Portland State Magazine Winter 1991

,. • frequently citing lack of child care and job conflicts as the reason. The fin anc ial picture painted by the study is a bleak one. Forty percent of these student parents have household incomes of less than $ 10,000 (i ndeed, 17 percent of the female student parents have incomes under $5,000) child care is a drastic drain on fin ances. "The onl y way to afford school and day care is to be a full time mom and student , and a part time employee," wrote one study respondent. " But when do I study? Or cook? When do I hug my hu sband and children?" Learning the concern s of these low income student parents and understanding their circumstances was not the onl y purpose of the study. The Helen Gordon Child Development Center, an educati onal laboratory and child care center for children of PSU students and employees, and Student Parent Services, a referral and support service on campus, plan to use the data to evaluate a program of child-care subsidies for low-income student s under a new grant from the Oregon Scholarship Commiss ion. Increased scholarship a id would make an important contribution to the well be ing of these people, said study director Art Emle n. But he is quick to point out.that even without these enhancements, student par– ents on fin ancial aid "are serious, full-time students focused on job and career. .. not allowing circ umstances to deter them from their education, despite high levels of stress." Child care partnership with local company Mentor Graphic Corporation has forrn ed a partnership with PSU to establish a corporate-subsidi zed, accredited child development center at the company ' s new Wil sonville site. The collaborati ve effort is the first of its kind in the Northwest. Mentor Graphics, headquartered in Beaverton , designs, manu factures, markets and services e lectronic design automation (EDA) software and systems. The company will provide fundin g for construction of the new child development center and will help subsidi ze program development expenses when the center opens in September 199 1. Children of company empl oyees, up to fi ve years of age, will be admitted to the program. Margaret Browning, director of PSU's Helen Gordon Child Deve lopment Center, is he lping to develop the fac ilities and program at Mentor Graphi cs. She will continue to direct the center on campus, which prov ides an educational laboratory for researchers, and a preschool and extended day program fo r children of PSU students and employees. Robert Shaw conducts Internationally recognized conductor Robert Shaw will be in res idence at PSU winter terrn to lead the Chamber Choir and Orchestra in J.S. Bach' s Passion According to Saint John. The Pass ion will be perforrned Feb. 10 at 7 p.m . at the First United Methodi st Church, 1838 SW Jefferson. Several rehearsa ls will be open to the public as well as a free lectu re by Shaw scheduled for Feb. 5 at 11 a.m. in Smith Center Ball room. Shaw, reputed ly one of the leading conductors of our time, was music di rector of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for 2 1 years until hi s retirement in 1988. He has made many recordings, including those of the famous Robert Shaw Cho rale. He has won 12 Grammies and received a Gold Record for the first RCA class ical recording to se ll more than a million copies. Shaw's week-long res idency at Portl and State is be ing funded by the Lorene Sa il s Higg ins Charitable Trust Fund . The ann ual $45,000 gift has enabled the Schoo l of Fine and Performing Arts to bring such notable performing arti sts as Jerome Hine, Actors from the London Stage, and Bebe Mill er to the PSU campus and community during the past fo ur years. Tickets for the Feb. I0 performance are $25/$ 12/$8 and are avai labl e from the PSU Tic ket Office, 725-3307 . The PSU Mu sic Department , 725-30 I 1, has ticket informati on fo r the rehearsa ls. Workshop for better handwriting Is your handwriting so bad th at famil y members can ' t read your birthday card greetings? Then bring a pe nci l and paper to a free three-hour Italic Handwriting Workshop scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 19, from 10 a.m. to I p.m. in Smith Center Ballroom. The workshop is be ing held on Nati onal Handwriting Day which celebrates the birthday of John Hancock, the first signer of the Dec larati on of Inde pendence. Parti cipants will learn the fundamentals of italic handwriting, a simple lower-case alphabet which is cursive in nature in that most of the letters are written in one stroke. Seminar leaders include Portland teachers Barbara Getty and Inga Dubay , authors of the new Write Now: A Complete Self-Teaching Program for Better Handwriting and The Italic Handwriting Series. Both were published by the PSU Continuing Education Press, sponsor of the Jan. 19 handwriting workshop. The e ight-book Italic Handwriting Series is used in the Portland School District as the official text fo r handwriting in struction from kindergarten through e ighth grade. Historically speaking Friends of Hi story continues to enlighten the present by analyzing the past in free public lectures presented by university scholars. Thursday , Feb. 7, History Professor Ann We ikel di scusses "The Days of Our Li ves PSU 3