PSU's 30th birthday Tendency to 'think big' created Portland State College by Cynthia D. Stowell It's nol surprising that PSU's unofficial slogan. "The College That Would Not Die," was coined before the school was even a full·flcdged college. II's rather typical of the institution's tendency to think big, to pul its energy into forward molion. The story oi how Vanport Extension Center became a (our·year college captures some of the spirit and drama that have characterized PSU's first four decades. II may not have happened fast enough for some, but in retrospect, it was a brisk tumble of events. Different people would start this story at different place!!. This telling will begin with the Greal Flood, but II won', linger there. The imporlance of thai catastrophe on Memorial Dav weekend in 1948 was that, in wiping Qut the Vanport Extension Center ("The U. by the Slough"J. it helped situate classes and student:; in a very visible spot in downtown Portland. The first summer was spent in Lincoln High School and the next few years at the Oregon ~~~~I~~¥dY~~~"b~ ~~u~~g~~~~~m{' home. There had been murmurings even before the flood about how nice it would be to have a publicly-supported four-year college in Portland, but talk reached a pitch in 1949 when two important higher education bills were introduced to the State Legislature. Democratic Senators Richard Neuberger (Portland) and Robert Holmes (North Coast) presented a bill proposing the "University of Oregon Junior Col1ege of Portland," a rather unwieldy name for a two-year college to be operated out of the U. of Oregon's gener')l extension division and offering instruction in 27 academic areas. The bill also req uested $2 million 10 build facilities (or the junior college. A more moderate plan Two Republican representatives from Portland, Rudie Wilhelm, Jr. and John D. Logan, came up with a more moderate plan just as the Neuberger-Holmes Bill was being put on the back burner. The Wilhelm-Logan Bill, passed by the legislature that same year, established a permanent daytime lower-division extension center in Portland under the direction of the General Extension Division of the State System of Higher Education. The bill also authorized $875,000 to purchase the lincoln High School bUilding. Delays in the comtruclion of the new Uncoln High School meant some delay in the planned September, 1951 openmg of the extension center. BUI " didn't stop the school's evolution. While it wailed for a permanent home, the Vanport Center'S day program was combined with the night program of the Portland Extension Center and renamed the Portland State Extension Center. A four-year college was still three yea,..; off, but students, (acuity and Portlanders \\ere impatient. They liked the ring of "Portland State College" and the name came into popular use. It remained only to bring the curriculum and the law into conformance with the people's image of the school. To that end, the Portland State College Advancement Committee, a pep SQuad of students, alumni and members of the Vanport Mothers Club, prepared a brochure packed with argument.!. for a public college In Portland. They also sent their leader. Homer l. Allen .• 1 6 Students registering for cI.lsses at the Portland Stale Extension Center in 1954 didn't realize the school would soon be granting degrees. Portland attorney and president of the Vanport Alumni Association, to talk to the State Board, which sympathetically told him to take it up with the legislature. Joining the chorus was James T. Marr. Executive Secretary of the Oregon State Federation of labor, who criticized the Board for its failure 10 provide higher education for Portland's young people. The Oregonian newspaper added its voice. too, wilh editorials calling for a degree-granting institution in Portland. The opposition bandwagon Not surprisingly, a couple of the pre~idents of private colleges in Portland were less than enthusiastic about the calls for a public college. Certainly taxpayers would be burdened, cautioned one president, and the integrity of Oregon State College in Corvallis and Ihe University of Oregon in Eugene would be threatened - not to mention enrollment levels at Portland's private colleges. The momentum of this drive for a public college was slowed by a perceived limitation in the Slate Constitution, which seemed 10 require the vote of the people of Oregon to eslablish any new state institution outside the Capital al Salem. 11 wasn't until the Attorney General cleart:..od up this matter in 1954 that the momentum was restored. In his official opinion. the various higher education institutions could be considered departments within the Department of Education and administered by the State Board, thereby giving the legislature the right to set up new public institutions anywhere in the state without a general vote. In Ihe meantime, the 1953 legislative Assembly considered a bill pre!.ented by eighteen senators and representatives calling for Continued on p. 7 ~~~f"~ ft.~. WHOLESALE Hr• • "~WAREHOUSES rRE SYSTEMS. TIRES, SHOCKS, WHEELS, BATTERIES & SERVICE. Radial paueoger tira u low u $24.95! Low Cost Compact .... Ply draNlow at $19.50! • Camper and Lieht Truck Tires • Steel Belted Liebt Truck Tires • RV and 4-Wheel Drive Tires .. . All in Stock and priced right! Triple Wananty Protection on all hiehway tread pauenger tiCet: • Mileagf! • Road Huard • Workmanship and Materia" THESE LIMITED WARRANTIES AT NO EXTRA COST! Low Maintenance Batteriet 42 Month Umited Warranty - .. low u $29.75! 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