Portland State University Alumni News Summer 1986 Inside PSU's fifth president 1 2 Natale A. Sicuro takes over after 14-year presidency ofJoseph C. Blume!. The Class of '86 1 1 Who are the 2, 135 people who received degrees from PSU this spring? Windsurfing in the Gorge 1 5 PSU alum promotes the Columbia River's steadiest a5set-lhe wind. M.th for the left brain 1 7 PSU and OSU profs are helping math teachers find alternalive methods of presenting a tough subject. Reform in conservative clothing 1 8 Gordon Dodds' new history of the Northwest shows progressive Oregon's conservative roots. From the soaps to summer theater 1 9 "Kurt Corday, " good guy of TV's "The Guiding Light, " returns to PSU for a very different role in Sam Shepard play. The Sixties remembered /10-11 Four former students and staff recall a decade of change. The search for the "Missing Viking" / 16 Helping to locate lost PSU alumni could win you a trip to Copenhagen. AlumNotes 1 4 Sports 1 11 foun<I.tion News 1 16 CMnpus News 1 17-18 Calend.r 119 On the cover: The crane and the placard were symbols of the 19605 at Portland State. The decade is remembered on pages 1 and 10-11. The Sixties The 1965 PSC College Bowl Team II A tradition of change and progress" by Clarence Hein In 1965, Portland State's College Bowl team won five straight nationally televised contests, setting records and earning national publicity for PSc. "Portland State College . . . Who in tunkit are they?" Time magazine asked. It was a question the college was asking itself, too. Students were welcomed to the campus in the early 1960s with warnings to be mindful of construction barricades, excavations and piles of building materials, a condition that was to be the norm throughout the decade. The Vanguard, in 1962, said, "Portland State is always building and growing and astonishing the critics who thought the Vanport flood had done us in. It's almost like a-that's it!- a tradition. A tradition of change and progress ." While some searched for campus traditions over the next few years and tried to find Portland State's place in the higher education scheme of things, the press of external events forced the focus of many students and faculty away from the school. At the same time, public focus was drawn to the student activism on campus. Meanwhile, a decade of tremendous developrnent at PSU slipped by, sometimes unnoticed. Through most of the decade, Portland State was guided by its second preSident, Branford P. Millar, a quietly competent, scholarly man who left a permanent mark on the developing institution. By the end of the 1960s, Portland State had evolved from an undergraduate college with 4,000 students and a 3-block campus. to Portland State University with more than 10,000 students, a 20-plus block campus and a dozen graduate programs either operating or about to start. Along the way the school marked a number of "firsts": first graduate program (social work, 1962); first international program (Pavia, Italy, 1963); first building constructed off the Park Blocks (Science I, 1965); first campus security officer (1962); first pedestrian crossing signal (1962); first parking garage (1965); first plastic ID card (1962); first pass/no-pass classes (1968). A 1960 campus map shows a small, crowded campus with only Lincoln Hall. two quarter-block sections of Cra mer Ha II and a half-block, two-story college center with a quarter-block library addition. Inadequate facilities were a way of life. The library, formally dedicated in October. 1960, registered its one millionth visitor by January, 1962, many of them in search of a quiet study space. At one point in 1962 the school was growi ng so fast that admissions were cut off early. Signs of growth were everywhere but at times the price of progress was depersonalization. By 1964. for example, the size of the graduating class had outgrown the Civic Auditorium. Commencement that year was marred by complaints from seniors who were limited to three tickets for family and friends, and who did not hear their individual names read or receive diploma covers until after the ceremony. Movement to the more spacious Memorial Coliseum in 1965 resolved those problems. Students faced change both on and off campus. Those living in the area around campus fought a steady but losing battle with the wrecking ball, the final blow coming in January, 1968. with announcement of a federal urban renewal grant to obtain all the property west of the Park Blocks and south to the freeway for the college. Dozens of older houses and apartment buildings were crushed and hauled away in trucks along with small retail and eating establishments around the college. As living space became harder to find. Portland Student Services was organized to find, renovate and operate student housing. As the charader of the campus was changing so were the concerns of the students. In 1960, three-quarters of the students were in lower division classes. By 1970, upper division and graduate students outnumbered lower Continued on page 8
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