PSU Magazine Summer 1987

t PSU has banner year in legislature • • When the 1987 Legislature adjourned in the early hours ofJune 28, it marked the end of what PSU President Natale Sicuro characterizes as "a spectacular session, the best for higher education I've experienced in my nine years in Oregon." Prior to the start of the legislative session, Sicuro outlined a three-point agenda: an addition to the Millar Library; funding for "Centers of Excellence"; and faculty salaries. The Millar Library addition was funded at $11 million by legislators as part of a package of higher education capital construction projects endorsed by the governor. Construction of the addition, which will nearly double the available library space at PSU, should begin later this year. Portland State also received con– tinued funding for programs desig– nated as Centers of Excellence. The Center for Urban Research in Millar Library Addition Education (CURE), a joint program between PSU and the Portland Public Schools, will receive $490,000 over the next two years. CURE will focus on ways to improve the educational environment for "at risk" students. The center is expected to begin opera– tion in the fall with identification of a staff, director and research projects. Continued on page 23 PSU's first student housing, a nine-floor, 98-unit building at 11th and Mill (behind Science Building 11), is expected to be occupied this fall. To be managed by Portland Student Seroices, the University-owned building consists ofone-bedroom apartments (inctuding five handicapped units) and two floors ofparking. The $5. 6 million project was financed with bond sales. PSU MAGAZINE PAGE 3 Performing Arts receives grant PSU's School of Fine and Performing Arts has received a substantial grant from the Lorene Sails Higgins Charitable Trust for an artists– in-residence program. The gift, $45,000 a year for as many as five years, is to be used to enrich the University and the community with the teaching and performing talents of guest artists with national and inter– national stature. "We are so happy to have an opportunity to invite prac– ticing artists to the campus to interact with students and faculty," said Fine and Performing Arts Dean Wilma Sheridan. The Higgins Trust has shown its support for PSU in the past by helping to set up a piano lab in the music department and assisting the dance program. Campus attracts distinguished visitors PSU welcomed three distinguished visitors to campus during May and June. Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature, was the guest of the Association of African Students in May, giving a public lecture on campus. The Nigerian play– wright discussed the influence of ancient black African culture on the western world. The same week, Scottish balladeer Jean Redpath gave the annual Nina Mae Kellogg lecture by singing some of the 323 songs of poet Robert Burns. While at PSU, Redpath also teamed up with a University of Wisconsin gerontologist to present a program on caring for the elderly. Ray Marshall, secretary of labor under the Carter administration, was on campus during the first week of Summer Session to teach a class on "Federal Government and Full Employment." The University of Texas professor also spoke to the School of Business and the City Club and met with the media.