Portland State University (PSU) faculty, students, and staff integrate sustainability into teaching, research, and campus projects, many of which are conducted in collaboration with business, community, and public entities. The James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation challenge grant of $25 million, awarded to Portland State University in September 2008, was the largest gift in the history of Portland State University and perhaps the largest single gift to sustainability in U.S. higher education history. Over the next decade and beyond, this gift when matched, becomes a $50 million investment in Portland State and will catapult the University towards achieving our goal of becoming a regional, national and international leader in urban sustainability.
Portland State University is a public university located right in the heart of Portland, Oregon, which is a modest-sized city on the West Coast of the United States, three hours by car south of Seattle and ten hours north of San Francisco. Portland State University offers more than 120 bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs across a diverse range of disciplines. Our current enrollment is nearly 28,000 students. We are a relatively young institution.
Founded in 1946, Portland State University has evolved over time in ways that have both reflected and directed our community. The Portland metropolitan region, which today has a population of 2.2 million, has earned a reputation for smart urban planning and land-use policies. It’s a place that has made conscious decisions to limit the expansion of its urban area, and to instead encourage greater density of development. It’s a place that has opted for parks and mass transit rather than parking lots and freeways.
Those choices are the result of partnerships between the city and the university, which has a strong and influential urban planning program and a mission to serve the needs of the region. Since 2001, Portland State University also has made systematic efforts to integrate sustainability principles into its operations, campus planning, and its academic and research programs. At PSU, sustainability is not confined to a single department or discipline. Every student has an opportunity to graduate with a thorough understanding of the complex and interconnected issues underpinning sustainability. Faculty work across traditional boundaries to bring multiple perspectives to real-world problems. The Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices serves as a hub for work in this area.
We approach sustainability from a “triple bottom line” perspective, balancing economic outcomes with environmental implications, and at the same time integrating issues of social equity. Of primary importance is supporting and expanding relevant work already underway at PSU, while addressing high-priority regional issues. This approach will allow PSU to solidify its regional leadership position, while establishing a foundation for a stronger national and international presence around sustainability.
The 10 year Miller Foundation investment, which requires a 1:1 annual match of $2.5 million, focuses on three primary areas:
1. Enhancing the student experience in the study of sustainability through strengthening and expanding curricular offerings, supporting student success through student support and connections with the community, and providing financial support to students as they pursue the study of their major. During 2009-2010 investments in support for students and development of their leadership capacity included funding for student projects, expanded staffing, enhancement of internships and career advising, sustainability travel awards, and fellowships for both undergraduate and graduate students.
2. Expanding faculty excellence in teaching and research by providing support for curricular development and the development of research with an emphasis on multidisciplinary activities. The initial rounds of competition for Miller-funded opportunities, sponsored by the Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices, exposed a broad and deep set of sustainability ideas, efforts, and initiatives at PSU—a natural consequence of the broad and encompassing topic of sustainability. Through these efforts, the University has taken important steps to build a solid foundation for sustainability throughout the curriculum, and has also begun to build out cross-disciplinary partnerships and research agenda.
The next step is to move from this broad-based approach to a deeper integration of sustainability scholarship at PSU around identified nodes of excellence. This transition will enable PSU to establish greater capacity and competitive advantage regionally and globally; no university can attain a leadership position in more than a fraction of the many facets that comprise sustainability. The core areas that, broadly defined, illustrate emerging nodes of sustainability scholarship, research, and partnerships at Portland State are: Urban and civic ecology; Sustainable urban infrastructure; Green building; and Green business practices.
3. Enhancing excellence in community engagement by supporting and expanding PSU’s ability to convene the community around important issues in sustainability and to engage nationally and internationally on challenges of global significance. Portland State’s partnerships with private and public sector organizations in the region have continued to deepen and expand in the past year. As our sustainability programs have gained increasingly recognition, a growing number of entities have reached out to work with us on key issues. The Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices is playing a lead role in facilitating and nurturing many of these partnerships. Portland State is working closely with the City of Portland on developing a framework for “EcoDISTRICTS” and the Oregon Sustainability Center, using the Portland State campus as a pilot project as well as engaging in the planning and development of other sites. The University also provides opportunities for PSU faculty, staff and students to engage with the broader community through activities such as conferences, symposiums and guest speaker series.
At Portland State, our sustainability vision is “to be an internationally recognized university known for excellence in student learning, innovative research, and community engagement that simultaneously advance economic vitality, environmental health, and quality of life.”
Several guiding “mandates” have been identified to prioritize investments for PSU over the next three to five years.
Portland State as “university of choice” for sustainability education and research.
PSU students are known for “sustainability literacy”.
PSU students are leaders in developing and implementing sustainable practices.
Portland State recognized nationally and globally as top-tier university around Sustainable Urban Communities.
Portland State linked with region through living laboratories of sustainable practices.
Over the past two years 14 student projects were funded; 5 students got domestic sustainability internships; 4 students got international internships; 11 undergraduate students got scholarships; 38 traveling awards were made to undergraduate and graduate students and 60 Graduate assistants were funded through Miller.
During 2008-2010, sustainability was formally adopted as a campus-wide learning outcome. In addition, sustainability offerings across campus were inventoried and opportunities to better integrate sustainability into University Studies (PSU’s general education program) were assessed. During 2008-2010, 42 faculty projects were funded which are expected to have significant outcomes in all the areas identified as nodes of excellence.
A number of investments in 2009-2010 significantly strengthened PSU’s collaborative research activities. These investments included three new faculty with strong interdisciplinary backgrounds, three post-doctoral fellows, support for Faculty Fellows leading collaborative interdisciplinary efforts, and the engagement of two distinguished visiting scholars.
Trans disciplinary research on real world problems related to urban sustainability using campus, the city and the region as a living laboratory and identifications of the nodes of excellence.
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