WWW . THESKANNER . COM
J ANUARY 16, 2013
P ORTLAND , O REGON
25 CENTS
INSIDE:
Martin
Luther
King, Jr.
Special
Edition
C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
TriMet
Light Rail
Jobs
V OLUME XXXV, N O . 15
STUDENT PROTEST
Lisa Loving
Of The Skanner News
T
riMet has found itself on the third rail
of Portland politics lately, lost in the
media buzz over its labor union nego-
tiations and now an outcry over driver
safety linked to staffing problems.
Less remarked upon has been the success
of their Disadvantaged Business Enterprise
program in generating jobs through light rail
construction.
Helmed since 2011 by TriMet Director of
Diversity and Transit Equity Johnell Bell,
the agency reports that nearly 4,500 jobs
have been created so far through the 7.3-
mile project extending from downtown
Portland to Clackamas County.
By the time it opens in 2015, TriMet says
they’re on track to create 14,500 jobs in
total. And for the first time, the agency says,
one-third of the contracts have been award-
ed to firms owned by people of color and
women.
TriMet says nearly 24 percent of the con-
struction jobs so far have gone to people of
color and about 16 percent to apprentices;
the project is only 30 percent complete and
agency officials say $76 million in DBE
contracts have been generated to date
“With this influx of new labor, the DBE
program is not only providing jobs now, but
creating the workforce of the future,” said
spokeswoman Mary Fetsch.
These 102 Disadvantaged Business Enter-
prise (DBE) firms have reached a new
record of contracting for any regional proj-
ect.
“A core tenet of TriMet’s Transit Equity
effort is creating opportunities in low-
income and communities of color. These
jobs are making a real difference in our
community, and are helping to reduce tran-
sit
inequities
through
economic
empowerment,” Bell says. “DBE firms are
growing and expanding into new areas
because we’re providing the opportunity to
PHOTO TAKEN BY MASON TRINCA. COURTESY OF THE EMERALD MEDIA GROUP.
Agency posts record
for minority, women-
owned DBE firms
The Native American student body staged a march through campus Jan. 7 to protest the recent UO diversity
office changes.
Latest Diversity Office Shakeup
Some students worry they’re losing resources to address their concerns
Bruce Poinsette
Of The Skanner News
A
recent decision to dis-
continue the contracts
of three popular admin-
istrators and restructure the
University of Oregon’s diver-
sity office has angered many
students and community mem-
bers.
“As a minority on campus
it’s getting really old playing
this game of blindside the
minority service,” says Tyree
Harris, a UO student and for-
mer editor of the school’s cam-
pus newspaper, The Daily
Emerald.
He and other students are
concerned that the new, broad-
er approach will take away
resources to address the needs
specific to their ethnic back-
grounds.
During the campus’s winter
break, an article appeared in
the Register-Guard, reporting
that student and local commu-
nity
organizations
were
blasting the decision to discon-
tinue the contracts of Carla
Gary, Emilio Hernandez and
Tom Ball in the Office of Equi-
ty and Inclusion (OEI).
The three administrators
have been pillars in UO’s
Black, Latino and Native
American
communities,
respectively.
In addition to discontinuing
these contracts, the OEI also
announced that it would be
restructuring its approach to
diversity with a new “distrib-
uted model”.
The President’s Office
deferred all questions to Alex-
Assensoh, the Vice President
of the OEI, when asked for
comment on this story.
According to an email inter-
view with Yvette Alex-
Assensoh, “We move from
having one person responsible
for representing the multiple
interest of a diverse group in
one unit of the university to an
organization that is accessible
to under-served populations in
multiple ways.”
She wrote that she is not
See SHAKEUP on page 6
See TRIMET on page 3
INDEX
News ...........2,3,8,9,12
Opinion ..................4,5
A & E ......................6,7
Bids/Classifieds ...10,11
Red Cross Urges Donations to Save Lives
Thanks in part to many donors SEI’s Miki Hunnicutt still works with kids
Daphne Mathew of the
American Red Cross
Pacific Northwest Blood
Services Region
M
iki Hunnicutt is sold
on the mission of Self
Enhancement,
Inc.
(SEI) and she will enthusiasti-
cally tell anyone who will listen
about the successes of her stu-
dents.
What she rarely talks about,
however, is how close SEI came
to losing her to a catastrophic
health problem.
But thanks in part to many,
many blood donors at the Red
Cross, Hunnicutt’s life was
saved through a series of blood
transfusions during and after
intense treatment to remove
several cancerous tumors.
The American Red Cross
hosts their annual Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Blood Drive
Monday, Jan. 21, at their Port-
land Donor Center, located at
3131 N. Vancouver Ave. The
drive ruins from 1:30 to 8
p.m. Appointments are encour-
aged, please call 1-800 RED
CROSS or visit online at
www.redcrossblood.org.
Hunnicutt serves the vital role
of Social and Life Skills Manag-
er at SEI, and is an incredible
source of support, bringing life
See BLOOD on page 3