Convocation 2023: Unity in Purpose - President's Remarks
Welcome to the 2023-24 Academic Year!
I have been waiting for this moment for a long time.
When my husband and I drove out to Portland this summer — on our own, personal Oregon Trail — it was the realization of a dream we’d held since early in our marriage: To live in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by these mountains, these people, this energy. There were many things about the ethos of this place that attracted us.
So you can imagine that when I saw the position advertised to become Portland State’s 11th president, I jumped at the opportunity.
Here was a university that not only was right in the middle of the Pacific Northwest, but prioritized all the values that made me want to get into university leadership in the first place:
Educational opportunity, Community-engaged research, teaching and learning, Social mobility for our students, And that motto: Let Knowledge Serve the City.
Of course I knew that PSU faced challenges. Many are challenges that universities are facing across the country — declining enrollment, student mental health, strained resources — while some challenges are special and unique to this place.
But from where I sat, back in Pittsburgh, I saw a tremendous opportunity. Then I came out for a visit and I knew my hunch was right because I got to meet so many of you and got to witness the dedication that PSU has to its students, to its research, and to this city.
And so I bet my career on Portland State and on my desire to come here and help lead a renaissance. A renaissance of Oregon’s only urban research university and the city that surrounds it.
Look around us today. We are under these trees, all this greenery, birds, squirrels, these benches. The Park Blocks are the heart of this campus but they are also technically City of Portland property. It’s just one of many, many examples of how intertwined we are with this city.
During my first month on the job, I was tapped by Governor Tina Kotek to join the Portland Central City Task Force and I was thrilled to do it.
As the largest landowner in downtown Portland, As the city’s urban research partner, As one of the largest Central City employers, And as the educational home for the many thousands of students who come downtown, to this campus, to pursue their dreams…
It is vitally important that Portland State helps to lead the recovery of this city. It’s also just the right thing to do.
And it is yet another way that Portland State will continue to Let Knowledge Serve.
Our urban location is not an accident of history, and it is definitely not a liability. In many cases it is the reason that students come here. We are fulfilling their dreams, we are enabling them to chart a path to their future that includes: Internship opportunities with industry, nonprofits, and government; A thriving arts community in a city with a lot of cool events and — as I’ve been learning! — really good food; And a brilliant and committed community of faculty here to help them find their academic and career passions.
Our students come here because we are an urban university with all of the opportunity that affords. And of course: The Knowledge that Serves our City also Serves our Students.
Now, one of our challenges — perhaps one of the largest challenges — is that fewer students are choosing to come to Portland State. They are staying away or going elsewhere for a variety of reasons, many of the reasons completely beyond the control of any of us.
But there are some things that we can do — together — and that’s what I’d like to talk about today.
As you know our Convocation theme is Unity in Purpose and I could not be more excited to explore that idea with you as we embark on the new school year.
One way that I envision our unity manifesting is right here on our campus. A vibrant campus is at the heart of a thriving university.
The fact is that we still haven’t fully come back from the pandemic years. And I understand the flexibility of remote work is appealing. But we are Portland’s university and we owe it to our students to deliver on the promise of an energetic urban campus. I believe we can do that by addressing some of the barriers to campus life.
I am working on a Return to Campus initiative designed to provide a response to some of the concerns that I’ve heard.
An attractive campus is important and PSU will make an increased investment in trash clean up around campus to help enhance campus pride.
I will also host a campus beautification day later in the year, so that we can find some comradery and fun together as we care for our campus.
In addition, the Campus Public Safety Office will double the number of paid Student Safety Ambassadors on campus. These students are the eyes— perhaps more importantly — ears on campus streets to observe and collect feedback about campus safety concerns.
Hiring more Safety Ambassadors was one of the recommendations of the Reimagine Campus Safety Committee and one of many that we are looking to implement as soon as possible. I value the work of that committee and their focus on campus safety as a responsibility we share collectively.
We are also working to enhance our community’s safety by building awareness of potential threats and by empowering people to feel safer in a threatening situation.
Since I arrived on campus, I have met many dedicated people who are working every day to identify potential threats and to act in a thoughtful and compassionate way to address them.
PSU Cares is the place it starts. They are the first point of contact if you sense that someone in our community is suffering in a way that could lead them to pose a danger to themselves or others.
Again: safety is a shared responsibility. We are developing best practice-informed training that will empower all of us to take the steps necessary to act with compassion and to keep each other safe. Our safety teams are working together to assess our current offerings, update them, and make them available to you in the months ahead.
Beyond creating a safe campus environment is the barrier of actually getting to campus. I am pleased to announce that the Transportation and Parking Office is working with Trimet to further subsidize transit passes for students, with a focus on reducing costs for Pell-eligible students.
And, we are prioritizing in-person classes, especially for first and second year students for whom the campus experience is so important.
I am greatly looking forward to a fall term with hundreds of events on or near our campus — large and small, from cultural to sporty, from educational to entertaining — these events create community and expand our horizons.
The throughline for all of these elements — and for others to come in the future — is to energize our collective campus life in a way that makes us proud and excited to be here,that makes our students proud and excited to be here, and that encourages more campus visits from our downtown neighbors, prospective students, and the broader regional community.
On my first day of work as your president, there was a welcome reception in Montgomery Plaza. It was a beautiful, warm summer day and hundreds of you attended. I had planned to give some remarks but as it turned out I was mobbed by faculty, staff, and students who wanted to shake my hand and share what they are working on and what they are passionate about.
As I was shaking all the hands and meeting all of you, I kept seeing out of the corner of my eye small groups of people exchanging hugs and greeting each other. I could hear them saying things like: “I haven’t seen you in so long!” or “It’s so nice to see you in person for a change!”
It was such a joyful and inspiring afternoon, not because folks were meeting me for the first time, but you were connecting with each other.
That’s the kind of joy and inspiration we need more of!
If we’re going to be together with unity in purpose, if we’re going to chart a successful path into the future, we need that togetherness. You can’t truly have unity through a Zoom screen or a series of emails. The kinds of conversations that we need to have require us to be together.
That leads me to another of my initial priorities: strategic planning. This wonderful university deserves a clear and considered strategic plan to guide us as we make the necessary decisions to ensure our collective success in the future.
I look forward to doing this as a team — seeing our decision making not as zero-sum, but as positive-sum. A larger pie that feeds us all more completely.
I want to share something that I’ve noticed in my first few weeks on the job. Over and over again I’m meeting and hearing about people who are working really hard and doing what they believe needs to be done to make this university great. But they are choosing to work AROUND the system, because the system isn’t working — it’s not working for the institution, it’s not working for all of you, and it’s not working for our students.
Work-arounds have become endemic in this culture and the result is that there’s not enough collaboration across the university. And the result is that often work isn’t happening safely, securely or sustainably. What seems like the right thing results in unexpected costs and unexpected student impacts.
We begin this month on a comprehensive process to develop a data-driven, dynamic strategic plan that will clarify our vision, mission and values, while also shoring up and surfacing our priorities and systems so that we can all work together more effectively.
By the end of the academic year, we will have a clear set of strategic imperatives that will guide our short-term and long-term decisions and direction.
Look for more details about that process soon. I hope that all of you will participate in the strategic planning process in one way or another.
I also want to announce that we will be filling all vacant dean positions in the coming year or as soon as it is possible.
Today we received word that we can announce that Dr. Paul Halverson will be joining the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health as Dean on February 1st. We’ll be sharing more details on his appointment this week.
Dean searches are currently underway for the Library and the School of Business, with searches to follow for the College of Urban and Public Affairs, the School of Social Work, and the College of Education.
Each of these schools and colleges are unique and essential to PSU’s future and investing in new leadership will only strengthen our position as an institution.
Before I introduce you to PSU’s leadership team I want to return once again to our unity in purpose.
I truly believe we are a force for good in this city and in this region.
One of the facts I’ve learned recently is that more than HALF of the licensed social workers in the state have come through our programs.
And the diversity in this audience and even more so among our students means that these graduates — and all our graduates — are showing up with cultural competencies that this region so desperately needs.
In this regard, I am pleased to announce that PSU has been selected as an Asian-American Pacific Islander serving institution (or AANAPISI for short), and awarded a grant that will increase our students access to educational opportunities in Asian American and Pacific Islander studies and increase the belongingness of our AAPI students.
In addition, our research enterprise at this university is strong. Research awards and licensing revenue are at all-time highs and our graduate program enrollments are strong. In fact, we awarded 1,673 master's degrees last year — that was a new record.
Community-engaged research and research that addresses regional concerns — from next-generation smart grids to innovations to address housing insecurity — will continue to be a cornerstone of this institution.
But with students arriving on campus in the days to come, I want to ground us in the promise that we hold for our students — and the journey they will embark on at PSU to BELONG, BELIEVE and BECOME.
All of our students belong at Portland State. When we work to welcome them, when we work to be responsive to their needs. They will feel like they BELONG — and that is the first and crucial step to their success.
Next, we empower them to BELIEVE in themselves and what they can achieve here. Our students come to us with incredible assets but they often feel intimidated by the intellectual and social challenges of college. We, you, the faculty and staff — help them to see that they can overcome. And eventually they do — they believe in themselves and are able to see themselves as successful students.
Which is necessary for them to BECOME what they dream of becoming — embracing their future careers and civic life with confidence and compassion.
It’s a powerful trajectory for our students and for our region. And I thank you for all the work you do to make Portland State the place where that happens year after year.
Let’s make this a great year together.
Now I’d like to introduce you to our leadership team and I ask them to please stand:
You’ve already met our Interim Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs: Shelly Chabon.
Chuck Knepfle is our Vice President of Enrollment Management
Ame Lambert, Vice President Global Diversity and Inclusion
Rick Tankersly, Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies
Andria Johnson, Interim Vice President, Finance and Administration
Sheila Martin, Vice President of Public Affairs and Chief of Staff
Cindy Starke, General Counsel
Thank you to all of our leaders and thank you to all of you for your attendance and participation today and throughout this pivotal year.
I will now turn the podium back over to Interim Provost Shelly Chabon for the rest of the program.