Students celebrated the Lunar New Year in St. Mary’s on Friday afternoon. The cultural celebration began on Jan. 25 and continues to Feb. 8. This year is the Year of the Rat, which will prioritize the rat’s traits of quick thinking and adapting to one’s environment. To honor the new year, the Chinese Cultural Club gathered for food, bingo and good fortune signs. The color red abounded, as it can ward away bad luck. More Lunar New Year events will be held around Portland in the coming week.
For the first time at the University of Portland, classes were canceled in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Students were encouraged to spend their day volunteering and to treat the holiday as a “Day On” consisting of different service opportunities.
Volunteers went to locations in the Portland area including the Boys and Girls Club where they reorganized supplies, the Village Garden where they picked up trash surrounding the garden plots and Community of Hope where they pulled weeds from the garden.
On Sunday night, members of the UP community gathered in the Marian Garden outside of Chapel of Christ the Teacher for the dedication of the new Grotto. The congregation from the 8 p.m. Mass came to the dedication alongside all of the campus priests.
Fr. Jim Gallagher blessed the Grotto with incense and lit the first candle. After the candle was lit, the Chapel Choir led the crowd in a song and people were invited to light the Grotto’s candles.
Correction: An earlier version of this story had a caption that inaccurately identified a ROTC student as an Air Force cadet. The caption has been changed to correctly identify the student as an Army cadet.
Members of the University of Portland Army and Airforce ROTC programs conducted a 24-hour vigil at the Praying Hands Memorial on campus in honor of Veterans Day. The vigil began Sunday and ended Monday morning at around 11 a.m. The ceremony included guest speaker and United States Army veteran Elizabeth Estabrooks. Two F-15 Eagle fighter jets flew over campus during the ceremony.
The Praying Hands Memorial was built by the University of Portland class of 1948 and included the names of 69 UP students killed in service during World War II. The memorial now includes 80 names total and the names of UP students who died while serving in the military during other conflicts such as the Vietnam War and the Gulf War.
On Halloween, campus welcomed a crowd unlike any other. Shipstad Hall hosted Peter Parker himself, seen on rare occasion without a mask, and a baby shark ran through Franz Quad on the way to wreak havoc in Mehling. From evening until nightfall, trick-or-treaters and their parents wandered through the dorms, getting candy from eager residents. Brave souls could wander down to Shipstad Hall’s traditional haunted house, led by students in the Shipstad basement. After a week of classes and exams, campus was rejuvenated by sugar highs and the spooky spirit.
On Wednesday night, Active Minds hosted an event during EspressoUP to provide support for the University of Portland community following the death of freshman Owen Klinger.
Students wrote letters to Owen’s family and put down words of encouragement on strips of paper to create a chain of supportive messages. They also placed their handprints on a banner using green paint, showing their solidarity with the UP community.
“We are hoping to create some visual displays that allow us to show that we are a community that stands together during times of struggle,” Rachel Mehlman, president of Active Minds said. “We have our poster where you add a hand and it's kind of like a pledge to show that you are a part of this community and you pledge to support others and to be there and to really participate in this community space.”
Owen’s body was found in the Willamette River on Oct. 20, two weeks after he went missing from campus.
Students at the Left Bank Annex entered a pastel dreamworld Friday night at Candy Land. From 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., people danced the night away to crowd hits by DJ Clint and took advantage of the candies, desserts and other snacks. Students rose to the occasion with colored wigs and candy jewelry, making sure to document their outfits at the photo booth. Although the night had to end, the memories of Candy Land will live on.
If you are one of the 1,200 students in possession of a ticket to Candy Land, the annual fall dance, there's likely one thought on your mind: "What do I wear?"
Fortunately, The Beacon was way ahead of you. With two short trips to the glamorous Fred Meyer and Dollar Tree, the editorial board has proudly crafted a lookbook suited only for a board game — or perhaps the main quad. Take some inspiration from your local journalists and prepare yourself for a very sweet night.
On Friday morning, members of the UP community marched in downtown Portland during the Global Climate Strike alongside an estimated 6,000 people calling for the end of the burning of fossil fuels. Many UP students attended the strike to have their voices heard, to put an end to the destruction of the environment and to create a better future for themselves.
On Wednesday night, members of Active Minds gathered in Dundon-Berchtold Hall to make 1,100 paper flowers to represent the 1,100 college students that die by suicide each year. They cut and folded white tissue paper and were encouraged to write on the flowers the name or initials of someone they know who has died by suicide. All 1,100 flowers were made on Wednesday night in about two hours.
The flowers were placed in the academic quad in front of Franz Hall Thursday morning. This is a tradition Active Minds follows each September in honor of National Suicide Prevention Week.
Next time you sink into your seat in Dundon-Berchtold after wandering through the maze of hallways, take a peek at the cross on the wall of your classroom. Like all other academic buildings on campus, each classroom in DB is stocked with a crucifix - but unlike the other buildings, these crosses all come with their own unique stories. Acquired from across the globe, every individual crucifix has its own cultural background and history that it will now lend to UP.
From May 7-30, the Moreau Center led an immersion in Northern Tanzania for the first time through its sister school, the Mwenge Catholic University. The immersion brought UP students to a retreat center at the Mwenge Catholic University, as well as brief stays with host families to orient them with cultural events and traditions. Experiences included learning basic Swahili, bartering in traditional markets, attending weddings and confirmations and bonding with the students of Mwenge.
Students kicked off the start of the school year with CPB's annual Riverboat. Although there was a brief power outage, it did not stop students from dancing, riding a mechanical bull and eating lots of free food, all while rocking yee-haw outfits to go along with this year's western theme.
UP's class of 2023 moved in to the residence halls on Thursday. Move in included a happy corgi, parents helping students loft beds and hall directors hugging llamas.
The Holi Festival went down with flying colors on Sunday as students threw a rainbow of colored powders into the air while wearing white T-shirts and learning Bollywood dances. Holi, also known as The Festival of Colors, is a Hindu tradition in India that signifies the arrival of spring. To celebrate, students gathered in East Quad to dance, throw colors, eat snacks and have some fun in the rain.
Hall council members across campus organized the first ever ‘Battle of the Quads’ on Saturday, where dorms from North, East and West Quads battled it out in tug-of-war, an Easter egg hunt, cornhole and more. After a hard fought battle, East quad, who had a big group from Shipstad, came out out on top at the first ever ‘Battle of the Quads’ champions. After the games, students went to the Mehling Ballroom for free burgers and hotdogs.
"Spring has officially sprung on The Bluff. Despite some occasional showers, students are soaking up the sunshine, admiring the lovely cherry blossoms, and participating in a variety of outdoor activities like softball and pick up basketball games. Check out what students have been up to in the last few weeks:
