Inside Portland State
 | FEATURED FACULTYSCOTT MARSHALLValuing equity and ecology.People might not associate business with terms like environmental stewardship, social equity, and transparency, but Scott Marshall would add yet another word to that list: success. Marshall teaches sustainability-inspired approaches to business in PSU’s MBA+ and Master of International Management programs, using class work, case studies, and guest speakers from forward-thinking companies to show students a better approach to business. >Learn more Mellie Pullman David Sailor Mingdi Yan Rosalyn McKeown |
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Bringer of good fortune
BROKEN LIMBS and 2,000 years of corrosion have not diminished the good luck of the Portland Art Museum’s Han Dynasty Money Tree. The ancient burial sculpture—a token of eternal favor—is now bringing prosperity to Portland State’s Chemistry Department.
The museum asked Tami Lasseter Clare, conservation scientist and new assistant chemistry professor, to analyze what ails the bronze sculpture. The project is resulting in new grant money, new equipment, and most fortuitous of all, a new Laboratory for the Science of Art Conservation. It is the first such facility in the Northwest with the next closest labs in Los Angeles and Chicago.
Clare and chemistry students are diagnosing the sculpture’s degradation, which will help museum conservationists decide next steps for treating any active corrosion and providing support to the many intricately cast branches of the 4-½ foot tall sculpture. The analysis requires sophisticated imaging equipment, which Clare is borrowing and purchasing.
The tree was donated to the museum in 2005 from the private collection of Arlene and Harold Schnitzer. Grave excavations in China’s Sichuan province have unearthed about 30 money trees—all different from each other. Only two other U.S. museums have the sculptures in their collections.
In support of green building
BUILDINGS and their taken-for-granted amenities—heating, cooling, lighting—account for 40 percent of total energy consumption in the United States. Reducing this massive carbon footprint through smart architecture, engineering, and use of materials is what the University’s new Green Building Research Laboratory is about.
The new lab allows faculty researchers from around the state to comprehensively analyze green buildings. This includes extensive study of buildings’ energy use and conservation, air and environmental quality, building material performance, and stormwater runoff.
The lab is a signature research facility of the Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center, an independent nonprofit established by the Oregon Legislature in 2007 to grow the state’s reputation as a national innovator in sustainability, natural resources, and renewable energy.
Run by David Sailor, professor of mechanical and materials engineering, the lab incorporates faculty from PSU’s engineering departments as well as Architecture, Urban Studies and Planning, and programs throughout the Oregon University System. The facility also supports the region’s booming green building industry through applied research projects and gives students hands-on experience with new and innovative building technology.
Are you FBI material?
HIGH-TECH CAREER opportunities await you at: the first 5-digit prime of Fibonacci sequence.com.
Yes, this is so difficult that it's cryptic to many of us, and it's meant to be. Portland State advertising students are using this on signs, posters, and handbills in a campaign to recruit IT applicants for the FBI. It is based on a successful Google recruitment campaign.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation asked students in Prof. Don Dickinson's advertising campaigns class to help in its recruitment efforts. Nationally, the FBI is in need of 3,000 employees in specialized fields such as IT (information technology), engineering, intelligence, and languages. The local Bureau office sent agents to talk with the students about its needs and set a campaign budget at an underwhelming $2,500.
But the students were up for the challenge. They created a 94-page guidebook that can be used anyplace in the country. "Their campaign is off-campus oriented, grassroots, and very guerilla," says Dickinson with obvious pride. "It is not even specific to Portland. We call it our plug-and-play plan."
This is the first year the FBI has received a student plan that reaches into professional and cultural communities. That's not to say that the PSU students didn't include the University in their recruitment materials. In fact, they wore FBI shirts and talked up the Bureau at a campus career fair.
The Fibonacci sequence? It is being used for recruitment near the high-tech companies west of Portland. If you're familiar with its 5-digit prime, then maybe you are FBI material.
Charter school champion
IN ADAM REID’S basement, bottles of champagne await the opening celebration of Portland’s Leadership and Entrepreneurship Public Charter High School (LEP High).
The school, which Reid ’03 co-founded and now serves as director of development, opened in fall 2006, yet the champagne remains.
“Every time I think I want to bring it out, something happens,” says Reid, who is working to fill a budget deficit, boost recruitment efforts, and meet fundraising goals. “I feel like its premature to celebrate, because we still have these huge things to do that are so essential.”
As a public school, LEP High is open to everyone, but targets underserved populations, with 65 percent of its students coming from low income families and more than 50 percent minorities. The school with its 300 students is located at 2044 E. Burnside.
Much like Portland State, LEP High works to get students out in the community through internships and projects, focusing on “how to think” as much as “what to think,” says Reid.
This past March, Reid, 28, was raising funds to cushion the blow of two state budget cuts, when Portland Public Schools denied renewal of LEP High’s charter because of a $143,000 deficit.
Reid worked with passionate students, staff, and community members to raise $80,000 in donations and secure $70,000 in grants to erase the deficit, convincing the school board to overturn its decision and assure the school’s existence for at least another three years. But just hours later the state announced another round of budget cuts.
“We had three hours of enjoyment,” says Reid. “It’s always been like that. There’s almost an indefinable amount of obstacles that we have to keep dodging and negotiating being a charter school.”
Reid, who went on to earn a master’s degree from Stanford University, credits his experiences as a Student Leader for Service and a University Studies mentor at PSU for helping form the foundation for LEP High and giving him the confidence and skills to persevere through all the hurdles.
After three years of ups and downs, LEP High will graduate its first class of seniors in spring 2010. Reid is hoping graduation will be a perfect time for champagne.
