• Summary of faculty accomplishments

Many of these examples also have institutional and public impact. For example, faculty in Urban Studies have played key roles in local transportation planning; members of the Regional Research Institute contribute to significant social welfare research; faculty in Education make key contributions to special education and K-12 administrator education; faculty from a number of disciplines across the University are key to Portland State's sustainability initiative reflecting interests in environmental science, community health, community development and other disciplines; and faculty in the Mark O. Hatfield School of Government play significant roles in various governmental, public, nonprofit, environmental and health policy initiatives. In some of these cases, faculty have obtained significant external funding to support these efforts; in other cases, the nature of "public" scholarship supports faculty to contribute to institutional and public activities as part of their regular work.

As well, many faculty are very involved in public and community service, both as part of their teaching and scholarly work as well as in "pure" service roles. The Portland State motto "Let Knowledge Serve the City" is evident across almost all sectors of the University. Surveys of recent faculty hires indicate that faculty are making a conscious choice to join an institution with a reputation for working with community. In 1999, a civic engagement award was established to highlight relevant work; these annual awards attest to the range of activities, and provide a good snapshot of the kinds of activities that link faculty and community.

• 2005 Civic Award Recipients

Since the last accreditation review, Portland State has made strides in the allocation of financial, physical, and administrative and information resources for scholarship, research and artistic creation. The Collective Bargaining Agreement with the AAUP defines three funds for faculty development. These funds are allocated by the Faculty Development Committee, which is appointed by the Faculty Senate. Faculty Enhancement Awards are used to support the development and enhancement in a broad range of scholarly activities. Funding for these awards totals $240,000/year. Faculty Professional Travel Awards are also allocated by the Faculty Development Committee to assist faculty in presenting their scholarly work. Funding for these awards totals $75,000/year. Finally, the Institutional Career Support/Peer Review fund is targeted to post-tenure faculty with a total funding of $45,000/year. A number of additional faculty development opportunities exist beyond those specified in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. In 2004-2005, these total an additional $158,000.

• Faculty Development Funding Awards

The Office of Research and Sponsored Projects also offers a variety of supports to faculty in their scholarly pursuits. Many of these supports are geared towards assisting faculty with the funds needed to perform their scholarly work. Pre-award support is available to faculty including assistance in locating suitable funding sources, preparing proposals and budgets, negotiating the proposal submission process, and locating such needed resources as appropriate space, equipment, matching funds and support for graduate research assistants. In addition, the office provides the logistical support for the Faculty Development Committee mentioned above.

Beyond such monetary supports, the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects also provides a variety of workshop opportunities for faculty to become better acquainted with the proposal and funding process. In addition, the office serves as the University's technology transfer arm, providing support for those faculty members who have invention disclosures, patentable or copyrightable materials, and ideas that may be suitable for commercial development. The University recently received a sizable NSF award ($300K) under the Partnerships for Innovation Program to provide what Portland State describes as the "Lab to Market" program, which is designed to assist faculty in exploring the commercialization process as yet another route for disseminating the knowledge products of their scholarly work and achieving some potential support for their ongoing scholarship.

Through the process of securing external funding, faculty members also secure resources that are used to fulfill some of their other missions, including the support of students and the provision of learning opportunities for students in actual research settings. Moreover, many of the research projects undertaken at Portland State involve either a research/demonstration component or the direct provision of research findings and service for local entities. As a result, such activity is an important component of the service functions performed by faculty and often serves to promote and preserve the collaborative relationships between faculty and segments of the community.

There is an additional resource for faculty research that started in 2003 called "Investing in Research." ORSP has offered two rounds of funding for interdisciplinary or group activity. Portland State total research expenditures have doubled since our last accreditation visit from just over $15 million to levels for 2003-2004 of $32.5 million.

• Research expenditures

Institutional policies regarding research activity and sponsored research by faculty address ethical considerations, and grants and contracts are consistent with the institution's mission and goals. The definition of scholarship in the Promotion and Tenure Guidelines specifically includes ethical behavior:

"Scholars should conduct their work with honest, integrity and objectivity. They should foster a respectful relationship with students, community participants, peers, and others who will participate in or benefit from their work. Faculty standards for academic integrity represent a code of ethical behavior. For example, ethical behavior includes following the human subject review process in conducting research projects and properly crediting sources of information in writing reports and books." (Policies and Procedures for the Evaluation of Faculty for Tenure, Promotion and Merit Increases Section II. Scholarship D.6.)

Research policies, and human research approval processes are clearly articulated, including policies regarding human subjects, animal care and specific ethical policies on scientific and scholarly misconduct. The Graduate Council advises and works with the Vice Provost for Research and Sponsored Programs to develop policies and programs for support of faculty research, scholarly and creative activities.

• Policy on Indirect Costs
• Research compliance

Policies also generally address ethical behavior in student research and scholarship. There are a number of student research awards that encourage undergraduate and graduate student work.

• Student conduct code section 577-031-0136

As a campus where faculty are represented by AAUP, the principles of academic freedom are firmly upheld by Portland State. Faculty have a high degree of independence and flexibility in the definition of the scope of their work in pursuit of scholarly, research and artistic creation. Controls are in place to ensure ethics and lack of conflict among units, and there has been no indication that these are perceived as restricting the creativity or academic freedom of faculty.

The faculty plays a major role in developing and monitoring policies and practices regarding scholarship, artistic creation and research. During the last major revision of the promotion and tenure criteria, the review process was directed by a Faculty Senate committee that had full responsibility for the review of existing procedures, facilitation of public discussion of new directions, research on other models, and development and discussion of new policies. While the Faculty Senate approves new policies, the AAUP and University also have a role, with the University President retaining jurisdiction over initiation of further review of these policies.

Some new physical facilities that support research have been added with the addition of new resources such as the Urban Center; however, as described elsewhere many parts of the University's physical plant are aging and need upgrading. Administrative and information resources have been augmented as new investments have been made in cross-campus information technologies, increasing use of the web for access to research policies and documents, and enhanced administrative support within the Research Office. However, upgrading of faculty equipment and space, unless supported by external grant monies, is perceived to generally be a low priority (as compared to student services or curricular support systems) and deferred maintenance dollars is a chronic systematic issue in the entire Oregon University System. The Governor's budget for 2005-2007 does include money for deferred maintenance but need continues to be so significant (and growing) that no long-term solution is in sight.

Conclusions

The critical and recurring theme throughout this standard and others is the issue of growth. Formal and informal faculty conversations - ranging from symposia, University-wide town hall meetings, and committees to departmental, unit, school and college meetings - all reflect concerns of the intended and unintended results of growth. With a funding model that rewards ever-increasing student credit hour production, many units are reliant on these additional dollars to address their base level of course offerings. This is clearly an unsustainable model that has major repercussions for faculty, as units need to provide ways to address their growing student populations and increasingly turn to adjunct or fixed term faculty. This provides a central conflict for faculty who are committed to the institution but feel increasingly over-taxed in the current environment.

Policies and procedures that address issues of faculty academic life at Portland State are well articulated. Policies that are administered at the University level are consistent. However, as Portland State has grown and changed, some faculty have felt that they did not receive clear communication from University leaders regarding how guidelines were to be interpreted and applied. The result has been a level of anxiety regarding tenure decisions that is likely not proportional to faculty achievements. With a transition in institutional leadership, faculty are anxious to hear how the new leaders will articulate their interpretations of these policies.

The increasing emphasis on research and acquisition of external funding is perceived in some parts of the University to create conflicting expectations regarding the importance of various activities. In particular, in some units faculty are eager to invest a greater majority of their energy into research, yet the budget model requires their commitment to teaching in order to generate student credit hours which are the basis for budget allocations. Another area of conflict is the lack of clarity between engaging in research that may be of high public relevance but not heavily funded, versus seeking external funds that also generate support of overhead yet may focus on more esoteric and academic topics.

Salary compression is a critical issue for the institution. There have been few, relatively small salary increases in the past ten years, and this, combined with periods of a system-wide freeze on salary increases, has exacerbated the issue of compression. The union contract negotiations have addressed these issues where possible. Recent contracts have provided significant increases for rank and tenure status but in some ways these have added to the problem for faculty who are not newly tenured or promoted.

There has been a small growth in the tenure-related faculty, but this has not kept pace with increasing enrollment. Faculty positions basically follow historical allocations and therefore do not reflect growth in specific areas. As a result, there is a significant imbalance in tenure-related faculty to student ratios across the institution. Increasing the tenure-related faculty is a goal of the institution. Traditional sources will likely be inadequate to address this, requiring the University to explore other ways to bring in more faculty. Likely options will include more positions partially funded with external dollars, and joint hires with other Oregon system institutions such as community colleges. Each of these provides interesting possibilities and will require new ways of thinking about the faculty.

There are also unique opportunities for the institution in our urban setting. Professional schools are able to hire well-qualified adjunct faculty who are especially well suited to help students make bridges to their professions. Area industries have provided faculty, at no charge in some cases such as in engineering, to meet accreditation ratios for student to faculty. Opportunities for joint hires with cultural institutions and industry are also more likely in our urban setting and we have several examples of these successes, such as in Urban and Public Affairs and in Fine and Performing Arts. The city itself, with a strong reputation for quality of life, is a draw. Recent attention in publications such as Richard Florida's "Rise of the Creative Class" identify Portland as a city that has the unique characteristics most desirable to the creative class, defined as the economic class of workers who produce knowledge. He includes educators in his definition. Increasingly the community focus of the institution is a reason for faculty coming to Portland State.

Portland State has been discussing critical issues for the future of the institution. A recently crafted vision and values statement articulates priorities including a priority to attract and retain a faculty of distinction. Portland State's identity as an urban institution, known for its ties to the community through faculty scholarship and community connections, is particularly strong and embraced campus-wide. As an institution committed to education, faculty connect research and community work to their classrooms. Faculty research agendas are varied and again reflect the spectrum of interests in traditional scholarship, the scholarship of engagement, and the scholarship of teaching.