Chances are you’ve heard rumors or complaints about “sketchy alums” hanging around on campus. But who are they, and how does their presence affect alumni-student relations in a wider sense? Are sketchy alums a thing of the past? How do alumni contribute to campus life?

When you walk through the doors of p:ear on NW 6th Avenue in downtown Portland, it feels like coming home. I’m not sure if it’s the particular quality of light that seems to filter through the floor to ceiling windows, or how that light plays on the solid and well-worn wooden tables that seem to be begging to host a conversation over a plate of warm food. It might be the art that covers the walls in various stages of completion, or the familiar clutter of paper that fills in all the empty spaces. None of these aspects within themselves define a home, but for the kids who come to p:ear, they all serve as tokens for a space that offers up a unique and fierce brand of love that can be difficult to come by.

Fragment No. 1. The Butte

I slid down the snowy Montana butte, slowly at first. I was still clumsy with the snowshoes.

Did you fall down up there?

Not yet! I’m on my way.

I didn’t rush. I looked out across the frozen lake with our cabin on the other side and the edge of little West Yellowstone. The clarity of the air could cut through your many layers.

The landscape was tricolor. The snow white had little blood pricks of red sagebrush along the 191 and the evergreen was dark green like the beginning of time.

My cheeks were always red like Christmas or childhood and I kept having these dreams of what my ancestors did when their mountains got misty and cold.

I bent my knees and down I went. The trees tightened the trail and I whooshed past the frozen branches of pine. Evergreens encased in ice glittered like insect wings.

I saw tiny paw prints I couldn’t identify nearly as quick as I could poetic devices like metonymy, the whole for the part.

It was that fox you like.

Or synecdoche — the part for the whole — the paws for the fox.

Psychological studies have found that red enhances the wearer’s sex appeal, but here in the offices of The Grail we found that we do not give any fucks. Instead, our study shows that red as a statement color enhances any outfit, allowing it to make the leap from the stale to the sublime. Studio art senior Paloma Martinez-Miranda spices up her simple black style with, not only one, but two, statement pieces that showcase a classic red and gold pairing. Subtle gold weaves itself against the crimson threads within both her scarf and her earrings, transforming her classic black uniform into a striking image.