Institutional Portfolio

The PSU Portfolio provides a unique venue for refining our vision of a great university. By explicitly describing what Portland State University has achieved, and what it aspires to achieve, we may better understand what it means to be a great university, in a great city. The portfolio is your tour guide, and ours, to give substance and context to rich environment with many living parts.

PSU adopts powerful collaborative vision

PSU has adopted the motto "Great City, Great University" as an inspirational title for its pursuit of collaborative relationships with other institutions of higher education in the region, and with exceptional private partners in science and technology, such as electronics and engineering, as well as public domains like urban planning, public administration, health research, and a wide variety of other areas. We believe, and we encourage our partners to believe, that practical community relationships ensure an effective use of knowledge beneficial to all.

Institutional expansion through a collaborative model reaches a network of partners in Portland, the Pacific Northwest, and increasingly the world. This is PSU's revolutionary goal for the 21st century.

Local settings offer global perspectives

A two-year series of faculty roundtables and public forums opened the Great City, Great University initiative. Following a strategic plan, PSU offers community service, and in turn, takes advantage of the unlimited, interdisciplinary learning opportunities in the real-world settings of a major metropolitan area.

A local orientation in community-based learning produces immediate results that often correspond to broader views and more distant applications. For both students and faculty, engagement in practical community settings provides crucial experience for dealing with urban and regional concerns around the world. Organizational issues in Portland and its regional environment provide a ready basis for global perspectives. More directly, many faculty projects are being undertaken with international partners.

Faculty leads institutional development

Faculty members are leading this charge to increase civic capacity within the university and in society. Institutional development is viewed as scholarly work, expressed in the activities of the Council of Academic Deans, the Graduate Council, the Budget Committee, the University Planning Committee, the Curriculum Committee, the Internationalization Working Group, the president's three action councils on diversity, assessment, and advising; and in many specific projects within the schools, colleges, and library.

The university is already an important voice in the pursuit of excellence in the arts and science, and in ethical and civic life. By an ancient pledge, knowledge supports the essential virtues of civilization. The university has posed itself the challenge to expand this voice by promoting further, particular relationships with a variety of civic partners.

University supports diverse student achievements

Administration, faculty, and student leaders at PSU are presently discussing ways to attract, support, and retain high-achieving students from diverse communities. The university aims to assist the development of individual talents in many different directions, and at many different levels. Community partnerships are viewed as a critical means to achieve this goal with maximum flexibility.

The university encourages personal commitment to lifelong learning in its mixture of academic programs and practical applications of knowledge. Currently, the university is taking a more purposeful approach to shape the overall profile of the student body, in order to support lifelong learning. The university encourages diversity, and continually strives toward a fruitful balance of undergraduate and graduate opportunities.