PSU Magazine Spring 1989

I .l \ I White, 64, came to Portl and State in 1952 when it was still a two-year exten– sion center newly insta lled on the Park Blocks. A midwesterner by birth , White had earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at Michigan State Coll ege and had come west to work on his Ph.D. at the Uni versity of Southern Cali fo rnia when Portl and lured him north . "One of the fi rst things I noticed about Portl and State," White remembers, " is that when I gave ass ignments that would make other students throw down their books and stomp out , the Portland State students tended to say, 'What else can I do?'" Perhaps it was because White had touched a nerve. "He was tremendously thought- provoking and challenging, and in some ways kind of argumentative with the students," sa id Don Clark , executive director of the Portland Housing Authority. " He challenged every blooming thought you had , but he did it in such a way that he was almost like a peer. Rather than being professo rial, he was in the trenches, slugging it out one-on-one." White al so made politics come alive for Clark as "an area where real people were doing real things." Clark went on to hold the elected seat of Multnomah Coun– ty Executi ve fo r four years. (Portland writer and photographer Cynthia D. Stowell has contributed to PSU Magazine in the past. ) In turn , White's face lights up when he talks about his students. Hi s favorite stu– dent success story reinfo rces hi s belief that Portl and State has a miss ion " to educate the masses" : A welfa re child with an alcoholic mother, this student came to PSU educationally defi cient , worked his way through a master's degree as a clown at OMS! and Farmer Jones at Alpenrose Dairy, taught high school, ran fo r public offi ce, became a successful lawyer, wrote a play, directed a theatre troupe, and last year came back to PSU summer sess ion to teach. While happy as an administrator, here lies Charlie White's greatest satisfaction. " Teaching and having students come back is the best. You can't really beat it." White's home has been as open as his classroom and office. " I've had every class over to my house during fi nal exam period fo r student reports and ham– burgers," said White. PSU foreign students have regularly boarded with White and found a real home. " I've loved most of them," claims White, " but one of my favorites was Andre. He was a Haitian student who was doing experiments in the absorption of amino ac ids through the intestinal wall. We had pet white rats at home and whenever a rat would die he'd always do an autopsy." As enriched as White has felt by his contact with international students and scholars, Portland State has benefited even ...J ...J UJ :;; ~ ci :!: :i: f– z ~---c Charlie White gets a dunking during a campus United Way benefit in 1986 while Ethel Whitson waits her turn. more. " I can't picture anyone who has done more to enhance the international presence on campus," said geography department head Thomas Poulsen, who has worked with White on Fulbright exchanges involving central and eastern Europe. "Charlie's efforts have had the net effect of keeping us in touch with the rest of the world ." W hite became the offi cial head of international programs in 1970, though he had been leading study trips abroad since 1962. White remembers the meeting at which he agreed to become director. " I was just going out the door and the vice president said , 'By the way, you al so get summer session ."' In 1967, Portland State had taken control of summer term, which had been operated fo r years by the state higher education system. White's summer session fl owered , cross-fertilized by his international involvement. Every year, White and hi s staff bring twenty or so fo reign professo rs to campus to teach in summer sess ion. Their presence, through the classroom and through the "Tour the World at Home" lecture series, is a boon to students, fac ulty and the whole community. PSU 15