PSU Magazine Winter 2006

What if everybody read the same book? It's a question Multnomah County Library asks and answers each year as it encourages area residents to read and discuss one book through its Everybody Reads program. This winter's book, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, is also a must-read on campus, as Portland State hosts guests speakers, roundtable discus– sions, and book-group talks on the novel and its backdrop of Afghanistan. The Kite Runner tells the story of an upper-class Afghan boy, Amir, who betrays his best friend and servant. Amir flees with his father to America to start a new life away from the hor- rors of the Soviet invasion, but decades later must return to Afghanistan, now under Taliban rule, to make up for his past mistake. Faculty experts will present two panel discussions, "Afghanistan: Poli– tics , History, and Culture," February 9; and "The Kite Runner; Literary Criti– cism and Cultural Studies," February 16. Both will be presented twice , at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. in 296 Smith Union. PSU is sponsoring guest speak– ers on campus February 24 and 27. In addition faculty will visit book groups sponsored by the library, Starbucks, and local bookstores during February. For a full schedule of Everybody Reads events, see the Multnomah County Library Web site at www.mult– colib.org/reads/. Middle East Studies Center founder dies Frederick Cox, founder of the Middle East Studies Center and first dean of graduate studies at Portland State, died December 8. He was 91. Cox, a professor of history, came to Port– land State in 1957, just two years after the insti– tution became a college. His "energy and astute– ness," wrote the late Prof. Gordon Dodds in The College That Would Not Die, was instrumen– tal in making the Middle East Studies Center a success. careers in government, academia, and business. As dean of graduate studies from 1964 to 1968, Dr. Cox expanded degree offerings from two advanced degrees to 16 master's degrees and three doctoral pro– grams. At the same time he remained head of the Middle East Studies Center. Dr. Cox was the first American scholar Lo work in the Da al– Wassaig (former Abdin Palace Archives) in Through contacts in the federal government, Dr. Cox founded the Frederick Cox was also the first dean of graduate studies. Cairo. He was the author of numerous articles on the Middle center in 1960 as the first federally funded undergraduate Middle East Studies Center in the nation. Under Cox's leadership, the certificate pro– gram continued to grow in stature and students, many of whom went on to 2 PSU MAGAZINE WINTER 2006 East for professional journals in Egypt, Sudan, England, and the U.S. He also co-edited a two-volume set on The Soviet Union and the Middle East: 1917 - 1985, which was published after his retirement in 1980. B L Acknowledging Portland's Urban Pioneers The fifth annual Urban Pioneer Awards event honors people and organizations that help make Portland one of the best places to live. This year the College of Urban and Public Affairs will recognize Mike Lindberg, Williams & Dame Development, Inc., and the National Electrical Contractors Associ– ation / International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (NECA/IBEW). Lindberg, who championed parks, the arts, and the environment as a Portland city commissioner for 17 years, is senior counsel for Fleishman– Hillard International Communications in Portland and an avid volunteer. Portland-based Williams & Dame Development specializes in developing underutilized real estate to meet new community needs. Its recent projects include the South Waterfront District and the Hoyt Street Yards in the Pearl District. The NECNIBEW built a state-of– the-art electrical training facility in Portland that is nationally recognized in the industry. The awards event, planned for May 2 at the Portland Hilton, benefits student scholarships. For tickets, call Rod Johnson at 503-725-4044. Investing in investors National investment firm D.A. David– son & Co. has invited PSU business students to manage an account worth $50,000. Graduate students in the School of Business Administration have a track record of investment success. For the past eight years they have managed a diversified stock portfolio that has con– sistently outperformed the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. The PSU student-managed portfolio was established in 1997 with a $50,000 initial investment by the Port– land Society of Financial Analysts (now the Chartered Financial Analysts Society of Portland) and a $30,000