"Identity Triangulation" for our University

[BroadwayVik]

Pick three universities that you feel Portland State's identity needs to emulate and grow toward. Here are mine and the rationale behind these choices:

1. Washington - UW is Seattle's great public university and Portland State needs to become Portland's great public university;

2. Arizona State - ASU is the Phoenix Metro Area's courageous and expansive university of the Southwest and PSU needs to become like ASU but of the Northwest;

3. UCLA - Owen Meredith Wilson, the UO's president during the 1950's, had a tremendous fear that Portland State would grow to become "another UCLA." Let us help him roll-over-in-his-grave by realizing his greatest imagined fear!

Notice I did not include either the UO or OSU as a point of triangulation. It is clearly not necessary to do so.

 

[martymoose]

I'd go for UW.

Located in a metro area. In the northwest. Big medical program. I think that PSU should merge with OHSU and work towards being a UW type university to the south.

However, I may be a bit biased. My daughter is in high school and starting to look at colleges. We signed up for the student led campus tour, and I must say, that campus is beautiful.

 

[BroadwayVik]

What campus is so beautiful? Washington's? Is she thinking about going there?

 

[martymoose]

What campus is so beautiful? Washington's? Is she thinking about going there?

Yeah, sorry, it was UW's campus that I was referring to.

She's a sophomore, so there's a a long ways to go on college selection. We just did the tour since we were going to be up in Seattle for a few days and she can begin to know what to look for in a school, and for what a school looks for in a student.

 

[BroadwayVik]

I think I want to change one of the three I originally picked to the following:

Pick three universities that you feel Portland State's identity needs to emulate and grow toward. Here are mine and the rationale behind these choices:

1. UCLA - O. Meredith Wilson, the UO's president during the 1950's, had a tremendous fear that Portland State College would grow to become "another UCLA." Let us help him roll-over-in-his-grave by realizing his greatest fear, especially in light of his hindering PSU's development for decades to come.

2. Washington - UW is Seattle's great public university and Portland State needs to become Portland's great (or at least significant) public university;

3. Boise State - BSU is the university with whom we share the legacy of Pokey Allen. Pokey inspired their rise and they selected Dirk Koetter from Oregon's rising program to replace him after his passing away from cancer. BSU has made the right moves again and again since the Pokey Era. They are also a NW product.

 

[BroadwayVik]

Revised: We need UW's protection, but not to emulate them. We cannot become a UW of Portland; they are too big. They are in Seattle, but have vast expansive acres of land. PSU is not like that. Thus, while keeping UW as a protectorate with whom we share a 1st City NW and 2nd City NW relationship, they need to be replaced with

1. NYU - Portland State needs to draw emotional leadership from ecologically minded New Yorkers like Jack McGowan and those who choose to come live here; keep the Portland history intact, but I see PSU emulating NYU as a sustainably artistic, ecological and cultural oasis of the city.
Mellow, sophisticated, savvy NY leadership

2. UCLA - One problem with NYU is it is private whereas PSU is public. We need a quality public with which to triangulate. O. Meredith Wilson, the UO's president during the 1950's, had a tremendous fear that Portland State College would grow to become "another UCLA." Let us help him roll-over-in-his-grave by realizing his greatest fear, especially in light of his hindering PSU's development for decades to come.

Our students should have been feeling this good and brightly confident about their futures decades ago.

3. Boise State - Let's face it: They're upstarts who now know how to win. BSU is the university with whom we share the legacy of Pokey Allen. Pokey inspired their rise and they selected Dirk Koetter from Oregon's rising program after his passing away. Inspired by Pokey, BSU has made the right moves again and again ever since. They know how to win sustainably and are a fellow NW product which to emulate. PSU can heed their winning ways and become winners in athletics like them while adhering to a primarily "ecological NYU of the West" university model.