PSU Magazine Spring 2002

AROUND THE PARK BLOCKS $1 million pledge made to architecture program The Department of Architecture has received a 1 million pledge to endow a program to bring top archi tects to the University to teach. A Portland couple, who wants to remain anony– mou , will pay the pledge over the next five years. This is the largest gift ever to the department, wh ich i part of the School of Fine and Performing Arts. The P U Department of Arch itec– ture is eeking to deve lop a profes– sional, accredited graduate degree program- the region ' first five-year master's degree in architecture. There is no comp rehen ive accredited program fo r architectu re students in the Portland region. The Univer icy currently offer a fo ur-year, pre-profe - ional bachelor's degree with a major in arch itectu re. Rudy Barton, chair of the Depart– ment of Architecture, sa id that the gift will allow P U to appo int loca l and international architects to the PSU faculty, integra lly linking the PSU program with the professional arch i– tectural communi ty. L E T T Seeking memorabilia for new archives Have you saved an old play poster or basketball program from your tudent days? Want to give it a good home? The Uni versity recently creat cl an official U n iversity Archive office to co llect material important to Portland State's in titutional memory. However, it is not a museum-so, no yearbooks, letterman sweaters, or student papers-no matter how brilliant. Gordon Dodds, professor emeritus of history, is serving as first archivist. Dodds, who i also the Un iversity h is– torian , has an extensive knowledge of Portland rate archiva l material ga ined through writing its history, The College That Would Not Die. Cathy Croghan A lmer will serve a assistant archi vist. he rece ived archi va l tra in– ing as part of her work fo r a master's degree in history. The first pri ority of the archivi ts i to inventory everal hundred boxes of archiva l material now in the Millar Library's storage fac ility in northwest Portland. The archives wil l eventually be ava ilable to the public. Dodds and Almer are gathering materi al appropriate for the co llection. A lumni who believe they may have items of archiva l value should send a brief written descri ption of the items by email to Archives@pdx.edu or ca ll the office at 503-725-5760. Curtain closes on performance festival For 10 years the Portland Interna– tional Perfo rmance Festiva l- PIPfest for short- brought internati onal and experimental theater, dance, music, po try, and torytelling to the Portland community. For all that time the Un iversity wa home to the festi val, but beginn ing this summer, Portland State is giving up PIPfest. E R s The University cook a hard look at the 80,000 to 100,000 ubsicly the festival required each year, and decided co eliminate the program because of the budget hortfa lls public institutions and agencies are fac ing aero the rate. P!Pfest Director Michae l Griggs is looking for other spon orship , but the fes tival cannot possibly be up and running aga in until the summer of 2003, he says. Featured professor is not smiling During its decade-long run at Port– land State, PIPfe t brought 220 perfor– mances to Portland from all over the world, drew an audience of 45 ,000 through the years, and consistently received enthu iastic critical response. I was di tressed to read an inaccu– rate quotation, supposedly from me, in the article, "The Enigmatic Smile," in the winter issue of PSU Magazine. It ays, "In Japan ... if a male tranger smiles at a girl, she can assume he is either a sexual maniac or a very impolite person ." This i- an affront to the Japanese and embarra · ing to me. It is also an example of the fragile nature of communication. Somehow that sta tement was attributed to me instead of the student, Japan got substitu ted fo r Hong Kong, and the past became the present. It's even 4 PSU MAGAZINE SPRING 2002 possible the young man from Hong Kong would not say today what he sa id about smile 30 years ago. Apologies are clue all around. LaRay Ba rna MS '70 A sociate Profe ·sor Emerita of Communication Studies PSU Magazine wants to hear f-rom you. Send your comments to PSV Magazine, Portland State Univer– sity, PO Box 751, Portland OR 97207-0751; or to email address psumag@pdx.edu . We reserve the right to edit for space and clarity. ome of the crowd-pleasing favorites were playwright Mahesh Dattani from India, contemporary theater company Wierszalin from Poland , and the theater group Les deux mondes from Canada. "The idea was co combine interna– tional with an interculcu ra l experience and stretch the minds of our audience in terms of what' poss ible in the arts," ay Griggs. He fo und an adven turous thea ter audience in Portland that was wil ling to take a chance. Now G ri ggs is look– ing fo r another co llege or Portland arts organi zation that will fu nd PIPfest in its efforts to present new ideas to the Portland community.