April 27, 2009

Commencement speaker announced

Paul Hawken, a founder of Smith & Hawken and an internationally recognized proponent of sustainable business practices, will deliver Portland State’s Spring 2009 Commencement address and receive an honorary degree Saturday, June 13.

“Paul Hawken’s dedication to sustainability mirrors the principles and commitment of Portland State,” said Wim Wiewel, president of PSU. “We are honored that he has accepted our invitation.”

During his career, Hawken has founded or co-founded numerous ecologically minded companies, written and taught about the impact of commerce on living systems, and consulted with governments and corporations on economic development, industrial ecology, and environmental policy.

Executives to discuss social sustainability

President Wim Wiewel will moderate a panel of local executives discussing “Making Social Sustainability Real” Wednesday, May 6, from 4 to 6 p.m. in the PSU Native American Student and Community Center, SW Broadway and Jackson. A reception will follow the free event.

Panelists are Swati Adarkar, executive director of Children’s Institute of Oregon; Michael Armstrong, deputy director, Portland Bureau of Planning and Sustainability; Eileen Brady, co-founder of New Seasons Market and co-owner of Celilo Group Media; Regina Hauser, executive director of The Natural Step; and Mary King, PSU professor of economics.

The event celebrates the publication of Understanding the Social Dimension of Sustainability, edited by PSU faculty members Jesse Dillard, Veronica Dujon, and Mary King. Read more >

From Carnegie Hall to the senior center—taking piano to the people

For a senior in a retirement home or a young cancer patient facing long-term hospital treatments, a concert can provide a pleasant distraction or even what music professor Susan Chan calls "piano music for the soul." Along with gaining the chops necessary to follow their professor's footsteps to Carnegie Hall, students in Chan's classes join her in sharing their talents through a community engagement grant that brings recitals to local nursing homes and hospitals. Read more >

Recognized for civic engagement

Oregon Campus Compact honored professor Barry Messer and student Heather Spalding with 2009 Civic Engagement Awards last week at a Portland reception. They received two of the top seven awards given each year by the statewide civic engagement and community partnership-promoting organization.

Messer, Urban Studies and Planning faculty, received the Oregon Campus Compact Excellence Award in recognition of “his national leadership in higher education engagement in sustainability” through the Community Watershed Stewardship Program. Spalding received the 2009 Faith Gabelnick Student Leadership Award for her coordination of the launch of PSU EcoWiki.

Support students at Spring Commencement

Faculty and staff are invited to participate in this year's Spring Commencement Ceremony Saturday, June 13, at 10 a.m. in the Rose Garden Arena. More than 2,000 students and 18,000 guests are expected at this year’s ceremony.

“This event cannot happen without the support and participation of the PSU community,” said Robert Mercer, Faculty Senate president and Liberal Arts and Sciences assistant dean. “It means the world to students to see their professors and the staff who made their education possible.”

To sign up, follow the registration link on the commencement Web site. For more information, contact the Office of the Dean of Students at commencement@pdx.edu or call 5-4422.

Free from Campus Rec and Student Health

The offices of Campus Recreation and Student Health and Counseling are showing their appreciation of students, staff, and faculty with free chair massages and acupuncture, discounted bike helmets, free blood pressure screening, and free Clif Bars samples on Monday, May 4, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. in 294 Smith Union.

East West School of Massage is giving chair massages, and the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine is providing acupuncture. Think First Oregon is selling discounted bike helmets for $8.

Upcoming grant award workshops

There are a few spots open in the last Post-Award Workshop of the academic year on June 18 from 1 to 4 p.m. The session covers the responsibilities of a principal investigator, the University processes for getting a new award started, and the challenges of spending and tracking the money. Office of Research and Sponsored Projects (ORSP) and research accounting staff, who help with projects, will meet with workshop participants.

ORSP has also added two dates for the Pre-Award workshop: May 14 from 2 to 4 p.m. and June 30 from 9 to 11 a.m. Faculty who are new to the award process would benefit from one of these sessions, which covers proposal applications, budgets, and submissions and the locating of funding.

All three sessions are in the Research Conference Room on the sixth floor of the Unitus building. To sign up, contact Jeremy Dalton at jdalton@pdx.edu.

Faculty Senate ballots due May 7

Elections for faculty membership of the 2009-2010 Faculty Senate, Advisory Council, and Interinstitutional Faculty Senate (IFS) are under way. Ballots for Senate elections and nominations for the Advisory Council and IFS are due May 7 in the Office of Institutional Research and Planning, M346 Smith Union. For more information, contact Sarah Andrews-Collier, secretary to the faculty, at andrews@pdx.edu.

For April 2009

Notices | People | Presented | Published/Exhibited | Grants