PSU Magazine Spring 2001

includes four campus-based residencies each year, during which students meet course instructors and other students face-to-face. "Unlike many other online degrees, this program is not being built by sim– ply force-fitting traditional classroom courses into a particular technology," says Tom Luba, program director. "Rather, it is a complete re-engineer– ing of each course from the bottom up to ensure that students receive the best quality electronically enhanced MBA degree available." The eMBA program is the only American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business-accredited pro– gram of its kind in the Pacific North– west. Classes begin in fall 2001. Community service gamers award for PSU Portland State was one of seven insti– tutions to receive the first-ever Higher Education Award for Leadership in National Service from the Corpora– tion for National Service. The corporation is honoring univer– sities and other institutions that have taken a leadership role in using national service resources through AmeriCorps, the National Senior Ser– vice Corps, and Learn and Serve Amer– ica. The Corporation for National Service administers all three programs. Portland State was recognized for its senior year "capstone" service– learning requirement and support of more than 200 service-learning courses each year. Service learning combines service to the community with student learning in a way that benefits both. PSU was also recognized for its tenure and promotion guidelines for faculty that include recognition of scholarship of service and community engagement; for support and hosting of the Oregon Community Service Com– mission and the Northwest Service Academy; for tuition remission for some of the region's AmeriCorps members; and for support of an Ameri– Corps Promise Fellow on campus. Other institutions receiving the award include Temple University, University of Notre Dame, and the California State University system. Training tribes for self-government When Elizabeth Furse was first elected to Congress, she signed on for an intensive one-week course on the workings of the federal gov– ernment at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Wouldn't it be great, she thought, if a similar program could be done for elected members of the country's tribal councils. She found support for the idea among Ore– gon's tribes and at Portland State. Now, with a $1.275 million appropriation shepherded through Congress by Oregon representa– tives David Wu and Darlene Hooley, and Sen. Gordon Smith, the Institute for Tribal Govern– ment has become a reality. The first of its kind in the nation, the Institute will operate as part of PSU's Mark 0. Hatfield School of Government, with Furse as its first director. The Institute will serve as a training resource for tribal councils, especially newly elected members. With casino rev– enues dramatically increasing the size of tribal government, there is a need to train more Native Ameri– cans in self-government. The Institute is also seen as a precursor for a planned Native American Student and Community Center building on campus. The new center would serve as a resource for tribal leaders partici– pating in the program, a center for Native American students, and a place where the community can learn about Native American culture and traditions. New status may eventually lead to new home for ancient Chinook artifacts Just a few days after the winter 2001 PSU Magazine went to press with a story about the discovery and excava– tion of an ancient Chinook village, the federal government officially rec– ognized the Chinook as a tribe. The recognition comes after 200 years of struggle during which the Chinook people suffered as much from depopulation as they have from official neglect. This most recent victory is good news to a people that were once the most important trading tribe on the West Coast. "We have waited so long for this," says Chief Cliff Snider, an honorary chief of the tribe. "It was an exciting moment for us." The new status means that the tribe may have, at some point in the future, the resources to house and display the artifacts from the ancient Chinook vil– lage of Cathlapotle that anthropology Prof. Kenneth Ames has excavated. The artifacts are currently stored in the anthropology lab in Cramer Hall. "We would really like to build a state-of-the-art interpretive center in Washington's Pacific County," Snider says. "We have always wanted to have a complex that would include a museum, tribal offices, a community center, and a cultural center that would serve tribal members and visitors." Although recognition brings the tribe closer to its goal because it makes members eligible for federal benefits, it also opens a new area of conflict that must be resolved before tribal members can actually receive any benefits. The Quinault, a tribe that has long enjoyed the benefits of tribal status, is opposing the recognition of the Chinook. "They are afraid that they will lose rights to the land at the Warm Springs Reservation," Snider says, "and all that goes with it: the casinos, the federal funds, the proceeds from the timber sales. It's all about money." The opposition of the Quinault was anticipated, adds Snider, and does not discourage tribal members, who will draw strength from their latest victory to face the struggle to come. SPRING 2001 PSU MAGAZINE 3