Access Denied: Enhanced Role for "Portland State"

[BroadwayVik]

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I think we should stop messing around and create a great university a la Carnegie-Mellon. I don't give a damn if local slacker students don't have access. That is their own tacit choice. They will always have access through the community colleges if they can't get in directly. PSU is not really in business to cater to local slackers, is it? Those who believe it is, these are those with whom I would not choose to associate. I'd rather make room for an earnest international student over any local slacker.

We need to build up and host a great university so the world will come here and pay oodles to attend. A great quality university adds hugely more value than a mediocre university catering to local slackers. Period. :clap:

 

[Alan1]

Broadway, all it takes to have a world class university is a world class faculty and world class facilities. All it takes to have those is money; lots and lots of money. Right now PSU is essentially broke. You have a lot of imagination Broadway and great dream. Your job now is to figure out a way to get the money.

 

[BroadwayVik]

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More money? Absolutely. Here are the primary sources:

There'll be a lot more money now that there will be no more stealing of Portland State money to feed more to those two large universities in the valley. PSU suffered horribly from the days of ultra-poor OSSHE fiscal mismanagement: stealing from Peter to pay Paul and Silas.

Once PSU moves to make this change of organization, others with money will want to associate and get on board. Wise investment attracts money. In particular, there can be expected great support from the higher tech giants, patrons of the arts and engineering firms.

What PSU needs to do is move to reorganize and make announcements of its progress along the way, with the establishment of industry and philanthropic relationships to follow. The DJC and PBJ will keep tabs and make the needed reports. The Tribune will support and the Oregonian will be compelled to at least report as well.

Humbly at first, but moving in that direction with definite purpose.

 

[Alan1]

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More money? Absolutely. Here are the primary sources:

There'll be a lot more money now that there will be no more stealing of Portland State money to feed more to those two large universities in the valley. PSU suffered horribly from the days of ultra-poor OSSHE fiscal mismanagement: stealing from Peter to pay Paul and Silas.

Once PSU moves to make this change of organization, others with money will want to associate and get on board. Wise investment attracts money. In particular, there can be expected great support from the higher tech giants, patrons of the arts and engineering firms.

What PSU needs to do is move to reorganize and make announcements of its progress along the way, with the establishment of industry and philanthropic relationships to follow. The DJC and PBJ will keep tabs and make the needed reports. The Tribune will support and the Oregonian will be compelled to at least report as well.

Broadway, I can make no sense what you say here. OSSHE is long gone and PSU is still starving financially. Hell, we can't even get the shoe guy to throw some his pocket change in our direction. Your dream of a world class university is good; your idea of where the money comes from to make that happen is a bit sketchy.

 

[BroadwayVik]

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Even the days of OUS are just behind us and their policies also saw the stealing of PSU money with the booty going to undeserving Oregon and Oregon State. Since the new structure is now in place, which is still quite new, PSU will only now begin realizing the benefit of retaining its own earned money, no longer having to contend with large portions of it being stolen by the unscrupulous. That alone is significant.

When organizations start to make something of themselves, people watch and take notice. We did the same thing with the loser Ducks after their pathetic 1984 football season. Ten years later, they were in the Rose Bowl. When they were winning, I saw wealthy people attend games at Autzen I never used to see when they were losing. They were fair weather fans only. The same thing can happen at Portland State as an institution.

It needs to unite with OH&SU and OIT. The combined institution needs a new name with "Oregon" in its title. People assume that a state school named Portland State is a public for the Metropolitan area, but then assume that a state school located in Eugene is for the entire state simply because it is named University of Oregon. Ask any Hebrew woman. Names matter. Shakespeare was wrong to suggest they didn't.

If the University positioned itself like a public Carnegie-Mellon, doing the best it had with what it had, people would come to admire this public school with Oregon in its name. Portland and Pittsburgh have much in common. Instead of names like Carnegie and Mellon, I believe you would come to see donations and investments from names like Vollum, Winningstad, Schnitzer, Zeidell, and, yes, even (Penelope) Knight. People love winners and want to associate with them. Higher Tech investment would very likely be immense.

The idea may not be clear to you, ostensibly, a graduate as an education major. But business and economics people would see the value in this. My concern is that those who steer PSU policy may not grasp this vision either, that they may miss this opportunity and, then, all they can muster is a mediocre university (from out of oppression) suitable only for the mediocre. But our ideas did work in Eugene. Investment was huge after the Rose Bowl appearance. And the UO was on the precipice of despair at the time it began in 1985.

 

[Alan1]

So Broadway, just how much money was being stolen by the SBHE and how much isn’t being stolen now?

You divined that my degree was in education. I am sorry but you are wrong.

 

[BroadwayVik]

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I just guessed. What was your field of study?

I can't say how much money. I could estimate. Since PSU's inception as the Extension Center in 1946, unofficially "Vanport College" until the 1948 Flood, becoming "Oregon Ship" in St. John's and then becoming "Portland State College" in 1955. When they moved from St. John's to downtown, I think was in around 1951 or 1952.

When PSC had their College Bowl team retire as five-time champions, I think that is when the "Dr. Evils" decided to impede PSC's growth by de-funding them. So, I'm guessing from 1966 to around 2015, millions of dollars each year were stolen from PSC (PSU in 1969). That would be around 50 years' worth of stealing.

There was at least one other way money was stolen: The OSSHE/OUS did never provide PSU an equal share according to enrollment numbers. And the money that was apportioned, that is where the funds were taken. So, a kind of double-stealing took place.

Considering the budgets of universities, 50 years' worth of stealing may have these amounts well into the billions of dollars. Did Oregon and Oregon State use these sums well? Not likely. Only the donations of persons like Phil Knight have significantly helped Oregon and organizations like Ch2M Hill have significantly helped Oregon State.

 

[Alan1]

Broadway, too much guessing and not enough research.

 

[BroadwayVik]

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Why? Your objection is rather groundless as the guesstimation is presented within reason. Do you require only exacting hard data in order to be convinced? Then you present yourself as one largely unconvincable. My goal here rather is to raise the issue of PSU's now being able to realize its own self-generated funds that previously have been stolen.

Research could follow if there is an expectation of a pay-off, but that expectation is low. A thieving mindset is what Portland State has been up against. With its basis having been elimination, this represents a huge sum that will now remain with the university instead of being stolen away. That is a good basis for a new beginning.

If there were a way to claim reparations from the two other universities, that would be another basis. But the state sanctioned it own policy for picking PSU's pockets.

If you'd need more convincing, then you had better ask those directly in-the-know. First, I'd recommend reading The College That Would Not Die: The First Fifty Years of Portland State University, 1946-1996 by Gordon B. Dodds. I'd then suggest asking Professor Dodds and the members of the Retirement Association for Portland State for specific persons to go to for referrals for hard data. I'm quite sure that information is available, but whether or not it is accessible remains to be seen.

 

[Pounder]

Forget it. He's on a roll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8lT1o0sDwI

 

[BroadwayVik]

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The point is clear, true and verifiable. Obviously, some without vision do not see the tremendous value-added benefit. If they can't see it, they can't see it. Whether or not Portland and the state have the political will and visionary fortitude to continue forward with this befitting notion remains to be seen. Thus, there's no point in discussing this topic with mere political hacks and ostensible scholars of trivia who apparently lack the capacity to see the means of possibility and resulting benefits. The point has been presented and those in-the-know will recognize the legitimacy of the claim presented. Those are the ones whose opinions matter and are relevant. One feedback message has already been received by one such as this. Mission, thus, largely accomplished. Creating value matters, and those who are capable of creating it also are capable of recognizing it. Those in this community make for communicating beneficial ideas a worthwhile endeavor.

'nuff said.