AN URBAN UNIVERSITY The Downtown Plan also envisioned a future role for the rapidly expanding PSU, designating it for the first time as the state’s “urban university.” “By this phrase we intend to imply far more than a fact of location,” the plan states. “We believe that PSU and the city should be consciously aware of, take advantage of, and in fact emphasize their impact on each other.” At the time, it was validation for the role the university was still growing into from its beginnings as the Vanport Extension Center in 1946, then as Portland State College (PSC) in 1955, and on to Portland State University in 1969. Over the years, PSU’s transformation had been met with opposition from other institutions that saw the growth as competition for resources, students, and public support, Seltzer says. “To the other universities, Portland State was supposed simply to offer courses that students could then apply to majors and degrees at those other institutions,” he says. “To a large degree, PSC was expected to disappear, as the demand from returning GIs inevitably would wane. However, Portland State evolved in precisely the opposite direction, likely in direct proportion to the lack of adequate higher education opportunities in Oregon’s largest and most densely settled urban center.” Framers of the plan envisioned a university integrated into the city’s public and civic life with goals not dissimilar to the university’s modern mission: Let Knowledge Serve the City. The subcommittee recommended that Portland State be considered a neighborhood of downtown, rather than a separate entity, so that issues of housing, transportation, and other services of community interest could be addressed in an integrated way. It’s this consideration that informs the university’s relationship with the surrounding community today. In fact, Portland State’s reach as an urban institution spans past its physical structures into all parts of the region, argues Jennifer Dill, director of PSU’s Transportation Research and Education Center. For example, both faculty and students have partnered with the city and the Portland Bureau of Transportation over the years to evaluate transportation proposals and consider ways to make the city more accessible. Dill points to the city’s first protected bike lane, which is on Broadway Avenue and travels through campus, as one successful collaboration. “I think it’s very meaningful,” Dill says of the partnership. “We did the evaluation of that and were able to show that it did not delay motor vehicle traffic and that there were benefits to people cycling through there.” Framers of the plan envisioned a university integrated into the city’s public and civic life with goals not dissimilar to the university’s modern mission: Let Knowledge Serve the City. 24 // PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE ''1''!/m' , ,•I! r - ~ . /dul' ,!P.•= ·'3"'· "l't=: .. · , ''gggpq;;Ji.S: -- ... ,__ ·, ' 1. - ' l .._J {r-' ff /1 ,, /t~ .. •f-:::;' nning Guidelines Continue the Portland State Unive rsity urban renewal program as planned or as may be re vised.
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