PSU Magazine Winter 1995

LETTERS Making a mulligan stew Gadzooks! It won't work! WHAT ?T he "new" curriculum (PSU Magazine, Fall '94) . WHY?Two reasons: (1) Too much , too soon. (2) No model. In the fir t case, I cite the example of Whi ttier College, once the rival of Reed College in matters academic during the 1930s. Then, in the late '60s, a sudden burst of frenzy fo r "relevance" changed the whole shebang. Result ?Wh itt ier Co llege as it had been known disappeared from the face of the earth . The second case, model... Searching through the list of the five proposed Freshman Inqu iry courses, I find no such animal (un less my divining rod has played me fa lse) .. . what is an enter– ing freshman to make of this mu lligan stew of vague concepts?... If a ked, l might have offered the planners of the new curriculum this simple framework: Self, Society, and Nature... Apparentl y, under the new plan student are no longer expected to ga in their own insights; insights must now come from above. Hence the need fo r an instructor "to step outside his or her d iscipli ne" (an interesting metaphor in itse lf) . It's been my experience that all se lf-respecting teachers do o on occasion. To cite a few examples form fo rmer time : Bob Kelly "working up" class ica l G reek that h is students might hear the music of the ancient epic. Art Bogg noting when London Bridge (the new one) was first li t up by gas, thus illuminating all Victorian literatu re. And Carl Dahlstom's famous popover lectu re, by which his students came to savor the ingredients of dramatic tragedy... And there were others. I des ist from additional criticism, lest my choleric remarks du ll the edge of aspiration. ln spite of all, l offer my best to those involved in PSU's new curricular venture (though I wish it had "a loca l habitati on and a namel ") ... Fred Harri on As oc iate Professor Emeritus of English Yachats, O regon PSU Magazine wants to hear from you. Send your comments to PSU Magaz ine, Portland State University, P.O. Box 751 , Portland, OR 97207. We reserve the right to edit for space and clarity. Hosting Russian officials everal delegations of Russ ian govern– ment and trade offic ials saw fir t-hand O regon's economic development while visiting the state this fa ll whil e participating in a PSU program . The Free Market Business [ evelop– ment Institute in the School of Business Administration hosted a 28- person Russ ian trade delegation that spent two weeks in October FROM THE PRESIDENT C arnegie Corporation Senior Advisor Fred Hechinger, writing recently about growing collaboration among uni ver– sities and school distri cts to train teachers for school reform, said, "ln the traditional hi erarchy of academia, universities usually determine what is important and what should be re– searched and taught, without paying much attention to what is important to the practitioners in the field ." At PSU , we're taking significant, innovative steps toward redesigning both the scope of our community co llaborations and the way we deve lop priorities and goals for those partner– ships. We've taken Mr. Hechinger's statement and turned it around , putting "what is important to practioners in the field" first, then designing an academically sound program that responds to those priorities. For example: • Oregon's Department of Human Re ources wants to improve service deli very to abused and neglected children and their families, and there is a need fo r advanced profes– sional training in the area. Enter PSU 's chool of Extended Studies and Graduate chool of oc ial Work, in cooperation with the Children's Services Division, to establish the Partnership fo r Family Policy, the first uch re earch and training partner hip in the nation. The program was launched with a $ 1.3 million federal grant from the Department of Health and Human Services. 2 PSU Magaz ine • O regon enj oy a di versified agricultu ral base with a reputa– tion fo r quality, but the food proces ing industry lags far behind (we process only about 25 percent of our food product compared wi th 55 percen t nati onally). Our School of Business Administration, working with the food industry, has developed the Food Industry Management Program to prov ide profe sional deve lopment to manage rs and to educate co llege student about the food industry. I could point to many other example from both the profess ional schools and from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, each of which would be different but would share three important aspect : • They were deve loped in re ponse to community identified needs and prioritie . • They feature fl ex ibility in course location, deli very and formats, including distance learning technology. • Funding fo r the partnerships, like the programs themse lves , is a co llaborati ve effort combining grant , communi ty and business support. This is the kind of work PSU doc with the community to help Oregon respond to social and economic priorities and to prov ide a high quality academic experience fo r a diverse and demanding student body. Judith A. Ramaley , President