PSU Magazine Spring 1989

commission to conduct the study. If ap– proved and funded , according to the Board 's timetable, the study could be underway by April 15 of this year and completed by March 1990. S o why worry? ?art of the answer can be found in the Governor's office. In his budget recommendation to the Legislature, Goldschmidt asked fo r a 10 percent tuition hike for University of Oregon and Oregon State University, while PSU got only 5 percent. The reason fo r the discrepancy, according to Gold– schmidt's higher education advisor f>-aul Bragdon and echoed by members of the PSU administration, is that PSU students are not as wealthy as students in Eugene and Corvallis, and that the governor did not want to jeopardize their access to education. (John R. Kirkland, a Portland free-lance writer and photographer, is a frequent contributor to PSU Magazine.) Yet in the competition for state resources, it's little wonder that many at PSU feel slighted . Meanwhile, The Oregonian, paraphras– ing Bragdon, wrote " it's important to make a distinction between the two major research universities in the state - UO and Oregon State University - and the rest of the system's schools. "The educational needs of the greater Portland area could be served better, especially at the graduate levels, but that should be accomplished by cooperation with the larger schools, not by establishing a third major university, he said ." In talking with PSU Magazine, Bragdon was noncommittal about the possibil ity of major new graduate programs. Much of that, he said , will be determined by the new study. "No one can predict what the long run future will be, but the present is a univer– sity with a mission on the undergraduate level, some strong graduate programs, and I doubt that the governor would see that general configuration is going to change," he said . If PSU sees needs that are greater than what the Governor's office is wi lling to fund , the situation is nothing new. Said Edgington, " I've been here 12 years, and I've yet to see a time when there wasn't a competition for resources." PSU faculty are writing to legislators for a better cut , and Edgington has been in talks with Bragdon. "Portland is a city on which everything in Oregon Pivots and will always pivot... Here are all the leading institutions excepting only educational institutions and the State Capitol." From a 1909 report " I think it's something that transcends even money, although we want the extra $2.5 million (tuition increase) ," Edgington said . "It's the fear or concern that we would be perceived as a second tier in the state system of higher education, below University of Oregon and Oregon State University." A separate but equally important issue in Edgington's mind is the proposed com– prehensive study which he views as an op– portunity fo r growth for Portland State. The higher education needs of Portland has been the subject of studies fo r decades. Consider this report from a national education committee in 1909. " Portland is a city on which everything in Oregon pivots and will always pivot. ... Here are all the leading institutions of Oregon excepting only educational institu– tions and the State Capitol. The people of Portland are becoming thoroughly aroused regarding this important matter. The newspapers are discussing the question and the time is ripe for concerted action for the establishment of an institution of higher learning there." Eighty years and countless studies later, the Portland area's importance to the state's economy has not diminished . But the higher ed profile has. Even though Reed College, Lewis and Clark College and the PSU 5