Lack of PSU Pride Could Lead to Merger

[BroadwayVik]

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The lack of pride is palpable at Portland State events. Why does this lack of pride exist? Viscerally, association with Portland State is perceived largely as a badge of shame. We need to look at a university like NDSU in Fargo. I visited that campus once when I was passing through and their campus looked like a "glorified community college." But, you know what, there was one striking difference: They had pride in their university. They had great affection for it.

Granted, they don't have to deal with a situation like PSU has with the UO and OSU looking at them, licking their chops. Since the UO once had possession of what is now OH&SU, my thinking is that their purchase of the White Stag building in Old Town was perhaps highly strategic. Notice that the UO president is also on the selection committee for the next PSU president. What's going on here?

Could it be that there are plans to merge OH&SU-PSU but then call it UO-Portland? They would throw in the Old Town buildings and perhaps look to set up more buildings in between Market Street and Old Town. When I was in my MBA program back in the 1980s, Dean Vergil V. Miller was of a group that tried to woo the UO to this very idea. Perhaps the idea is now taking fruition. Perhaps this is the solution.

One thing, though, even though the University of Oregon at Portland may materialize, the one thing we have to keep is the name Vikings. We would have our different shades of green, yellow and other assorted colors, but in like manner and differences akin to what you see between, say, UC-Berkeley and UC-Los Angeles. The Portland campus would be the one with the engineering.

Two varying concepts of Blue and Gold for two University of California System Universities
(The Eugene campus would emulate the Berkeley campus while the Portland campus would emulate the Los Angeles campus)
I must say, it would all make sense. Just keep the name Vikings and Vanguard. That will serve as the continuity basis for Vanport College to live on. The Veterans wanted everything to start with a 'V'.

Remember, even if UO-Portland were established, it is still treated as a separate university with its own identity. But it would be part of the UO system. That would help with an upgrade in prestige along with the merger with OH&SU. That way three great universities in magnitude can be under two umbrellas. We would also have our separate sports teams, the Vikings, and newspaper, the Vanguard.

 

[BroadwayVik]

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I think a merger with the UO, if it were to come about, would be marginally acceptable, but a merger with OH&SU and OIT would be much more value-producing, especially in the long-run.

OH&SU provides strong connections to philanthropy and considerable prestige. OIT provides pure objective value. PSU provides the body for the university, undernourished though it may well be.

Portland State, as is, is not sufficient for Portland, Oregon in terms of the level of quality and pride it can produce for the metro area. Too much emphasis is placed on granting access to less-than-deserving students rather than creating a great university for the world in Portland, Oregon.

They have access: through community colleges and transfer degrees. We need to get on to the task of creating a great university, a UW for Portland. The UO and OSU have their missions, and we have our own.

It is clear that a comparative advantage the United States has in the world is universities. If all Portland, Oregon can offer is a drab, mediocre university, then it has done the world and itself a gross disservice.

Many have come forth saying they do not wish to become a part of a greater University of Oregon system, that they wish to maintain a certain degree of autonomy in separation and distinction from both Oregon and Oregon State, to be our own university.

The only effective means I see would be through merger with OH&SU and OIT. I further recommend that the hybrid university be renamed Oregon Institute of Technology, that the school colors be OIT's blue and gold and that the names Vikings and Vanguard be retained. This would add tremendous value to the metro region and the state. And then, perhaps, the region would start to feel some pride in its university and get excited about Oregon Tech Vikings who would say when it comes to technology and innovation, we're Vikings.

 

[BroadwayVik]

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Portland State University, since becoming a full-fledged university, has suffered tremendous economic and political abuse. The university, in spite of having historically comparable sizes of enrollment even had much of its tuition dollars reallocated to the UO and OSU. This in addition to being short-changed in the allocation of state funding to its public universities. The best thing that has happened to the university is the reorganization of the higher education system, which granted all universities much greater autonomy.

Now, for the first time, PSU is in control of its own funds, and that, likely, is perceived as threatening, especially to the UO. In response, the UO has created a presence in Portland with its UO-Portland programs. Even now, considering the UO's president's presence on the selection committee for PSU's next president to succeed Wim Weiwell, the UO may have designs on a take-over to create a UO-system.

If that were to transpire, it could turn out to be a good thing for PSU's evolution, but it may likely not turn out to be the most beneficial pathway for the state and, especially, metro region. The UO maintains emphasis on liberal arts and science while also being a place of, to me, excessive political activism.

Such increased political activism could prove to be beneficial in some respects, but I believe it would end up becoming a liability to Portland's quality of life should such activism prove merely expressive and trivial.

For now, I believe the university could embellish its economic well-being through learning from other similarly politically-organized universities. Boise State comes to mind. I would suggest we send university emissaries to establish contact with Boise State officials to seek their advice and learn from them. They are, in many ways, the dominant university in Idaho, a state that has more millionaires per capita than any other state in the Union.

If the decision has already been made to join the UO system, then little can effectively be done. But if the desire and will to continue independently remains in tact, I believe that augmentation through merger with OH&SU and OIT remains our best plan of action. If the name Oregon were in the university's name, the university would be perceived as representing the entire state and not just the metro region. There would be vast amounts of political pride and capital infused into the university through such change in perception.

A medical school with the name Oregon Institute of Technology would bring to mind similarly-named institutions such as MIT and the Georgia Institute of Technology. Many more states are creating viable institutes of technology as a means of securing greater numbers of international students who prize such focus in their educational learning.

I feel this would serve as a boon to the state and metro region in particular. When one considers the relational partnerships that would likely follow with high tech firms ranging from computer to bioengineering technology, the value-creation effects become immediately apparent. The Klamath Falls campus can remain as a functioning unit of the university to continue to support the region there and provide an option to students who would prefer that kind of environment.

Oregon State University provides tremendous value to the state through its emphasis on such technological focus, whereas the University of Oregon, by comparison, tends to divert such value, even destroying it.

 

[Pounder]

I can already tell you about Boise State.

Of any school in Division 1 in the Northwest, probably the worst academics. Maybe the whole west (though I hear things about Grand Canyon). It's a school still unchaining themselves from the vestiges of their junior college past. Hence they can go after athletes that many schools cannot. However, my stepdaughter (Borah HS grad) listened to many of her teachers who shunted her away (she ended up going to Oregon) and my daughter (Renaissance HS grad) was never going to consider the place except as a low $$ alternative... and she's at Portland State this fall.

Truth is, Boise State supporters make the same complaints about the University of Idaho that you make about UO and OSU. They have alumni in important places, usually within the state government. UI also has the distinction of being both the charter state school AND the Land Grant school (Boise State was a JC, Idaho State was a Normal school). Furthermore, Idaho bought land and planned an extension campus right across the river from Boise State...

...only thing being that became a scandal because the funds were redirected from elsewhere. The whole effort kind of went to crap. That has affected their fund-raising.

UI has a major problem: location. It's out-of-sight and out-of-mind to a lot of Idaho because it's in Northern Idaho. Even then, it might have fared better being closer to Spokane and Coeur d'Alene... instead it is in Moscow and plays second fiddle to Washington State a mere 8 miles away. So it struggles for attention in Boise despite the networking, it struggles to raise funds, and now you see where a school president orchestrated the "relegation" to the Big Sky. Meanwhile, Boise is the large market and got lucky in a bowl game and reaped the benefits.

Short of some sort of campaign to "benefit Oregon small towns" by moving the main UO campus to, oh, Lakeview (and good luck with that), I don't see how you learn anything from Boise State.

BTW, Oregon created its Portland presence long before the state granted autonomy.