September 2024 Provost’s Report to the PSU Board of Trustees
9/26/2024
The following update shares highlights from the Provost’s Report to Portland State University’s Board of Trustees Academic and Student Affairs Committee on September 26, 2024.
I’d like to begin by acknowledging the incredibly hard work being carried out by our academic leaders and employees. Throughout a difficult period, they remain steadfast in their commitment to our students by ensuring that how we evolve as an institution is rooted in a foundation of care.
Welcoming and Gathering our New and Continuing Academic Leaders
Last month we welcomed six new deans for the start of the 2024-25 academic year. Each dean will serve as the chief executive and academic officer of their respective school or college, and they will play a crucial role as members of the University’s Academic Leadership Team (also known as ALT).
Our new deans participated in a two day orientation facilitated by Summit Search Solutions. This meeting connected new deans with continuing deans and university leadership. They will receive ongoing support throughout the year through increased collaboration amongst our Council of Deans and professional development from our onboarding partners at Summit.
We also gathered our entire Academic Leadership Team for a retreat focused on creating connections among members, team building, naming key issues for the team to focus on together, understanding our financial sustainability planning process, and beginning to provide tools on change management communication, and preparing for and responding to anticipated challenges on campus this fall.
Our Academic Leadership Team is composed of PSU’s Provost, Deans and Dean-equivalents, Vice Provosts, Associate Vice Provosts, and our Vice President for Research and Vice President for Enrollment Management serve as ex-officio members.
This month, we welcomed 29 new instructional and research employees and held a new faculty welcome lunch. This event is focused on community building, as it connects new academic employees with our president and academic leaders.
Just a couple hours after we welcomed new community members, we welcomed back 250 staff and faculty at Convocation.
Academic Affairs Highlights
I am thrilled to report that thanks to the efforts of our Student Success teams, PSU was awarded $7.8 million from the Department of Education to fund transfer students in partnership with Clackamas Community College and Mt. Hood Community College. You can find more about this in the written report from the Office of Student Success, and we will learn more about this work at a future ASAC meeting.
Also, PSU has been approved by the Federal Department of Education as a designated Prison Education Program to offer Pell grant funding to incarcerated students in the Higher Education Prison (HEP) program at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, Oregon's only prison for women. PSU is the first university in Oregon to receive this approval. We are among the first five in the Nation, positioning us as leaders in the field.
Access to Pell grant funding means that students can fund their education and are now enrolled as degree seeking students at PSU. The HEP program will generate revenue for PSU through tuition paying students, which will help the program to build financial sustainability and be less reliant on external funding to operate. HEP is slated to deliver 116 credit hours to 80 students over the 2024-25 academic year.
We will be working this year with our academic leaders and department chairs to support their understanding of PSU’s Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI) designation, the benefits it brings to PSU, and provide tools for them to support our efforts to foster a sense of belonging for Asian American and Pacific Islander students and increase Pacific Islander student retention.
Our Office of Student Affairs - Student Health and Counseling leaders and the School of Public Health are collaboratively leading PSU’s effort to become the fourth university in Oregon to sign on to the Okanagan Charter; a public commitment to embed health into all aspects of campus culture, and to lead health promotion and collaborations on a local and global level. This work builds on our Healthy Campus Initiative and will further elevate our commitment to building a community ethos of care and wellbeing.
Michelle Giovannozzi, Associate Vice Provost for Academic Innovation continues to provide leadership for the cross-functional Generative AI Working Group that is charged with identifying challenges and opportunities for generative AI in teaching and learning at PSU. As schools and colleges consider developing AI courses OAA will prioritize coordinating efforts to promote collaboration and leverage enrollment.
This year we look forward to continuing to partner with our Faculty Senate and the new presiding officer, Jill Emery; as well as presiding officer elect, Matt Chorpenning; and past presiding officer, Lindsey Wilkinson. I am grateful for their leadership and commitment to this community.