On a basketball thread (of all places), I made the argument that the Big West Conference really is NOT a fit for Portland State. Reason: those are NOT city schools. Those are smaller city schools (Davis, SLO, Santa Barbara) and SUBURBAN schools (Fullerton, Irvine, Long Beach, Riverside, and more-or-less Northridge) and the outlier (Hawaii). I stand by that. Yet I suspect there's a workaround.
Meanwhile, what are Portland State's challenges? Heck, why else did Portland State make that "most innovative" list than the various ways in which the school is trying to attract undergraduates... four years free, four-year guarantee (the latter of which figured prominently during my daughter's visitation), et cetera. It's a campus of 29,000, now 60% full time (used to be lower). They're still trying to-and need to- improve on that. Meanwhile, land values are still going up... Portland State can only build up so much, there's only so many blocks to cannibalize. There's a point where only so many students will be able to live near the campus (used to be plenty of students out around lower Goose Hollow 10 years ago... rents shot up, students moved away). The rent is the bigger problem. Eventually this will affect the school.
Now consider the real estate bubble burst of 9-10 years ago. That nailed suburbs in the gut... but those aren't truly going anywhere. How do you deal with that?
Imagine a satellite campus along MAX linking to the campus downtown.
Imagine being able to house students and athletic facilities there. Imagine being able to give the renowned Urban Studies program an expansion of focus. Imagine collaborating with a second-layer suburb to borrow fairgrounds land (and perhaps help with the events center they've always wanted), or repurposing a suburban downtown currently betrothed to a comic book "empire" of sorts, or repurposing a dying mall area, or finding an opening on an upcoming MAX line, or giving life to a MAX station project that stalled... or even taking on the hallowed ground where the university was originally born. Let new students live without breaking their banks, create a campus atmosphere of sorts, and learn how this interacts with the surroundings.
I have to cut this short... but I posted something somewhere else some months ago where I got the original inspiration: San Diego State's effort to take over the old San Diego/Jack Murphy/Qualcomm Stadium area for a second campus. There's an ongoing story as the effort was sidetracked by a Major League Soccer proposal, though it should be noted that THAT effort has been a bit sidetracked by San Diego's city council. Just saying that I'll be bringing that up again; it's something to watch.
Meanwhile, what are Portland State's challenges? Heck, why else did Portland State make that "most innovative" list than the various ways in which the school is trying to attract undergraduates... four years free, four-year guarantee (the latter of which figured prominently during my daughter's visitation), et cetera. It's a campus of 29,000, now 60% full time (used to be lower). They're still trying to-and need to- improve on that. Meanwhile, land values are still going up... Portland State can only build up so much, there's only so many blocks to cannibalize. There's a point where only so many students will be able to live near the campus (used to be plenty of students out around lower Goose Hollow 10 years ago... rents shot up, students moved away). The rent is the bigger problem. Eventually this will affect the school.
Now consider the real estate bubble burst of 9-10 years ago. That nailed suburbs in the gut... but those aren't truly going anywhere. How do you deal with that?
Imagine a satellite campus along MAX linking to the campus downtown.
Imagine being able to house students and athletic facilities there. Imagine being able to give the renowned Urban Studies program an expansion of focus. Imagine collaborating with a second-layer suburb to borrow fairgrounds land (and perhaps help with the events center they've always wanted), or repurposing a suburban downtown currently betrothed to a comic book "empire" of sorts, or repurposing a dying mall area, or finding an opening on an upcoming MAX line, or giving life to a MAX station project that stalled... or even taking on the hallowed ground where the university was originally born. Let new students live without breaking their banks, create a campus atmosphere of sorts, and learn how this interacts with the surroundings.
I have to cut this short... but I posted something somewhere else some months ago where I got the original inspiration: San Diego State's effort to take over the old San Diego/Jack Murphy/Qualcomm Stadium area for a second campus. There's an ongoing story as the effort was sidetracked by a Major League Soccer proposal, though it should be noted that THAT effort has been a bit sidetracked by San Diego's city council. Just saying that I'll be bringing that up again; it's something to watch.
