Portland State University The story of Portland State University is a story of challenges successfully met, and of fortitude repeatedly shown in the face of daunting obstacles. Established as the Vanport Extension Center in 1946 to meet the educational needs of GIs coming home from the battlefields of the Second World War, the school found its first home in a former federal housing project in North Portland, and its first director in Stephen E. Epler. But even as those first veterans finished their programs, the need for public higher education in Portland continued to grow; years of patient effort by legislators Richard Neuberger and Robert Holmes culminated in 1955 with the establishment of Portland State College— a four-year, degree-granting institution. Its entire campus was the building then called Old Main (now Lincoln Hall); fewer than 3,000 students were enrolled. Today, Portland State’s continuing growth reflects the University’s role as a center for teaching, research, and public service. Its major academic units are the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the College of Urban and Public Affairs; the Schools of Business Administration, Extended Studies, and Fine and Performing Arts; the Graduate Schools of Education and Social Work; The mission of Portland. State University is to enhance the intellectual, social, cultural, and economic qualities of urban life by providing access throughout the life span to a quality liberal education for undergraduates and an appropriate array of professional and graduate programs especially relevant to metropolitan areas. The University conducts research and community service that support a high-quality educational environment and reflect issues important to the region. It actively promotes the development of a network of educational institutions to serve the community. and the Library, with holdings of more than one million volumes and 10,000 serial publications. In the years since 1946, enrollment has climbed from 220 to more than 16,000, and from a graduating class of 72 students in 1956 to approximately 3,000 students this year. Those students come from the University’s 61 bachelor’s and 56 master’s degree programs, covering humanities, the sciences, the social sciences, and the professions; they come as well from doctoral programs in nine areas: computer science, education, electrical and computer engineering, environmental sciences and resources, mathematics education, public administration and policy, social work and social research, systems sciences, and urban studies and planning. And, from its beginning as the Vanport Extension Genter, the University has grown to cover 49 acres in Portland’s South Park Blocks, where more than 16,000 students work with better than 500 full-time faculty. In addition, some 25,000 students are served annually through the University’s School of Extended Studies. This dynamic community seeks constantly to dedicate itself to the fulfillment of our motto, Doctrina Urbi Serviat, “Let Knowledge Serve the City.” 2
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