Greetings Toulan School friends,
As we bid farewell to 2024, we can look back on a year of challenge and transition, but also accomplishment and renewal.
We spent the Fall term wrestling with the fundamental challenge of PSU’s financial sustainability. Years of declining enrollment have left our great institution in a precarious place of structural budget deficits, which limit our ability to invest resources in ways that align with our strategic goals. As part of the $18 million campuswide strategy for tackling this deficit, CUPA was asked to find $1.5 million in savings, a figure equivalent to almost 10% of the college’s annual budget. Working with our new Dean Jeremy Youde, I and my colleagues in other CUPA departments engaged our faculty and staff to outline our priorities and make hard decisions to tighten our course offerings, put underperforming programs on moratorium, give up vacant positions - or even worse, to lay off current faculty and staff. Thankfully no Toulan School faculty or staff were laid off, but we have been asked to wait on long-term reinvestment for the faculty and staff departures that we experienced earlier in 2024. CUPA, and PSU as a whole, are going to look different next year. As difficult as this process has been, I remain optimistic that we will come through it in a better place - not just financially, but more mission-focused academically.
But it hasn’t all been bad news this year! In Fall term we launched our revised undergraduate major in Community, Urban Studies and Planning (CUSP), designed to better reflect the breadth of student interests and professional pathways in urban fields. I'm thrilled to say that our CUSP major, under the leadership of Senior Instructor Norene Hough, is taking off - growing to 50 enrolled majors in just one term! Additionally, we received approval for a new Bachelor's+Master's program linking the CUSP major and the MURP program, which will allow students to expedite the process and save money on their way to a professional planning degree.
And speaking of the MURP program, we celebrated the program's 50th year by welcoming a record cohort of 49 students! Meanwhile, our 2024 MURP graduates produced another batch of impactful Planning Workshop projects, including one examining office-to-residential conversions in the Lloyd District that won an award from Oregon APA.
Finally, this year brought renewal to the Institute for Portland Metropolitan Studies (IMS) in the form of its new Director, Tyler Frisbee. Tyler will be leading IMS into its next chapter, one that promises renewed energy and regional visibility for PSU and CUPA through the arrival of retiring U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer in January.
The end of the year is a time when many of you make charitable contributions. Please leave a gift under the Toulan School tree! Or even better: give to one of our many impactful funds. Your support always matters, but especially at a time like now.
I wish you a peaceful end to the year and hope to see you in the New Year.
Sincerely,
Greg Schrock, PhD
Associate Professor and School Director