Portland State Magazine Spring 2017

THIS IS my last column in my role as PSU’s president, and I want to dedicate it to all of you. These past nine years have been a wonderful experience, full of exciting academic achievements by faculty; heart-warming student stories of success and challenges overcome; new buildings that facilitate learning; improved rankings that raised PSU’s profile; and wonderful friends and donors who have stepped forward to support our work. With more than 100,000 alumni in our region, Vikings are a formidable and growing presence. The 10 largest employers in the area hire more alumni from Portland State than from any other university. Not surprisingly, we run into them everywhere: the airport, stores, restaurants and the beach, and through the many business, government and education partners that we work with. You do incredible work. My only wish is that more of you would show Viking pride and wear our gear or display the PSU logo on windshields and bumpers. I deeply appreciate the loyalty and support of so many alums and hope that you see the benefits from PSU’s growing reputation and find opportunities to reconnect and perhaps give back. Alice and I felt welcomed from the first day we met the PSU community. We found Portland an easy and open city, with the strongest distinct culture of any place we know. Some of that at times took getting used to (like the “Portland polite”), while much was very easy to adopt (great beer, wine, coffee and Northwest cuisine, for instance). Both of us quickly were pulled into various boards and committees as well as social networks that made us feel at home and an integral part of the community. We thank our friends at the Portland Art Museum, All Hands Raised, the Portland Business Alliance, Alice’s Swim Club, the Arlington Club and many other places for their friendship and civic enthusiasm. MAKING a university great requires an excellent faculty and a dedicated staff. While not everything has always been smooth—union negotiations were not my favorite part of the job—PSU truly is blessed with superb teachers, researchers, counselors, advisors, police officers, accountants, techies, administrators and hundreds of other professionals who make up this institution. To all of them, and our Foundation staff and board, the Alumni Association and its board, our Board of Trustees, and all others who support PSU and have worked with us to leave this place hopefully better than we found it—thank you, thank you. Alice will continue her work as State Architect, and I will continue to work on improving higher education and improving the city. We will continue to support PSU, and hope you will, too. Go Viks! Wim Wiewel PRESIDENT, PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY 2 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE SPRING 2017 Spring 2017 / VOL. 31 NO. 3 EDITOR Kathryn Kirkland WRITERS Stephanie Argy, John Kirkland, Suzanne Pardington PHOTOGRAPHERS Kelly James, Edis Jurcys, NashCO Photography, Peter Simon COPY EDITOR Martha Wagner DESIGN Brett Forman, Evan Kirkley LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 810 Market Center Building PO Box 751 Portland OR 97207-0751 503-725-4451, fax 503-725-4465 psumag@pdx.edu ADDRESS CHANGES Please go to the website pdx.edu/alumni/contact or call 503-725-4948 ALUMNI RELATIONS OFFICE Tom Bull, Executive Director Simon Benson House 1803 SW Park Ave. PO Box 751 Portland OR 97207-0751 503-725-4948 alum@pdx.edu PSU BOARD OF TRUSTEES Pete Nickerson, Chair Swati Adarkar Erica Bestpitch MS ’12 Gale Castillo MA ’74 Sho Dozono MS ’69 Maude Hines Thomas Imeson Margaret Kirkpatrick Irving Levin Rick Miller MBA ’91 Steff Shao ’16 Lindsay Stewart Peter Stott HD ’11 Christine Vernier Wim Wiewel Portland State Magazine is published three times a year, during fall, winter and spring terms. Contents may be reprinted only by permission of the editor. The magazine is printed on recycled paper. Portland State University is an affirmative action / equal opportunity institution. Vikings forever F R O M T H E P R E S I D E N T