PSU Magazine Fall 2004

Portland States campaign transf arms our Wien l was a student at Portland State, you had the feeling something was being born. Now, when you're there, you really get the feeling some– thing big is happening. There's a palpa– ble sense of electricity about the place," says Steve Forrester '71, publisher of the Daily Aslolian. Something big is happening at PSU: the University's first comprehensive fundraising campaign, Building Our Future. It is a multiyear effort, which has already raised an estimated $73. 7 million in private investment toward a goal of $100 million, including the biggest gift in the history of PSU: $8 million from alumnus Fariborz Maseeh. lt is ushering in an unprece– dented surge of growth at Portland State, including new and renovated buildings, new programs, laboratories, scholarships, and professorships-all serving to elevate PSU to a regional powerhouse in education and technology. This campaign could not have hap– pened at a more crucial time in the history of both the University and the region. For example, the state legislature has mandated that the university system double the number of engineering grad– uates by 2007. As a result of private donations through the campaign, PSU already has more than doubled its enrollment of engineering students and is on track for supplying Oregon with 40 percent of its new engineers. This is happening at a time when state funding for the University contin– ues to shrink, when research costs are skyrocketing, and when students and their families are under ever-increasing pressure to cover college costs. lndi– vidual donors connected to the Uni– versity know this, and have responded generously to the campaign. "The future of the region and the University is linked and intertwined. People are recognizing that and are supporting the University in ways we've never seen before," says Presi– dent Dan Bernstine, who has seen enrollment rise from 16,000 to 24,000 since he arrived in 1997. Initiatives funded by the campaign are designed to enhance cultural and planning programs that enrich our urban environment; build a bright eco– nomic future for the region by helping PSU become a major research institute; and ensure academic excellence through new scholarships and profes– sorships. The campaign is already responsible for adding new labs throughout the campus, helping build the new Native American Student and Community Center, and endowing chairs and professorships that will attract and retain exceptional faculty. E rrester, who attended Williams Col– lege in Massachusetts before serving in Vietnam, came to PSU in 1968 and says his Portland State education has been invaluable in his career as a jour– nalist. He has maintained close ties to the University ever since graduation. Now the Forrester family's connec– tion with PSU is coming full circle. His daughter, Susan, is entering PSU this fall as a freshman. "I have not known anyone so excited to go to college," he says of his daughter, who was an exchange stu– dent in New Zealand and a page in the U.S. House of Representatives. "PSU just felt right to her. " The resources brought in through the campaign have already had life– changing impacts on thousands of PSU students. Here are just two examples. A Passion for Education Khandice Love had plenty of tough challenges in her life in the late '90s. Her young daughter was enduring surgeries and radiation treatments for brain cancer (she has since improved dramatically). Love was going through a divorce. And she was struggling to make ends meet as a nurse's assistant. She took a hard look at her future and decided to take on another challenge: going back to school to become a teacher. Khandice Love is a teacher at Westview High School, thanks to a scholarship funded through the campaign. "l felt I really wanted to do some– thing that I would enjoy and feel proud of-something that my kids would be able to say with pride when asked, 'What does your mom do?"' she says. L ove finished her bachelor's degree in social science, then applied to Portland State's Graduate School of Education and won an Ames Scholarship. Gary and Barbara Ames gave a major gift to PSU through the campaign in 2000 to establish this scholarship and a profes– sorship in business administration. "Khandice is an outstanding, extremely dedicated woman," says Bar– bara Ames, a former elementary school teacher. "One of the things l most like is the way she fulfills the Ames Schol– arship mission. " Part of the scholar– ship's charge is to provide tuition to students who have experience in multicultural settings. After graduation, Love , an African American, was hired to teach social studies at the predominantly white