3 Past Tense Vanport Extension Center: Portland State’s Beginnings n 1946, Portland State began as the Vanport Extension Center (VEC), primarily to educate servicemen and women returning from World War II. The VEC was housed in Vanport, a North Portland housing project that served shipyard workers during the war and remained open for other tenants postwar. The General Extension Division of the Oregon State System of Higher Education hired Stephen Epler as a counselor for returning World War II veterans desiring to attend college. Because many of these returning veterans could not attend college in Eugene or Corvallis, Epler spearheaded the idea that the VEC be created with classes held in Vanport. The State Board approved Epler’s proposal because there were no public higher education institutions in the Portland area. He had less than three months to assemble the facilities, faculty, and staff to open a summer session. In that first summer session, 220 students (94% veterans aged 18 to 47 years; 46% married) took classes at VEC. In the fall of 1946, although a student body of 500 students was expected, 1,400 students enrolled, demonstrating the need for a Portland-based school site. The VEC was intended to be a temporary, lower division, non-degree-granting institution, a place for students to begin their college education. The VEC remained at the Vanport site until it was flooded and destroyed on Memorial Day, May 30, 1948. Within two hours, the homes and possessions of many students as well as the VEC were under several feet of water. From here, the VEC, often called Vanport College by students, moved to Grant High School in northeast Portland for summer session, 1948, and to the former Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation in St. Johns from fall, 1948 to 1952. Subsequently, the school moved to the present-day Lincoln Hall site in Portland and the name was changed to the Portland State Extension Center. Thus, today’s Portland State University was created because of: The World War II GI Bill that provided money to help pay for higher education for returning veterans, The leadership and insight of Stephen Epler, its founding director, Vanport, a city built to house wartime shipyard workers that provided cheap housing and services to its residents after the war, The raging Columbia River that flooded Vanport on Memorial Day, 1948, and The strong advocacy of students, faculty, legislators, and community to continue public post-secondary education in Portland. Stay tuned for the next part of the Portland State story! --Mary Brannan Sources: Brannan, S. A., and Swanson, S. (Eds.) 2011, Creating Portland State 1946-1955. Portland, OR: Retirement Association of Portland State. Sanders, R., & Schauer, B. Portland State: A History in Pictures. Portland, OR: Retirement Association of Portland State, 2009. I
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