PSU Magazine Summer 1990

important future for us lies in our oppor– tunities for collaboration with the Portland area community colleges. Collectively, the public and private universities and colleges in Portland reflect a portfolio of educational resource that will increasingly be drawn together by joint planning, by faculty collaboration and by the movement of students among the institutions. Students will do this sequen– tially as they move through their courses of study, but also in a parallel fashion as they pick up special classes that are only available at certain institutions. One of the things that is special about Portland today, is that the educational leadership is so new. Peter Kohler has only been at OHSU for a short time. Dan Moriarty has only been at PCC for a few years, and several of the private college presidents are new or fairly recent additions to the talent base in Portland . We all were attracted here because of the special quality of this community, and we're interested In the possibilities of working together. I have been especially impressed with the workings of a small group of Portland-area presidents who have just delivered a report to the Governor's Commission on Higher Education in the Portland Metropolitan Area on ways to foster public/private university and college cooperation. Just the tone of the . discussion - the interest in creating for Portland an educational community that would rival any in the country, and to establish Portland as a center for educational excellence - I find extraordinarily attractive and exciting. It is one of the things that brought me here in the first place: the possibility to serve not only an institution that is still developing and therefore interesting, but to do so through a series of partnerships with other community leaders.. Certainly in this day and age no university, in fact, no player in the urban area, can respond to all the complex needs of an urban environment. But collectively we can. lfwe create a center for educational excellence in the greater Portland area, anchored by the leadership of Portland State University, each of the individual institutions will improve its quality, its focus and serve its particu– lar mission at the same time . PSU will be the central force in this network of collaboration. PSU 2 Q: What should our relationship be to the down-state schools? A: When you already have a considerable investment at some place in a state not readily accessible to your major urban area, there are many different ways you can draw on that investment. The simplest way is to develop education programs that respond to the needs of professionals in the greater Portland area using faculty expertise from many schools and colleges. Portland State can be the coordinator for this; the lead institution in coordinating the education resources available in the Portland area and in the Oregon State System. One of the greatest strengths of Portland State today is that the majority of its graduate programs are truly collaborative and multi-disci plinary and provide access for expertise from many different fields. The most interesting questions in soc iety today are in those boundary zones among the more traditional disciplines. They require people who have a variety of different perspectives and also different methods of studying problems. This model is an especially good vehicle for fostering collaboration both on campus and with our sister institutions . In other cases we will actually design joint or collaborative programs at the graduate level with the other Oregon public universities, OHSU, University of Oregon and Oregon State University. Q: The University of Kansas has three campuses and the Kansas system has seven institutions. Is education there a cooperative venture? A: Collaboration is a way of life in the state system of Kansas . It works very well. To give a couple of examples: The University of Kansas (KU) cooperates with Kansas State University (KSU) and the University of Missouri in Kansas City to offer an undergraduate degree in architecture; KU and KSU offer a cooperative master's degree in civil engineering in the capital city, Topeka; and Wichita State University and KU cooperate in aerospace engineering research. Q: What are your priorities for PSU? A: For me one of the first and most important issues is building a good library - a major research library - and enhancing the academic computing network . Without a good academic support structure you can't do much of anything. A second area that is especially important is to implement our plans for increasing the number of minority faculty, staff and students at PSU. As an urban university we have a special commitment to diversity and access. Over this first year, I will be talking to many people both inside and outside the institution, about how we are serving the Portland area and the citizens of the rest of the state. I will be asking what plans we should make for enhancing our research , teaching and public service. Q: What do you see as PSU's biggest problem? A: Many people simply don't realize how good we are. It is a much finer institution and much further along in its emergence as a major urban university than people realize. The work of the Governor's Commission on Higher Education in the Portland Metropoli– tan Area has provided an opportunity for us to discuss the centrality of PSU to Portland's future. Portland State is an excellent institution and has attracted a very lively and imagina– tive group of faculty and students. My goal is that five years from now everybody in Portland will be able to see ways in which PSU has improved their lives. Q: What are your impressions of Portland? A: I have never fallen in love with a community faster. There is a special mixture of people, beauty and opportunities for helping PSU realize its future , just waiting to be enjoyed. Everything has come together in the right way for me. It feel s good! Q: How do you expect to spend your free time if you have any? A: My hobby is learning about rny community. I've always enjoyed finding out about local history and traditions , meeting the people, learning what makes a place special , what people really care about, and what they think about and talk about. I tend to put art on my walls done by local artists; I like to read local history