Great City-Great University: Vera's Vision

[BroadwayVik]

April 05, 2011 Rep. Mitch Greenlick, D-Portland, again made his pitch for merging Portland State University and Oregon Health & Science University during a legislative committee presentation today.

Greenlick said the economic future of Portland depends on having a major research university, which it could create by merging PSU, the state's largest university, with OHSU, its medical school. Other prosperous metropolitan areas, such as Boston, San Diego and Seattle, draw on the economic power of comprehensive universities with academic health centers.

"These two institutions inevitably will become a single institution," said Greenlick, who has taught public health classes at both.

Greenlick presented House Bill 2316 to the House higher education subcommittee, which took no action on it. The bill would break PSU from the Oregon University System as a public corporation and put it under the control of a governance board that would also oversee OHSU, which became a public corporation in 1995.

The presidents of the two universities described to the committee how they are working together through a formal strategic alliance on research and education ventures that they established last October. The two schools have committed to joint research, shared faculty and libraries and a joint School of Public Health and a Life Sciences Building that will on the Southwest Portland waterfront.

PSU President Wim Wiewel said the combined forces of the two universities have a $5 billion annual impact on Oregon's economy.

Together, they enroll about 32,000 students and employ 16,300 workers. OHSU, with its schools of medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy and science and engineering, shares some common ground with PSU's programs and research in engineering, science, health and sustainable practices.

Wiewel said a complete merger would be expensive and require a major investment that the state is not willing to make.

"Without that kind of investment," he said, "to make grandiose plans is a fool's errand. Without that kind of investment, you have to build on what you have. You have to take small steps."

He'd rather have a realistic plan, he said, than "chase the windmills."

-- Bill Graves

 

[BroadwayVik]

When in public service, unless there is some foreboding reason, it is best to act to maximize public welfare (or nearly so). To not do so, especially with foreknowledge, is to act in a contemptibly selfish manner, even a sinister manner when one considers purposefully acting against the will and best interests of the people under the cover of information asymmetry.

Such is the sinister legacy of Owen Wilson Meredith, a person who betrayed the people of Oregon, who would eventually betray his own university (the UO) and, most directly, greatly devalued the city of Portland through his self-serving actions.

In 1955, this person lobbied to effectively have the developmental legs of Portland State College broken so it could not develop properly (this akin to deliberately running down a growing child with a car). This he did in a self-protective act to keep his own university from suffering possible enrollment shocks!

By doing so, he acted in violation and opposition to the will and best interests of the people of Oregon and, in so doing, prevented the city of Portland from realizing the promise of its own great university, in proper time for development and as their due---that being delayed now for at least 56 years and counting!! This represents an gigantic loss to the state's welfare and betterment and requires immediate reparation.

It is simple common sense that a city of significant magnitude have a university with an operating medical school to reflect its significance. Portland, Oregon is now the ONLY metro area of its size without a great comprehensive university 56 year after his meddling. We are thus decades behind and that is a highly embarrassing set of civic affairs.

But there's more. What did Wilson then do after his university became politically shielded? He bolted to the University of Minnesota leaving the University of Oregon in his wake. One could only say he acted to ways protect and augment his own career at the expense of Oregon's welfare as a state. His personal welfare waxed as Oregon's welfare waned.

May we come to realize, eventually and at last, Vera's Vision to forever dispel this sinister image from our state's unfortunate past. Katz & Greenlick YES. Wilson & the Legacy of Sinister Politics NO.

Careful, don't step in the Owen Meredith Wilson when trodding Oregon's fields of livestock.

"Heh, heh, heh, heh. Hope you like my legacy. Heh heh heh heh!