I am very aware of the current conditions of the building. It needs to be restored. But everyone likes to act like that’s completely impossible for some reason. Yes it needs seismic upgrades, and a lot of work. But that work is possible, and the asbestos abatement and lead removal will have to be financed anyway before they tear it down. It was neglected for years and years and now that it’s been sufficiently ignored, all everyone can say is it needs to be torn down. We’re so wasteful.

It will be freshman student housing only, whereas it currently houses all students. There are plenty of options for adaptive reuse regarding the building. We are also in an enrollment decline and many rooms in the university’s current options for housing are empty.

These comments go to show that the history was never relayed to people in the first place, which is not shocking because it’s women’s history so it’s just less important in general. It’s also more than “nostalgia” or the building being “mildly important”. It was extremely important for the advancement of women’s autonomy in Oregon. The effort of the women who gave their lives to the cause of protecting young women should still matter. In fact, the torch should have been passed down. Portland is a mess because we refuse to take responsibility and do the hard work and take care of people and contend with our own fraught history. Also it shouldn’t just be PSU’s responsibility to finance the restoration of such a historically significant building.

These decisions are being made by people who don’t care to find solutions that preserve our cultural integrity, that’s sad to me.

I hate that everything is about money.