- ~rtlandState University Alumni Newspaper Winter, 1982 Proof of the school is in the graduates - by Steve Jenning '"eg Ir Alur I the Inside rsd's future in hands of !gislature .................................... 2 rgy Research 'audler explores energy potential of 'quified wood' ................................ 3 ional Research Institute ~fluencinglaws on foster care ....... 4 nni Notes & Features 'Therapy' earns national award for playwright .......................... 6 PSU m a Alur a State's top teacher stresses EFFORT and ATTITUDE ............ 11 1s' Annual Report .......................... 7 Volunteers make the grade 1980-81 Donors ...................... 8-10 nni News ................................... 12 Alumni Council's goal to strengthen PSU-alumnibond New ABC Card benefits I Faculty Books .......................... 13 !ndar of winter events ................. 14 rts .............................................. 15 fariene Piper provingshe knows chat it takes to be a winner - again ith more than 6,000 graduates since its foundino in 1961. Portland State university's school of Business Administration has made itself downright ubiquitous in local commercial circles. In fact, nearly every major metropolitan-area business see have a PSU business graduate often an MBA - somewhere in corporate latticework. Occasionally one climbs all tt way to the top. C. Norman Winningstad, founder and chief executive office of Beaverton's Floating Point Systems Inc., is one of those. "There's no question that Floating Point Systems probably wouldn't exist if it weren't for PSU." said Winningstad, who started his computer manufacturing concern (1980 sales: $41 million) and his Portland State MBA program in the same year, 1970. He had been an electrical engineer at Tektronix Inc., gradually moving into middle-managementjobs although without much management training. When he decided to strike out on his own at age 44, eventually creating a remarkably fast-growing company,Winningstad enrolled at PSU to "learn how to talk to lawyers, marketing people and accountants - I already knew how to talk to engineers." PSU's business school celebrated 20 years in the business of training people like Winningstad with a luncheon in early November that many graduates attended. Winningstad is a near-perfect example of what the PSU school had set out to accomplish, said Donald Parker, the school's dean. Parker, who has headed the department since its founding, said 80 percent of the school's MBA candidates are fully employed. Classes in "core" courses usually are scheduled in the late afternoon, ms to - its or at night, allowing students to continue their jobs. It had been decided that the school's graduate program would be geared to these part-time students. "We designed our program to meet the needs of the community," said the 61-year-old Parker. "Many MBA programsdo not admit part-time,students. We're a little different. With that as perhaps a key ingredient in its educational recipe, the PSU School of Business Administration has become a subtle, yet influential, force in local business affairs. Operating out of a deceptively inauspicious converted apartment building on Southwest Hall Street, the school has fed graduates to all of the area's major electronics and wood products companies and banking institutions. The school also is the state's major source of certified public accountants. exampl The c faculty experie PI.-..-...-.-, Like other MBA-granting departments at urban universities, PSU candidates often are financed by their employers. Parker said the school generally has had strong support from the local business community. In one three-year period, local firms and government agencies provided 500 guest lecturers to the school. The department also draws on a broad range of local business specialists - leading tax accountants and lawyers, for e - as part-timeteach department demands f i have "real-life" busines ,rice as well as doctoral UC~~CCS. Parker, who taught a Universityof Washington and Vanport College, PSU's prede owned a charter sport fishing business at Depot Bay before finishing his doctorate degree PI Washington. Requiring a mix of both academic Continued on page 2 ers. ill-time is te + +ha L L l t r at cessor,
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