Earlier this week I had the opportunity to join Oregon Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici on a tour of our Vernier Science Center, the renovated STEM building that opened in September.
It was a joy to take the Congresswoman through the beautiful spaces, explain how the building was designed with input from Indigenous students and other students of color who envisioned a building that would make them feel welcome. We toured the First Foods Classroom and saw Hailey Maria Salazar’s Indigenous Nations Studies history of corn course, called Teosinte to Today, in action.
The Vernier Science Center is just one example of how PSU is working to not only make STEM courses more accessible to students from Native backgrounds, but also how we are working to integrate Indigenous Traditional Ecological & Cultural Knowledge, or ITECK, in new ways across our campus and throughout our curriculum. I hope you had the chance to read the Portland State Magazine feature, “Planting the Seeds,” which documents this effort.
Also this week, the Portland City Council passed a resolution to rename a street on our campus, including the block that is home to our Native American Student and Community Center (NASCC), from SW Jackson Street to SW Rose Hill Street.
This change is remarkable both for the name it erases — former U.S. President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 that resulted in mass displacement of Native Americans — and the name it celebrates. Rose Hill is a cultural heroine within the Native community in Portland. After campaigning for years to develop NASCC, she worked there as a beloved mentor for Indigenous students seeking support and guidance. It’s an honor to have a street on our campus named for this inspiring leader, healer and culture keeper. We’ll be celebrating the street renaming and her legacy at an event at NASCC on Nov. 21.
Last week, we spent an inspiring day planning for PSU’s future as a majority BIPOC institution. As we enter Native American Heritage Month it is my hope that we can look for opportunities to celebrate all the ways that the Native students, faculty and staff members contribute to that future — as well as PSU’s past and present.
PSU is committed to lifting up our Native American community, ensuring the success of Indigenous students, and celebrating the many contributions of Oregon’s Native peoples to PSU, to Oregon and to the world.