in the last decade, we’ve had to take the bad with the good. Tuition has increased at a steady pace of about 4.5 percent each year while the Class of 2015 was enrolled. The University announced in March that the 2015-2016 school year will be the first year that tuition will be more than $40,000 yearly.
Women’s soccer loses steam When the Class of 2015 came to UP in August 2011, women’s soccer was a few years removed from the glory days of the 2002 and 2005 national championship-winning teams. But the team still had hope, going to the playoffs year after year. This year, women’s soccer skidded through the season, failing to make the WCC playoffs for the first time since 2000.
KDUP: Revamped
When the Class of 2015 walked onto campus, KDUP was a pretty isolated space for music aficionados. In four years the organization has expanded to have a wider presence on campus. A partnership with Pilots after Dark and numerous larger and spontaneous music events, have created another element to the UPortland social scene that previously was not in existence.
Portland becomes headline making city
In 2011, Portland was not yet fully recognized for weird counter culture or the now notorious Portlandia skits. The Class of 2015 has watched the city rise in notoriety as a place ‘young people go to retire’ and the source of a lot of jabs about putting birds on things.
