| Portland State University | |
|---|---|
| Motto | Doctrina urbi serviat |
| Motto in English | Let Knowledge Serve the City |
| Established | 1946 |
| Type | Public |
| Endowment | $28.2 million[1] |
| President | Wim Wiewel |
| Provost | Roy W. Koch |
| Admin. staff | 2,248 [2] |
| Students | 29,818 |
| Undergraduates | 22,706 [3] |
| Postgraduates | 7,112 [3] |
| Location | Portland, Oregon, United States of America |
| Campus | Urban 49 acres (20 ha) |
| Former names | Vanport Extension Center (1946) Portland State College (1955) |
| Colors | Green & White [4] |
| Athletics | NCAA Division I Big Sky Conference |
| Sports | 16 varsity teams |
| Nickname | Vikings |
| Mascot | Victor E. Viking |
| Website | pdx.edu |
Portland State University (PSU) is a public state urban university located in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1946, it has the largest overall enrollment of any university in the state of Oregon, including undergraduate and graduate students. It is also the only public university in the state that is located in a major metropolitan city. Portland State is part of the Oregon University System.
The athletic teams are known as the Portland State Vikings with school colors of green and white. Teams compete at the NCAA Division I Level, primarily in the Big Sky Conference. Schools at PSU include the Portland State University School of Business Administration, Graduate School of Education, School of Fine and Performing Arts, School of Social Work, College of Urban and Public Affairs, Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
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The University was established as the Vanport Extension Center in June 1946 to satisfy the demand for higher education in Portland for returning World War II veterans. Classes were held in the vacated-for-summer Vanport Junior High School. This first summer session had 221 students. Over 1410 students registered for the 1946 fall term, which was delayed until October 7 due to a lack of space. Since population in Vanport City, Oregon was decreasing after World War II, the extension center was able to use buildings created for other purposes: two childcare centers, a recreation building with three classrooms, and a shopping center, which required substantial modification to house a library, offices, and six classrooms. Lincoln and Jefferson high schools were used after school hours, as well as the University of Oregon's dental and medical schools, located in Portland, and at Vanport Junior High School.[5]
Following the Vanport Flood of 1948, the college became known as "the college that wouldn't die" for refusing to close after the flood.[5][6] The term was coined by Lois Hennessey, a student who wrote about the college and the flood in the Christian Science Monitor,[5] though students nicknamed the school "The college without a future."[5] (Hennessey, coincidentally, was the mother of poet Gary Snyder.) The school occupied Grant High School in the summer of 1948,[7] then to hastily converted buildings at the Oregon Shipyard,[5] known as the Oregon Ship.[6] In 1953,[5] the school moved to downtown Portland and occupied the vacated buildings of Lincoln High School on SW Broadway street, including the "scabby" Lincoln Hall, then known as "Old Main."[8] The school changed its name to the Portland State Extension Center between December 1951 and February 1952,[6] and in 1955, the Center changed its name to Portland State College to mark its maturation into a four-year degree-granting institution.[6][9] Students and faculty had begun calling the school "Portland State College" by 1952, however.[6] It was also called "The U by the Slough".[8] By 1956, the veterans had subsided, and baby food was no longer stocked in the bookstore.[8]
Portland State University's growth for the next couple of decades was constricted under the Oregon University System's 1929 ruling that no public university or college in Oregon could duplicate the programs offered by another, with grandfathered exclusions for the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.[10] Nevertheless, graduate programs were added in 1961 and doctoral programs were added in 1968. The institution was granted university status by the Oregon State Board of Higher Education in 1969, becoming Portland State University.
In 1994 PSU did away with the traditional undergraduate distribution system and adopted a new interdisciplinary general education program known as University Studies. This program has been controversial both on and off campus due to some evidence that University Studies does not produce students who are adept at writing at the college level, but it is one of the programs at Portland State that has garnered national attention for its successful retention of first-year students. U.S. News & World Report has on multiple occasions listed University Studies as a "Program to Look For". In 2003 Portland State was approved to award degrees in Black Studies. That same year the university opened a center housed in a new building to support Native American students.
In 2004 Dr. Fariborz Maseeh donated, through The Massiah Foundation, $8 million to the College of Engineering and Computer Science. The college was renamed the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science. This was the largest single donation to the University at the time and this gift along with others led to, in May 2006, the opening of a new engineering building, the "Northwest Center for Engineering, Science and Technology" which houses much of the College. The LEED gold-certified engineering building reflects the university's increased emphasis on engineering, science and technology. The 130,000-square-foot (12,000 m2) facility includes classrooms, offices and 41 research and teaching labs.[11]
In May 2004, Portland State announced a joint offering with Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to establish the nation's first biomedical informatics program.[12]
In early 2005, Representative Mitch Greenlick and others introduced legislation in the Oregon House of Representatives that would have merged Portland State and OHSU. The legislation was met with resistance as it was opposed by the presidents of both universities. Consequently, the bill died. Again, in March 2007, Representative Greenlick introduced HB 3034,[13] a proposal which would remove Portland State from the Oregon University System and merge its governance with OHSU into a Portland Metropolitan Universities Board.[14] A legislative hearing was held on March 19 where representatives from PSU and OHSU opposed the proposal.[15]
In September 2008 the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation awarded Portland State University a $25 million challenge grant. The grant is the largest amount in the history of the Foundation and at Portland State. Both the $25 million Miller grant and the funds raised to match it must be used exclusively for sustainability programs. Today, Portland State’s sustainability research and education, led by Robert Constanza, director of the Portland State Institute for Sustainable Solutions, is focused on four primary areas of inquiry: creating sustainable urban communities, the integration of human societies and the natural environment, implementing sustainability and mechanisms of change and measuring sustainability. Since 1998, the Miller Foundation has also contributed more than $5.3 million to Portland State.
Portland State is the largest and fastest growing school in the Oregon University System.[16] The university is ranked among The Best 376 Colleges in its 2012 edition, "Best in the West",[17] and as a "College With a Conscience" [18]
by the Princeton Review. Portland State's MBA was ranked in the top 100 by the "Princeton Review".[19]
In recent years, Portland State has increasingly added more doctoral programs as it has grown from its original mission as a liberal arts undergraduate college into a more broad-based research university. Recently added doctorates are Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Applied Physics, Computer Science, Applied Psychology, Engineering & Technology Management, Mechanical Engineering, and Sociology.
Portland State awarded a total of 5,206 degrees for the 2009-10 academic year, including 3,532 bachelor degrees, 1,625 master degrees and 50 doctoral degrees.[20]
U.S. News & World Report currently ranks Portland State University in the fourth tier in 2007 as a research university.[21]
Portland State University School of Business Administration ranks 22nd on a list of the Global Top 100 Schools in the 2007–2008 edition of 'Beyond Grey Pinstripes,' a biennial ranking of business schools conducted by the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education.[22]
The Portland State University School of Business Administration is also ranked in other surveys, such as the Princeton Review's Best 294 Business Schools.[23]
Planetizen currently ranks Portland State University's graduate Urban & Regional Planning Program, at the Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning, within the top 25 best urban planning programs in the nation.[24]
Portland State University's academic programs are organized into seven major academic units:[25]
In addition, Portland State University, through the School of Extended Studies, offers continuing education and special learning activities, including credit courses, degree-completion programs, distance-learning courses, noncredit community programs, relicensure, certifications, high school courses, summer programs, and online study.
Portland State differs from the other universities in Oregon partially because as an urban institution it attracts a student body older than other rural universities. In the 2009-2010 school year, it was reported that the average age of an attending undergraduate student was 25 years. A significant percentage of Portland State's classes are offered at night and Saturdays. Indeed, some programs only offer night classes. PSU also delayed the development of its campus for decades after its founding. The institution sold land in a neighboring block soon after its move to downtown Portland, and delayed the construction of student housing until the early 1970s.
While the mean age of students is 27, increasing traditional enrollment is lowering the average student age.[26] Mixed-use building projects (commercial, educational, residential) by the university preserve downtown shops and businesses while transforming the university from a "commuter campus" to a mix between a commuter and a traditional campus. Recently completed residences include the Stephen Epler Hall and The Broadway. Further steps toward increasing housing capacity — and university control over its own housing — are being taken with plans for further construction, and with PSU taking over management of the residence halls it currently owns. Optional residential and social opportunities exist with a small but active Greek system, which includes Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Epsilon Pi, Alpha Phi Alpha, Kappa Sigma, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Sigma Sigma, Alpha Kappa Psi and Phi Gamma Nu.[27]
In March 2007, Portland State University took over the managing of the on-campus housing at Portland State University. College Housing Northwest, which has previously managed the on-campus housing buildings (including The Broadway, Stephen Epler Hall, West Hall, King Albert, St. Helens, Montgomery Court, and Ondine) for over 30 years, will still maintain its off-campus housing (including Goose Hollow, The Palidian, The Cambrian, and Clay).
The student government is the Associated Students of Portland State University (ASPSU). In addition to a student body President and Vice President, there is a Student Fee Committee, a 25-member Student Senate chaired by the Vice President, and a Judicial Board which rules on ASPSU constitutional questions. There are also a number of university committees that have student members appointed by the ASPSU President.[28] Portland State also participates in the Oregon Student Association, the statewide student lobbying non-profit.
The fully student-run newspaper at Portland State is the Daily Vanguard, established in 1946. Student-run broadcasters run radio station KPSU, and television station PSU TV. The Portland Review is a literary magazine of poetry, fiction, and art published by PSU's Student Publications Board since 1956.[29] Additional student newspapers at PSU are The Rearguard, an alternative-monthly newspaper, and The Spectator.
The 1.3 million volume Branford Price Millar Library is located in the center of campus, and offers an open microcomputer lab. The Branford Price Millar Library is a repository for federal documents.[30]
Portland State University has mass transit by MAX Green Line, MAX Yellow Line, Portland Streetcar, Trimet buses, and by Oregon Health & Science University and Portland Community College shuttles on SW Harrison Street at SW Broadway.
Among a number of student managed club sports on campus are the PSU Rugby Club, the PSU Ice Hockey Club and the PSU Lacrosse Club.
Portland State is a member of the Big Sky Conference since 1996, Pac-12 Conference in wrestling, and the Pacific Coast Softball Conference. PSU competes at the NCAA Division I level in basketball, women's volleyball, golf, soccer, wrestling, tennis, softball, indoor and outdoor track and field, and cross country. Football competes at the Division I AA (or Football Championship Subdivision) level.
Prior to joining Division I, the school won NCAA National Division II championships in women's volleyball and wrestling. The school has also placed second twice nationally in football and once in women's basketball at the Division II level.
Portland State's colors are green and white, and its mascot is the Viking personified as "Victor E. Viking". Among the two more notable former Portland State athletes are Freeman Williams and Neil Lomax. Freeman Williams was the NCAA Division I national men's basketball individual scoring leader in 1977 and 1978. Neil Lomax was a record setting quarterback who went on to star for the St. Louis Cardinals in the NFL in the mid-1980s. Football's "Run & Shoot" offense was first implemented at the college level at PSU by coach Darryl "Mouse" Davis. An assistant coach at Portland State, Davis took over as Head Coach in 1975 following the departure of Ron Stratten. Behind his revolutionary new “Run-and-Shoot” offense (developed in the late 1960s at Hillsboro (OR)HS) and a strong-armed quarterback named June Jones, Davis led the Viking program to new heights - an 8-3 record, including a perfect 5-0 home mark. Davis' quarterback protégés were Lomax and June Jones.
Home games for football are held off-campus at Jeld-Wen Field, and home games for basketball are held on-campus at the Peter Stott Center. In 2008, the men's basketball team earned their first ever bid into the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship.
In 2006, Portland State was declared to be the nation's first Salmon Safe University by the nonprofit organization Salmon Safe. The award was given to recognize campus-wide efforts toward environmental sustainability by treating storm water runoff before it reaches the local watershed.[50]
On June 3, 2008, The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partner Foundation announced Portland State as the recipient of The Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Partnership Award for Campus-Community Collaboration for their Watershed Stewardship Program. The program has led over 27,000 community volunteers donating a quarter million hours to install 80,000 plants and restore 50 acres (20 ha) of watershed along two miles (3.2 km) of river. Individual projects have been led and supported by 700 students working as part of class projects, resulting in two master's theses and three research articles.[51]
Portland State's entry in the 1965 General Electric College Bowl Team won the nationally televised quiz show that pitted teams of college students from across the country against each other. The team knocked off its competitors for five consecutive weeks, retiring as champions, and setting a new record for total points scored. The University's Smith Memorial Student Union building was named after team member Michael J. Smith, who competed in the tournament while suffering from cystic fibrosis and died in 1968.[52]
Media related to [//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Portland_State_University Portland State University] at Wikimedia Commons
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