Portland State Magazine Fall 2007

Your behind-the-scenes Alumni Relations staff are (left to right) Adam Smith '04, Meghan Milin– ski, Jim Turner, Pat Squire MPA '95, Mary Coniglio, and Yoko Sakurauchi MA '04. Greetings to alumni and friends AS A FORMER grade school principal and administrator, fall has always been an exciting time-one of new begin– nings, opportunities, and challenges. Bue before looking ahead, I wane to cake a moment to look back. Last year, your University and Alumni Associa– tion accomplished a lot. Here are a few highlights: • The strong efforts of Portland Scace administrators and faculty and the hard work of the PSU Advocates led to a successful conclusion for higher education in the Oregon Legislative session. With an 18 percent increase in higher education funding, deferred maintenance will begin on high-need facilities such as Lincoln Hall and Sci– ence Building 2. A new allocation for rhe Academic and Student Recreation Center (which will also house the School of Social Work, among ocher things) also shows char PSU fared well. We hope chis is just the beginning of scare reinvestment in higher education. Membership by the numbers • The Alumni Association launched a new membership program, designed to bring interested alumni closer co the University and to provide benefits and services for those alumni . Our program has been incredibly well received, and you can read about chose members elsewhere on these pages. We continued to connect with you, our talented and interesting alumni in Porcland, around the country and rhe world. Lase year we met with alumni in Boise, San Francisco, Palm Springs, Pendleton, Eugene, Salem, Saudi Ara– bia, and at Intel in Hillsboro. We also connected with our younger alumni through a variety of activities and will continue to reach our to char group. So thanks to all of you who helped with the legislature, signed up to be members, and participated in events and activities with and in support of the University. Challenges ahead include finding a new president for the University, 4,836 128 31 Distance in miles from PSU campus to our life member in Tokyo, Japan Membership cards mailed during our single busiest day of member fulfillment 20 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE FALL 2007 States represented so far by PSUAA members continuing to secure both government and private funding to advance Portland Scace, and reaching our and connect– ing with our 113,000 plus alumni around the world! We have planned alumni events such as PSU Weekend in Portland, and ochers in San D iego, New York, Seatcle, Bend, and in several locations around the world. I personally look forward to meeting many of you, or to hearing from you. You may contact me at gscovil@comcast.net . Gerry Scovil '65, MS '68 President, PSUAA Gerry Scovil 21 Benefit providers offering exclusive perks to PSUAA members 20 Percentage of PSUAA members who have joined for life