PSU Magazine Winter 2000

Professor of the Year Devorah Lieberman's ded ication to undergraduate teaching has earned her the title of 1999 Oregon Professor of the Year from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council fo r the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) . Lieberman, who joined the University's Department of Speech Communication in 1987, was honored for her work as d irector of Teacher and Learning Excellence in the Center for Academic Excellence. She manages a campus-wide program to improve undergraduate education through excellence in teaching. In add ition, President Dan Bernstine appointed her vice provost and assistant to the pres i– dent fo r Campus Initiatives in September. "I cannot think of a more worthy recipient fo r this distinguished award ," says Bernstine. CASE established the Professors of the Year program in 1981 and works in cooperation with the Carnegie Foundation and various h igher educa– tion associations in its administration. This year, the Carnegie Foundation announced winners in 44 states and the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Lieberman was selected from 420 faculty members nominated by colleges and universities throughout the country. New $4.4 million grant The Research and Training Center on Family Support and Children's Mental Health recently received a five-year, $4.4 mill ion federal grant. The center, part of the Graduate School of Social Work, works to improve services for families whose children have serious mental, emotional, or behav ioral disabilities. 4 PSU MAGAZINE WINTER 2000 The research and training that takes place is designed to promote services that are community-based, family centered, and cultu rally appropriate. The center also focuses on family empowerment, capacity-building, and the production and dissemination of materials that are useful to a wide vari– ety of aud iences including fami ly members, service providers, planners, administrators, and policymakers. The center will use the new grant to address four major research areas: family support, early intervention, service delivery models, and family– provider communication. Counseling in the schools It's a match made in ... the counselor's office . Overworked counselors in the David Douglas School District and PSU students seeking a master's degree in school counseling have found each other and a mutual client base. The PSU students are helping counsel David Douglas students two nights a week at the district's Children's Services Center, a former elementary school in southeast Portland. Under the supervision of third-year counseling interns and a doctoral-level faculty clinic supervisor, the master's degree students work with students referred by counselors in the southeast Portland district. The free sessions run 50 minutes apiece and are taped on audio and video fo r critiqu ing. The program is an innovative approach to support current counselors and give more practical train ing to those entering the field, says Jan Gallagher, president of the American School Counselors Association. The association recommends a ratio of 250 students to each counselor, but tight school budgets have forced Portland-area schools to a ratio that's closer to 600 to 700 students for each counselor. The counselors-in-training advise students on routine issues, such as college choices fo r high school seniors and teasing for elementary children, and they provide guidance on more serious issues of drug and alcohol abuse and violence. Weekend business degree The School of Business Administra– tion launched its new Weekend Business Degree Program this fall. Using the cohort system, students come in at the junior level and in less than two years can earn a bachelor's degree with a management option , says Alan Zeiber, director of the Weekend Business Degree Program. "As I go around to the community colleges I hear people say how good it is that we are offering this opportu– n ity," says Zeiber. "T here are a lot of people out there who work fu ll time who want to finish a four-year degree." C lasses are held Saturdays and Wednesday even ings to accommodate people who are working full time and keeping fami ly commitments. The program admitted 12 students this fa ll-all of whom are emp loyed. The average age of this year's students is 37, and 80 percent are women. The new program is nationally accredited by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business– !nternational Assoc iation for Management Education. Lighting the way There is new light in the night on the Park Blocks. The four sculptures that dot the south Park Blocks from campus to Salmon Street are now illuminated as part of a plan to the make the area safer. The city added lights this fall to "Peace Chant," an abstract close to campus; the statues of Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln; and the Shemanski Fountain off Salmon Street. Police efforts to reduce crime in the Park Blocks in recent years have had good results, but those who enj oy the park wanted to take it a step further. The $40,000 needed to provide the lighting was raised by the Cultural District Council and the Portland Bureau of Parks and Recreation from private sources. The lighted statues are now helping to illuminate the way from Lincoln Hall to the Performing Arts Center, Portland Art Museum, and the O regon History Center.