3 PAST TENSE The Regional Research Institute A Pioneer and a Survivor n 1973 I became the founding director of the Regional Research Institute for Human Services (commonly known as RRI), serving as director for 17 years. Excellent new directors followed me, and the RRI continues to thrive. The RRI’s initial funding came Art Emlen from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. There was to be one institute for each of the 10 federal regions; ours was Region 10. Today, ours is the only one that has survived. It now brings in $12 million annually in external research funds for highly respected work. Portland State University deserves the credit for what we were able to accomplish during my tenure and that of subsequent directors. The lessons to be learned from our success are about what the University did to make it possible: 1) The State Board approved the research institute’s status, which was important in university politics. 2) President Joe Blumel gave the RRI standing as a department within the School of Social Work, with an independent core budget as part of the university’s annual budget, to which the president steadily added as additional external research funds came in. 3) The RRI director enjoyed sufficient autonomy in budget control, in hiring of interdisciplinary staff, and in shaping the research mission to build a vibrant research organization that conducted significant social research of far-reaching influence. 4) All of our projects were research partnerships with external community groups -- key to our success. These involved sectors of society such as parents, youth, families, and allied professions, as well as local, state and federal governments. 5) We enjoyed a high degree of cooperative assistance from the university’s business office. The University’s willingness, for example, to offer reduced rates of indirect costs on contracts with local community and state agencies facilitated the development of community partnerships. This year—2012—the School of Social Work celebrates its 50 th anniversary as a degree-granting graduate program, and the RRI prepares to celebrate its 40 th anniversary. These occasions will illustrate the kind of institution that Portland State University has become. Both events will draw attention to PSU’s extensive community partnerships and its excellent research partnerships. –Art Emlen PAST TENSE features glimpses into Portland State’s history. To submit a story (or an idea for one), email the RAPS History Preservation Committee at raps@pdx.edu. RAPS club reports Bridge Group deals hearts on Valentine’s Day The RAPS Bridge Group meets at 1:00 pm Tuesday, Feb. 14 at Friendly House (corner of NW 26 th and Thurman). For information about the group, please call Colin Dunkeld, 503-292-0838. If you would like to play, please call before noon Friday, Feb. 10. This gives us time to invite guests to join us if we need to make up a table. --Colin Dunkeld Book Club elects to read Roberts memoir The RAPS Book Club meets at 1:30 pm Tuesday, Feb. 21 at the home of Marge Terdal, 997 SW Westwood Drive in Portland. Contact her at terdalm@pdx.edu or 503-2245714 to RSVP and for directions. We will discuss Up the Capitol Steps: A Woman’s March to the Governorship by Barbara Roberts. Those of us who heard Governor Roberts talk about and read excerpts from her autobiography at the RAPS program meeting Jan. 25 are especially motivated to read this book. The book is described on the back cover as follows: A personal and political memoir by one of the few women governors in the history of the United States, Up the Capitol Steps offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of a woman’s life in politics. Barbara Roberts aims to demystify leadership by telling the story of her own unlikely rise to power. The mother of an autistic child before the advent of special education, Roberts began her life in public service as an advocate for the rights of children with disabilities. Up the Capitol Steps documents her expanding political career from school board member to legislator to Secretary of State and, finally, Governor of Oregon. Hotly contested elections and tough policy decisions are interspersed with intimate details of personal ups and downs. Book club members have postponed discussing Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour until April, when Marge Terdal and Maxine Thomas will be available to talk about their trip to Palestine and Israel. --Mary Brannan I
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