PSU Magazine Fall 1994

The dance has ended It wa the last dance for Portland State tudent this summer. The Univer ity no longer offers dance clas es, and the studio in Shattuck Hall is now a 200-seat lecture hall. The Contempo– rary Dance Season has a year's reprieve but will end with a final performance in April. Thu ends the downward spiral which PSU's dance program has struggled against since the November 1990 passage of Measure 5, Oregon's property tax limitation amendment. The program was eliminated as of June 30, 1993, with courses continuing for another year to accommodate dance majors. "In its demise, the dance program joins other equally remarkable entities, including the School of Health and Human Performance, the Center for Urban Education and the International Trade Institute," says Richard To can, dean of the School of Fine and Performing Arts. "This dismantling i a detriment to the entire community. But given the mandates of Mea ure 5, there simply are no option ." Dance classes have been offered at the University since the 1960s, with a certificate in dance available beginning in 1975. It wasn't until 1989 that dance became an academic major. Most of the major dancers and choreographers in the area have either studied or taught at P U, among them: Bonnie Merrill, Jann Dryer, Minh Tran '89, Benny Bell and Bobby Fouther. Perhaps the most high-profile arm of the program has been the international– ly known Contemporary Dance Sea n. Legendary performers and tellar new talent, from as far away as Japan, Peru and Cuba, have come to Portland to perform and teach classes. The final season for the Contem– porary Dance serie begins Oct. 3, 4, and 5, with Daniel Ezralow and Friends. Other artists include David Dorfman Dance (Nov. 18-20); Bill T. Jones/Amie Zane Dance Co. (Jan. 13-15); Louie Bedard (Feb. 24-26); and Northwe t Focus with Jann Dryer (April 7-9). Individual tickets are available at the PSU Box Office, SW 5th and Mill, 725-3307. Michihiro Kosuge, professor of art, is shown here late last spring with his project, Pacific Wave, Portland's largest landscape art. The piece greets visitors at NW Cornell and Miller road, the main entrance to Forest Heights, a 601-acre planned residential development. Pacific Wave helped the project win the Environmental Award and Best Community Land Use "Mame" awards from Homebuilders of Metropolitan Portland. New building in works The University is waiting for state Legislative approval of Harri on Hall, a $1.5 million classroom and meeting facility that could open a early as January 1996. In May, the Oregon State Board of Higher Education approved funds for the design and construction of the 8,000-square-foot building, and prelimi– nary approval has been secured from the city of Portland. The project now goes to the Legislative Emergency Board, which was expected to take action in September. The building, located at the end of Harrison Street near former SW 11th, is included in the draft University District Plan. The flat-floor facility with removable seating for 400 would be used mo tly for lectures on the weekdays. Weekends and breaks would be devoted to student and community activities. The project will be financed with auxiliary bonds, and operating costs will come from rental charges for the facility. If the project get Legislative approval, con truction could start sometime next year. Faculty in the news Peter Carafiol, professor of Engli h, was one of eight cholars nationally to receive a John imon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship for literary tudy. The one-year, $28,000 fellowship i helping him complete a book under the working title "UnAm rican Literature." John Damis received the Branford Price Millar Award for Faculty Excellence during spring commence– ment ceremonies. Damis, a political science and international studies professor, is an expert on issues in the Middle East. He has served several times a a con ultant to the United Nation and as a visiting professor to Harvard' School of Government. Grant Farr, director of the PSU Middle East Studies Center (MESC) and sociology faculty, has received a portion of a $200,000 Title VI National Re ource Center grant. The grant, which will support PSU's ME C for the next three years, is shared with the Univer ity of Washington's Middle East center. FALL 1994 3