PSU Magazine Spring 1998

A new dorm experience Living on a campus in the middle of a big city, away from home for the first time, young PSU freshmen have tradi– tionally faced the challenges of their new life with little assistance from the University. All that is changing with the advent of Freshman Experience, a new program launched fall term for the growing numbers of younger students who live on campus. Created jointly by PSU's Student Development office and the agency .which manages student dorms, College Housing Northwest, the program aims to help ease the tran– sition to urban college life. Students in the program live in the Ondine residence building, where they share a room with another student and have access to resident managers. Perks include a computer lab and Internet access, a telephone line with voice-mail, cable TV, vouchers for breakfast at on-campus restaurants during the week, and evening dinners and weekend brunches in the Portland Room. The students can also get three hours of tutoring every day, adv ice from academic advisers on choosing a major, and help with finding summer jobs, according to Tomas Zamudio, manager of the Ondine. So far, Freshman Experience has been a big success, says Zamudio, who helped create the program. The 96 available slots quickly filled, with a number of students on the waiting list. "Students in the program feel more connected to the University and find it much easier to make friends. They can get help learning how to live in a community, dealing with problems of communication and noise," Zamudio says. "And they love the food." Unlike residence programs at other colleges, PSU's Freshman Experience aims to link the experience of college living with academic learning. Students have special help available for their Freshman Inquiry classes, the first year of Portland State's integrated, undergraduate University Studies Program. The cost of the new residence program is $4,800 a year. PHOTO BY BETTE LEE PSU bestowed an honorary degree in 1995 on future South Korean president, Kim Dae-jung. The honor is ours Awarding honorary degrees is a rare event for Portland State, so having 1995 recipient Kim Dae-jung become president of South Korea is particu– larly gratifying. In December, Kim was elected pres– ident in only the second democratic election held in South Korea. This nine-time Nobel Prize nominee has in the past suffered arrest and torture in his own country for his promotion of peace and democracy. PSU honored him in 1995 with a Doctor of Humane Letters for his human rights activities. Kim was on campus for an international confer– ence on "Korea and the Future of Northeast Asia," organized by Professor Mel Gurtov on behalf of the PSU International Studies program. Student rocket scientists Liftoff is scheduled for sometime in early June-barring finals-for a PSU student-built rocket. This "fun, real world aerospace project," as student Andrew Greenberg calls it, was made possible when the Aerospace and Electrical Systems Society student chapter, of which Greenberg is a member, beat out 27 other international teams to win the AT&T Student Enterprise Award earlier this winter. The $1,000 first prize will pay for the project. Lee Casperson, professor of electrical engi– neering, is the group's adviser. The small rocket isn't the techni– cally important part of the project, according to Greenberg. It's the payload: a video camera and scientific equipment that must be fault tolerant, withstand 20g shocks, and still trans– mit images and data to the ground station. The students will equip the high-altitude rocket to "sound" the upper atmosphere. The group, which includes electri– cal and mechanical engineering students, hopes to involve local middle and high school students in the launch. Helping nonprofits The W.K. Kellogg Foundation has awarded a $605,210 grant to the PSU Institute for Nonprofit Management that will bolster the Institute's ability to serve nonprofit agencies throughout Portland, the Willamette Valley, and beyond. PSU is one of only 18 institutions nationwide to receive the W.K. Kellogg initiative grant "Building Bridges Between Practice & Knowledge in Nonprofit Management Education." Other schools receiving the grant include Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pennsylvania, Yale University, Indiana University, and the City University of New York. With the four-year grant, the Institute will expand its existing community outreach program in Portland's North and Northeast neigh– borhoods, targeting the needs of agen– cies serving the African-American community and nonprofit managers who are African-American. The grant will also allow the Institute to expand programs to serve Hispanic nonprofit organizations throughout the Willamette Valley and elsewhere in Oregon, according to Suzanne Feeney, director of the Institute, which is part of the College of Urban and Public Affairs. A further goal is to connect with rural-based nonprofit groups across the (continued on the following page) SPRING 1998 PSU MAGAZINE 3