—2— The new academic year is now under way for Oregon’s largest university. If you walk around campus you will see major changes taking place. The glazed, blue-brick PCAT building is being demolished to make room for the six-story Academic and Student Recreation Center, scheduled to open in fall 2009. Shattuck Hall (originally an elementary school built in 1914-15) is closed this year for renovation. New space includes the Unitus Building (SW 4th and Lincoln), which includes Graduate Studies and the PSU Foundation. Most visible is Tri-Met’s new light rail project, the Green Line, scheduled to begin September 2009. Tracks are laid on SW Fifth, and coming to SW Sixth. PSU is the top transit destination in downtown, with 40 percent of our students, faculty, and staff riding Tri-Met. Our appreciation goes to the Athletic Department, and Director Torre Chisholm and Assistant Director Scott Herrin, for our complimentary tickets to the football home opener on Sept. 8. One of the largest crowds ever got to watch the new black-uniformed Vikings. The Vikings’ fortunes improved a week later in the Sacramento State game. On Sept. 20, two dozen RAPS members and guests enjoyed a tour of Portland’s Leach Botanical Gardens—and a delightful Vietnamese lunch afterward. Are we developing a September theme of “games and gardens”? Our speaker series begins October 18 with Kilong Ung, whose topic is “An American Journey: From the Khmer Rouge’s Killing Fields to the Royal Rosaria.” Marge Terdal, program chair, is developing a great program series for this year. This is your organization—please participate and enjoy the RAPS programs, activities, and opportunities in this coming year. —BobTufts President’s Message selves to the five-acre site that they named Sleepy Hollow. After Lilla’s death in the early 1980s, the garden became the property of Portland Parks and Recreation, and is operated and maintained by the Leach Garden Friends in cooperation with Park Parks and Recreation. The garden has grown to nearly 16 acres and is Leach Garden tour . . . continued from page 1 described on its Web site (www.leachgarden.org) as “Portland’s best-kept botanical secret.” The collection of more than 2,000 species and cultivars includes native as well as non-native plants, such as viburnums, witch hazels, camellias, woody groundcovers, and azaleas of the southeastern United States. Scotty Fairchild, Leach Garden steward (left, back to camera), gave the RAPS group an introduction to the garden before the tours began.
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