Good afternoon, and welcome. Welcome back to our returning faculty and staff. And welcome to those who are starting your first year at PSU. Let me say to our newcomers, you have made a wise choice joining the Portland State campus community.

This fall, I begin my fifth year as President and I remain convinced that this is the institution of Oregon's future. Our academic and research programs continue to grow in stature and in importance, and our enrollment exhibits continued strong growth. We are becoming the institution of choice for students seeking a better and more fulfilling life for themselves and their community. We are also an institution that recruits and retains outstanding and highly talented faculty and staff.

Last year's convocation speech featured music and lights, and we had a lot of fun "driving with the top down" on my convertible. But that does not seem appropriate this year, as we all reflect on the tragic events of September 11. What happened just a week ago has affected us as a nation, as a community, and as individuals.

Last week Scott Burns, President of the Faculty Senate, Mary Cunningham, President of the Associated Students, and I sent a letter to the campus community. In it, we said the following:

"We urge all members of the campus fellowship to commit ourselves to the community of openness and peace that exists at Portland State and to the fundamental principles that we all hold precious in a democratic society. Portland State University faculty, staff and students embrace and support diversity. We represent all religions, ethnicities, backgrounds and orientations. As a University that embraces diversity we have an obligation to treat one another with respect and dignity, (especially) during this painful time."

This year, we hope to welcome a record number of international students to our campus. Our international students provide us with a window to the broader world, expanding our cultural understanding, and contributing to the educational experience of all of our students, faculty, and staff. Please make a special effort to welcome these new students to campus.

We also need to be mindful of the special responsibilities that may fall to many of our students and colleagues who are members of our armed forces reserves and the National Guard. I ask that they be granted the greatest possible flexibility should their programs be interrupted by a call to serve. I believe the coming weeks may pose a true test of our resolve to maintain values, openness and respect. Thank you for your cooperation.

We began the last academic year by initiating a series of discussions, both on and off campus, inspired by the theme: Great City - Great University. It was a pleasure to host several roundtables that brought faculty members together across the disciplines to examine what we are already doing as well as our potential to broaden partnerships with the city, OHSU, preK-12 education, and the creative industries. The public forum that followed each roundtable further examined those connections and explored what the future might hold for our community and our University. The response of participants was so positive that we have planned additional activities for the coming year. They include issues related to sustainability, regional partnerships and collaborations with our Park Block neighbors -- the Portland Art Museum, the Oregon Historical Society, and the Performing Arts Center. I want to thank all of you who participate in these discussions. In response to the creative ideas we have heard during the past year's discussions, I want to announce that I am allocating up to $300,000 this year to help fund research that supports and expands our Great City-Great University theme.

With this funding incentive we hope to assist faculty in the achievement of some of the visions articulated at our roundtables and forums. The details of this program, including an RFP, will be available next week from the Office of Graduate Studies and Research.

Let us look at what we accomplished last year, and where we need to go this year. Last year, we laid out some general goals for ourselves. Today, I want to address the question, "How are we doing on reaching those goals?"

First, we said we wanted to be a more student-centered institution -- one that provides a challenging and positive environment for learning and research. How are we doing?

We have seen increases in student retention and in our graduation rates. Many of you are participating in three campus-wide initiatives in the areas of student advising, assessment and diversity. Attention to these areas has been in direct response to the recommendations of the Campus Climate Commission.

In addition to these three continuing and successful initiatives, I am pleased to introduce a fourth initiative, internationalizing the campus. I have already spoken about the record number of our international students, but we need to be much more assertive and purposeful about our international agenda. This new initiative is timely because it not only complements and enhances the three other initiatives, but it also continues to strengthen our University's goals and mission. An ad hoc Internationalization Working Group has done a tremendous job putting together the beginning of a plan for internationalizing the campus. We will continue to carry out and add to this plan.

Internationalizing our campus will be achieved by (1) increasing opportunities for every PSU student to understand and have meaningful experiences with other cultures; (2) increasing opportunities for PSU faculty, academic professionals, and staff to incorporate international dimensions into their teaching, scholarship and professional development; (3) connecting as an institution with colleges and universities internationally; and, (4) strengthening our ties with international alumni.

Especially after the grave and tragic events of the past week, I am even more confident that our institution should play a significant role in helping our students receive an education that prepares them for living more peaceably in a multicultural world.

I would like to give you just a few specific examples of significant strides that we have made with other campuses internationally. We have connected PSU programs with Baden-Württenberg in Germany and Waseda in Japan. We are looking to establish similar programs in Korea and I just returned from a trip to South Africa, which I believe will have very positive outcomes for our new initiative. And, we announced last spring that PSU will become the first university in the United States to offer business education programs to the citizens of North Korea.

Another mark of our success is our enrollment, which continues to climb. This year, we passed the ten-thousand mark in new fall-term applications. That is the highest number of applications for a single term on record here and it is an increase of 20 percent over last year. Equally important, applications are up in most minority groups. One more note on fall enrollment: We received applications from at least 31 Oregonians who graduated first in their high school class. Of those, 15 are registered for fall term. Obviously, quality students are drawn to quality programs. We plan to enhance that quality this year by offering an internal funding program for undergraduate research grants. Information on this new RFP is available in the Office of the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Studies and Curriculum.

All admitted students don't enroll -- so don't panic...yet -- but we do expect enrollment to be up again this year. While that is good for the institution, it also creates challenges in the area of enrollment management, the main topic at last year's administrative retreat. The Provost and academic deans worked last year with a national consultant to help identify key questions and options for enrollment management and that will be a main concern of our new Vice Provost for Student Affairs, Dr. Douglas Samuels.

Our increased enrollment calls for us to be more flexible and more creative in meeting student needs. We have answered that call. A pilot program has been implemented to develop customized courses that help meet the challenge of increased enrollments across campus. Your hard work and commitment have made a difference and will pay dividends in enhanced student satisfaction and success. We have done this while faculty members have continued to maintain an average annual growth rate of 15 percent for externally funded research. Congratulations and thank you.

Last year, we said we needed to bring a new focus to our facilities and infrastructure to accommodate our growing enrollment, and the growth and changes in academic programs. We face issues of classroom availability, student housing, research facilities and information technology. How are we doing in these areas?

I am pleased to report that, through consolidations and property acquisitions, we have been able to increase classroom capacity in the Fourth Avenue Building and the University Center. In the area of research facilities and technology, we have made excellent progress. New student-accessible wireless networks have been installed in the Millar Library, Smith Center, the Urban Center, Science Two, and the School of Education. We also have high-speed networks in the student housing facilities. A number of world-class teaching and research labs also came on-line this year through a combination of private, university, and federal funds. We opened six new computer labs for students and five state-of-the-art distance learning classrooms.

I also want to say another "thank you" to our facilities team and to every member of the campus community for a successful effort to conserve electrical energy. With careful monitoring of our heating and ventilation systems, and with everyone's cooperation in such efforts as turning off lights and computers when not in use, PSU managed to save 15 percent per month over previous years in energy consumption -- all this while we increased the number of individuals using our facilities. This means we will not be charging our students an extra "energy" fee this year, unlike most other campuses in the state.

Last year, we also said we wanted to focus on collaboration with other institutions in the region, and we have. We now have co-admission agreements with all three metropolitan community colleges and we are working with Chemeketa in Salem. Our relationship with the OHSU continues to grow. Also, we have begun work with the Oregon Historical Society to create a common library catalog database. Collaboration remains a key element in our success.

Last biennium was our first experience with the new budget model. We were supportive of the new model in which the money follows the students because we believed PSU would benefit. And we were right. We continue to operate with a balanced budget. But we also recognize that we have to broaden our sources of revenue and we've begun making real strides in private fund raising as well. Since 1997, we have increased endowed professorships and chairs by 200 percent and private funding for scholarships is steadily increasing.

Our primary strategic initiative to diversify our funding is the comprehensive capital campaign, which just completed its second year of the "quiet" phase. I am excited about the tremendous progress that already has been made.

The largest single component of our campaign is the Northwest Center for Engineering, Science and Technology. Again, how are we doing?

In June, the State Legislature approved $26.5 million in bonds toward that facility, the largest amount ever authorized for any OUS institution. We promised to match that authorization with federal, city, and private dollars. In July, an anonymous donor contributed $1 million. Then, in August, James F. Miller, a leading Portland philanthropist, pledged $3 million toward the center, the largest private gift in our history, doubling the record set a few months before. I am pleased to announce that we have reached one-third of our $90 million campaign goal and it is important to note that we are doing this during a very challenging economic time.

I also want to mention one other major fund raising item -- PSU's Native American Student and Community Center. The State Legislature authorized $1.2 million in bonds for the facility and we have matched that with grants, federal funding, student fees, and private fund raising. We expect to break ground on this important addition to our campus in the spring.

Clearly, we are making a great case for investment in Portland State and people are responding. I have asked that copies of our campaign case statement be available in the lobby after this convocation. Of course, our intensive work on the capital campaign will continue. In connection with this, deans and other senior administrators will be even more actively involved in fundraising. Our campus must develop a more outward-looking culture if we are to reach our goals.

Our willingness to examine the changing role of the American university has brought us attention and recognition by our peers nationally for our curricular programs, our project to develop an electronic portfolio, and our outstanding work in the community.

In fact, this national recognition has led to our participation in the Knight Collaborative Engagement on Strategic Community Partnerships. There are three universities engaged in this project: The University of Pennsylvania; The University of Chicago; and Portland State University. I think we are in pretty good company, don't you? But I also think that the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago are in pretty good company, too.

Our campus project with the Knight Collaborative will involve the exploration and identification of the future directions of the metropolitan region and their impact on the University. Our short-term goal is to work with various internal and external communities to identify the emerging areas of the metropolitan economy and society, and what they suggest for future University initiatives. We will be asking many of you to join in these discussions. The longer-term goal is to secure a leadership role in those areas that will benefit the University and the region. Some of the areas we will be exploring include the bio-tech industries; children and family services; creative industries; community health; and issues of livability and sustainability.

Let us, for a moment, look at sustainability. Sustainability is an idea, an ethic, a way of doing things that says we will operate our businesses and our lives in ways that will assure us success far into the future. It is the idea that we should not create more problems than we solve. I have already spoken about our efforts to be a more sustainable business enterprise, now I want to talk about our academic efforts.

At Portland State we have the greatest concentration in Oregon of faculty working on issues of sustainability. You, our faculty, are positioning this University as a national leader in teaching and research related to sustainability. This area is absolutely critical, not only to the future of Oregon, but to the future of the world. That is why we have added sustainability to our Great City: Great University Series for the upcoming year.

Another area we need to explore is the expansion of our campus boundaries beyond the University District to better serve our growing student enrollment and our community. We must seek out opportunities to establish our degree programs, possibly in conjunction with our colleagues in the community colleges throughout the region. And, when I say throughout the region, I mean from the Columbia Gorge and the Willamette Valley to the Oregon Coast. We can no longer afford to confine comprehensive education opportunities to the Park Blocks.

The dedication of the Urban Center and Plaza, and, later, the Portland Streetcar helped to focus community attention on Portland State and our connection with the community. In fact, we have had a run of good publicity, particularly in The Oregonian, which ran several feature stories this summer concerning Senior Capstone courses. I know these things do not occur in a vacuum and I want to thank each of you for helping to advance Portland State University.

But, we are far from finished.

Portland State is an institution with a wonderful history and a great future. Its history is that of an institution that grew out of the community's needs, overcame adversity --- including a major flood -- to find creative ways to serve the people of Oregon. We are celebrating that history this week with special events surrounding the Vanport Classic football game with Grambling State University. I urge you to participate in the remaining events, including an exciting game on Saturday.

As we begin the year, I am sure you share my hope that the University and its unions will reach prompt agreements. Working together, we can make this another great year for Portland State. With our history and future in mind, the Provost, the Council of Deans and I have consulted with faculty groups and critical friends to develop a planning proposal for the University. The theme for that proposal -- Great City/Great University: Continuing the Trajectory and Refining the Vision -- will be discussed at the symposium tomorrow afternoon. The goal of that work is to ensure that our institutional vision statement captures our academic values and aspirations. I hope you will join us for the symposium tomorrow.

As I have stated in the past, my goal for PSU is to be a university so thoroughly engaged with its community that every conversation or public discussion turns to a PSU program and its impact on the life of the region; a university so engaged that people throughout the region refer to it as, "our university"; a university that adds significantly more to the community than it takes in return.

That's my vision for PSU and, together, we can achieve it.

So how are we doing? We're doing just great!

Thank you, and have a wonderful year.