Portland State Magazine, Spring 2021

SPRING 2021 // 33 For 34 years, Portland State Magazine has strived to promote a greater sense of connection between the University and the community it encompasses—newly minted alumni and those who graduated decades ago; faculty and staff; supporters and friends. Editor Cynthia D. Stowell oversaw the metamorphosis of Portland State’s original alumni newsletter (published 1969-1986), into magazine format, editing the first three issues. “Bright and bold, PSU Magazine is the expression of a university in its prime, confident of its future,” she wrote in the premiere issue. Its pages included articles about an outdoor aerobics show on local cable TV that promised the “nicest buns in Portland”; the quest for funding to expand the library; and research into the safety of storing nuclear waste at Washington’s Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The magazine’s next editor, Kathryn Kirkland, would steer its direction for 32 years as first the cover gained color (1990) and eventually all of its pages did (2000). “When I first started, the magazine’s circulation was around 35,000, and when I left it was 138,000,” Kirkland says. “I witnessed, and the magazine covered, momentous changes both academic and physical: the birth of University Studies, which revolutionized undergraduate education at PSU, and the construction and major remodel of at least 17 buildings.” The magazine’s back issues provide a fascinating window into the University’s transformation and the lives of its students, alumni, faculty and staff. Just in time for PSU’s 75th anniversary, the complete archives are now searchable online. Take a look at pdx.edu/magazine/archive. —SCHOLLE McFARLAND The Story of PSU 21