PSU is growing up

[forestgreen]

U.S. News and World Report Singles Out Portland State for Seventh Year in a Row

http://www.pdx.edu/news/us-news-and-world-report-singles-out-portland-state-for-seventh-year-in-a-row

(Portland, Ore.) Sept. 1, 2009 –Portland State University (PSU) has been singled out in the U.S. News and World Report’s 2010 edition of America’s Best Colleges for its commitment to engagement through its service and learning programs. This is the seventh consecutive year that PSU has been recognized.

U.S. News and World Report is publishing a list of schools with outstanding examples of academic programs that are believed to lead to student success. College presidents, chief academic officers, deans of students, and deans of admissions from over 1,300 schools nominated up to ten institutions with stellar examples of each program type. Portland State was once again noted for First-Year Experience Programs, Internships/Co-ops, Senior Capstones, Learning Communities, and Service Learning.

“It’s very exciting that Portland State University’s commitment to engaged learning has been recognized by our peers,” said Wim Wiewel, president of Portland State University. “And to have it recognized for seven years in a row is a testament to the consistency and quality of our faculty, staff, and students.”

The U.S. News and World Report’s 2010 edition of America’s Best Colleges provides a thorough examination of how more than 1,400 accredited four-year schools compare on a set of 15 widely accepted indicators of excellence. Among the many factors weighed in determining the rankings, the key measures of quality are: peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources, alumni giving, and graduation rate performance (National Universities and Liberal Art Colleges). For more information about America's Best Colleges, visit www.usnews.com/colleges.

 

[PortlandStater]

Still tier 4 though. Not that this is surprising for a school that is merely 60 years old, but with all those recent developments, I had expected PSU to move up one tier this year.

 

[forestgreen]

PSU celebrates new MAX line to campus

http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2009/09/psu_celebrates_new_max_line_th.html

Portland State University's new MAX stops are turning the campus into a public transit hub and bolstering its green image.

The downtown university is already the No. 1 destination for TriMet riders, and the new Green Line running through campus starting today will make it even easier to get there.

The new light-rail service between PSU and Clackamas Town Center kicks off at 11:30 a.m. with free rides, music, food, activities and entertainment at five stations along the route.

PSU has plenty to celebrate about the new line.

The university kicked in $7 million to bring MAX to campus, an investment campus leaders hope will pay off by drawing more people without adding cars and parking spots.

"It just further emphasizes our focus on public transportation and sustainability," said Wim Wiewel, PSU president. "We want to be accessible to the whole metro area."

The new MAX tracks are steps away from the Portland Streetcar and bus stops, creating a new mass transit hub on campus. A new cycle track on Southwest Broadway also opened two weeks ago, providing a protected lane for bicyclists through campus.

The MAX Yellow Line extended its service from North Portland to PSU two weeks ago, and a new loop between PSU and Union Station will run on weekday afternoons starting Monday.

All told, a MAX train should stop at PSU an average of every six minutes on weekdays.

That's a big deal to students like Jonathan Sanford, PSU's student president, who gave up his car and moved on campus this year.

"The upside of MAX is I can still get to where I need to go," he said. "Getting out of the city is great. It keeps people sane."

Bringing MAX to campus is part of a bigger vision to expand the university, build more student housing and connect the campus more to the city, campus leaders said.

About 39 percent of the university's 27,000 students take public transportation to campus, up from 33 percent in 1997.

Those numbers are expected to climb after MAX comes to campus, PSU officials said. In about a year, the Green Line is projected to add more than 25,000 riders each weekday to the MAX system, which now gets about 100,000 riders.

"The more options you have to make that quick connection, even if it's just to downtown, it's going to be more attractive," Wiewel said.

The university's plans on the east side of campus near the MAX tracks include a new student recreation center, a $90 million sustainability center and more student housing.

Starting this fall, bike commuters will be able to store and fix their bikes a bike hub in the rec center. The sustainability center, expected to break ground next year, aims to showcase green-building techniques to visitors from around the world.

New dorms are planned on Southwest Fifth and Sixth avenues between Southwest College and Jackson streets and on the former DoubleTree Hotel site at Southwest Fourth Avenue and Lincoln Street.

But PSU's eastward growth has not always been met with open arms.

When the Portland Development Commission helped it buy four acres, including the DoubleTree, nearby condo owners raised concerns about potential crime and adverse effects on property values. The property is now PSU's University Place Hotel & Conference Center.

TriMet and PSU drew criticism when the transit agency considered using its condemnation power to buy an 1894 Queen Anne house for the planned dorm between College and Jackson streets.

Attorney Randal Acker, who owns the house and runs a law office out of it, objected to the condemnation threat and says TriMet and PSU were heavy handed.

TriMet and PSU now own most of the property on the block except Acker's house. TriMet plans to sell its property on the block to PSU to make way for the transit-oriented dorm building, expected to open in 2012 or 2013

"It's going to be a substantial building and a significant increase in the number of beds for students," said Lindsay Desrochers, the university's vice president for finance and administration.

"The city wants to see densification of housing in the downtown area, and the university is going to be a big part of that."

 

[pdxfan]

Keep in mind that no one knows for sure what PSU will look like in terms of its supposed main purpose, teaching and research, when all of this expansion is finished (if it ever is). More students does not equal better education. More buildings does not equal better education. Example: amidst all this hype about sustainability buildings and dorms, not a word is said about just maybe building a new library, or even just expanding the present one. It would have to be double the present size. Why? Because half of our collection is in storage warehouses around town. We don't have room for them. Then consider - our acquisitions budget was cut substantially this year, as it is every time the university finds itself short of cash. That means fewer new books. That means we have to cut journal subscriptions, critical ones in business and engineering (not to mention English Lit and History). Oh, you say, that's ok - data bases have them. Sure they do - but data bases cost more than the journals. They've been cut too.

When the university starts bragging about its library and takes serious steps to improve it, I'll start cheering the expansion. Without a decent library, however, I see the university as mostly corporate hype. Bigger is better. Sustainability. "Serving the City". Fancy logos. The library is C+, if that. The education inevitably follows.

 

[PortlandStater]

Is it? Maybe my subject area (linguistics) is not representative, but I have always found the library well-stocked and well-organized. While it is true that it could be bigger, you need to consider that in the future with increasing prevalence of electronic storage of information, libraries will need less physical space for books.

That doesn't make you main point less valid of course: expansion at any price is a bad strategy. However, PSU has a pretty good recent track record of smart planning. If one thing is true in the State of Oregon, it's that OUS has no love for non-traditional students. More traditional student living on campus spells more funding. This is why PSU has been increasing student housing so aggressively, and that's why expansion is the only direction PSU can go.

 

[forestgreen]

Hail to the chief
New cheif of staff says Portland State poised for leaps and bounds

http://www.dailyvanguard.com/hail-to-the-chief-1.1934125

 

[forestgreen]

News: PSU Green Building Research Lab lands $1M federal appropriation

http://www.pdx.edu/news/green-building-research-lab-lands-federal-appropriation

 

[forestgreen]

PSU explores building new student housing

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/10/psu_explores_building_new_stud.html

 

[forestgreen]

Portland State Part of $2.6 Million Project to Double Minority Graduates in Sciences

http://www.pdx.edu/news/portland-state-part-of-26-million-project-to-double-minority-graduates-in-sciences

 

[forestgreen]

News: Portland State’s MBA Program Named #1 in the Northwest, 25th in the World

(Portland, Ore.) October 20, 2009 — Portland State University's MBA program has been ranked 25th on a list of the Top 100 business schools in the world, according to 2009-2010 edition of Beyond Grey Pinstripes magazine. Along with programs at Stanford, UC Berkley, and Yale, Portland State has demonstrated significant leadership in integrating social, environmental and ethical issues into its MBA program.

http://www.pdx.edu/news/portland-state-s-mba-program-named-1-in-the-northwest-25th-in-the-world

 

[forestgreen]

PSU eyes expanded role
Growing university is slowly becoming a major force for economic development

http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2009/11/02/story1.html?b=1257138000%255E2358351

Wim Wiewel envisions Portland State University as an economic powerhouse.

Enrollment is projected to increase 28 percent, to 36,000 students, in just a few years. Three major initiatives could soon launch, including a 900-bed student housing structure that would open in 2012. The school is mulling a new international student center and redevelopment of the University Center Hotel, 310 S.W. Lincoln St.

It also continues work on the new $90 million business school that could open by 2013.

Overall, the university expects to make $300 million worth of capital investments by 2012.

 

[ManOfVision]

PSU eyes expanded role
Growing university is slowly becoming a major force for economic development

http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2009/11/02/story1.html?b=1257138000%255E2358351

Wim Wiewel envisions Portland State University as an economic powerhouse.

Enrollment is projected to increase 28 percent, to 36,000 students, in just a few years. Three major initiatives could soon launch, including a 900-bed student housing structure that would open in 2012. The school is mulling a new international student center and redevelopment of the University Center Hotel, 310 S.W. Lincoln St.

It also continues work on the new $90 million business school that could open by 2013.

Overall, the university expects to make $300 million worth of capital investments by 2012.

And yet still we lack a proper campus events center!!!

 

[forestgreen]

Converting Portland State University building into arts center poses challenges

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/01/converting_historic_psu_buildi.html

Portland State University faces one of architecture's most difficult challenges as it launches an attempt to convert Lincoln Hall, its oldest classroom building, into a vibrant venue for performing arts:

What's the best way to add pizazz and a brand-new entrance to a distinctive 1912 building that turns its back on one of downtown's busiest streets?

Faced with growing enrollment in its School of Fine & Performing Arts (the film studies program, for instance, has jumped from 25 students in 2007 to 210 this year), PSU hopes to add three new classrooms and a new entrance on Southwest Broadway.

The idea is to make Lincoln Hall's 476-seat main theater more accessible to patrons and to arts groups.

"Lincoln Hall is one of the best-kept secrets in the arts community," said Pat Zagelow, director of the Friends of Chamber Music, a group that often rents the auditorium for concerts. But it is hard to find and difficult for people with physical disabilities to negotiate, Zagelow said. A new entrance on Broadway "would turn it into a premier arts venue."

Boora Architects, a Portland firm with a background in campus buildings and arts centers, has floated one plan with a dramatic three-story glass-walled pop-out and a new entrance on Broadway near the corner of Market Street.

"We all recognize that it is a building with a lot of beauty and character," said Michael Tingley, a Boora architect. But it was designed in 1912 as Lincoln High School with its front door facing Southwest Park Avenue and its back to Broadway, then a much quieter street.

The Broadway facade became duller yet in the 1970s, when PSU ripped out a center section that included a chimney and windows, leaving a stark, blank brick wall.

Tingley would replace that blank wall with the glass pop-out and add three teaching studios visible to pedestrians and motorists on Broadway. Although he may face a losing battle with city sign regulations, he'd also like to add a canopy and signs to create a presence on Market Street.

Art DeMuro, chairman of the Portland Historic Landmarks Commission and a businessman who renovates and restores historic buildings, said the early design is too "jarring" for the rest of Lincoln's American Renaissance-style architecture.

Though the contemporary view in preservation circles is to make sure that modern additions aren't confused with original building fabric, DeMuro says the proposed additions reach too far toward modernism.

Lincoln Hall was designed by a firm headed by Morris Whitehouse, one of Portland's most prominent architects of the early 20th century. His numerous other works included Jefferson High School (which lost much of its original architectural detail in a 1952 remodel), the University Club, the Columbia Gorge Hotel, Temple Beth Israel and the Gus Solomon U.S. Courthouse.

Lincoln Hall isn't a designated landmark, although DeMuro says it would qualify easily for the National Register of Historic Places. A nomination for landmark status was prepared but withdrawn by PSU in the 1990s.

Tingley said he's committed to keeping the original entrance intact on Southwest Park. Members of the Portland Design Commission, who are reviewing the project, aren't opposed to contemporary additions, but they'd like to see more deference to the older architecture.

Tim Eddy, one design commission member, suggested that the pop-out be shortened to fall within the original cornice line "so it doesn't appear this element crashed into the building in the dark of night."

 

[PortlandStater]

PSU receives CHEA award.

http://www.pdx.edu/news/portland-state-university-to-receive-2010-chea-award

 

[forestgreen]

Berry Botanic Garden reaches financial dead end

http://www.oregonlive.com/hg/index.ssf/2010/01/berry_botanic_garden_reaches_f.html

Hushed and hidden among tall trees, Berry Botanic Garden sits at the end of a lane in Dunthorpe that's driven more by wealthy, private neighbors than the visitors it tried to attract. In the international world of plant conservation, though, it's famous.

The namesake and legacy of Rae Selling Berry, a serious plant collector who believed passionately in preservation, the 32-year-old garden was destined for a leadership role in plant conservation. In 1983, the country's first seed bank devoted entirely to rare and endangered species was established at the Berry garden. In the years since, the program has gained a worldwide reputation.

But this month, the nonprofit corporation Friends of Berry Botanic Garden decided to put the garden up for sale and brokered a deal with Portland State University to save the seed bank and plant conservation program.

The decision to put the 6.5 acres in Dunthorpe on the market was complicated, the reason was not.

"We're not financially viable as a nonprofit anymore," Margaret Eickmann, interim director, said Thursday.

Though nothing has been finalized -- and won't be until the Berry property sells -- the conservation program directed by Ed Guerrant seems headed for a bright future in the Environmental Science and Management program at Portland State University.

"Portland State's particular strength is in sustainable practices and biomedical research," Eickmann said. "Our program will fit right in with the vision of the university, and it will have more institutional support and infrastructure. It's a good thing."

Mark Sytsma, chairman of the PSU program, agrees. Not only will the move provide more staffing and infrastructure, but it's also bound to bring more funding.

Even with such hopeful news, volunteers, staff and many others mourn the end of the lifework of a woman with single-minded devotion to plants. But they recognize the garden's location on a dead-end road without signs to point the way kept it from gaining the visibility it deserved.

"A lot of people don't know Berry exists. It's a well-kept secret, but everyone who is introduced is drawn to it," said Donna Medica, a volunteer who used to come from North Plains once a week to work in the greenhouse.

From 1938 to 1973, Berry amassed a remarkable plant collection, including many rare alpines gathered as she hiked through mountains dressed in a brimmed hat, jodhpurs and knee-high laced boots. When she died at 92, she was still planting seeds she knew she wouldn't be around to see.

"I know where all the rare plants are, and they'll never be together again," said Ginny Maffitt, a dedicated volunteer for 11 years. "The thought of scattering them turns your hair white."

Maffitt clings to the hope that someone will step up to buy the garden in its entirety.

"Portland is losing another cultural treasure," she said. "It's a true living museum that is irreplaceable. It's like losing the Oregon Ballet."

Other public gardens are surviving. The Portland Japanese Garden actually had an upswing in attendance in 2009. But no one said they aren't worried.

"Like every other nonprofit, we're struggling," said Gay Greger, incoming board president for Leach Garden Friends. "But the critical difference between this garden and Berry is that the property is owned by the city. We feel the garden is safe in the city's hands."

The Friends of Berry Botanic Garden have every hope of finding homes for the valuable plants as it moves ahead with the sale, which could take several months, even as long as a year. The garden will remain open during this time.

It's not too late for Portlanders to get to know the botanical treasure at the end of a quiet road in Dunthorpe. But you better hurry.

 

[forestgreen]

PDC spends $800,000 for bioscience ‘wet labs’

http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2010/02/08/daily40.html

Oregon’s biotech community will soon have access to four wet labs, where early stage companies can test and analyze chemicals and drugs.

The Portland Development Commission voted Wednesday to spend $800,000 to retrofit and add wet labs to Portland State University’s Business Accelerator, at 2828 S.W. Corbett Ave.

Construction will begin in March.

With $1.2 million in bioscience funding still not allocated, the PDC will likely ultimately authorize another two wet labs at the site, said Gerald Baugh, business and industry manager for the agency.

These six small private labs will range in size from 165 square feet to 400 square feet, and will lease for approximately $1,000 to $1,600 per month.

A 2008 report by the Oregon Bioscience Association determined that a shortage of wet lab space in the metro area has constrained growth of the sector. Developing these spaces is often beyond the financial resources of young startups.

The project is being funded through the North Macadam Urban Renewal District tax-increment financing program, which has dedicated $3.5 million to bioscience spending to be overseen by Oregon Health & Science University and the PDC.

Of that total, $1.5 million is going directly to OHSU to fund its bioscience programs. PDC and OHSU ultimately teamed with Portland State University, which offers coaching and space to young companies through its Business Accelerator program.

 

[forestgreen]

Portland State University’s New Wind Tunnel – A Boon to the Portland Area

http://cleanoregon.com/2010/02/12/portland-state-universitys-new-wind-tunnel-boon-to-the-portland-area/

Sustainable Business Oregon is writing about the many benefits of Portland State University’s new wind tunnel, schedule to arrive in March.

The tunnel is generating excitement in Portland design circles. Sustainability advocates expect the $500,000 tunnel to encourage high-level research into wind energy.

Having a research-grade piece of equipment in Portland will be immensely helpful to architects and engineers, said John Breshears, associate partner with Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects.

“I don’t know that many universities or cities that have that level of research. It will enable us to do more of the kinds of research we need to do,” said Breshears, who said the firm is interested in researching wind patterns so it can install turbines at its other projects.

ZGF also is interested in using it to study green roofs, an increasingly popular feature in sustainable design. Little is known about how they interact with the environment.

[Oregon Best President and Executive Director David] Kenney said that as the North American home to wind energy leaders such as turbine manufacture Vestas-American Wind Technology Inc. and wind power provider Iberdrola Renewables, it’s important for Portland to gird its favorite new business sector with solid research capabilities.

“It’s a great connection,” he said.

Lasers record how the air moves through the chamber.

Doctoral candidates will use it for high-level research, but it is also a teaching and recruitment tool to attract undergraduates and high school students to the hard sciences by giving them a hands-on experience.

 

[forestgreen]

Portland State nears $24M deal to buy Market Center

http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2010/02/22/story7.html

 

[ManOfVision]

Portland State nears $24M deal to buy Market Center

http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2010/02/22/story7.html

Wow, that's big news. The state actually stepping up to help PSU expand. Hopefully, this will clear space for classrooms elsewhere on campus.

 

[forestgreen]

Portland State U Receives $1M for Geothermal System

http://madrad2002.wordpress.com/2010/03/02/new-college-sustainability-efforts/

Portland State University (OR) has received a $1 million grant to drill geothermal wells near a campus science building and help purchase a 1,000-ton heat pump for additional heating and cooling in the 13-building campus energy loop. Design work has begun, and well construction will start this summer. The system should be operational in 2011.