A Vision for the 21st Century

Daniel O. Bernstine, President

A large sky-bridge sign greets visitors to our campus and announces our motto: "Let Knowledge Serve the City." It signals that Portland State University is an integral part of the community, and that the creation, transmission, and application of knowledge is central to what we do. This interplay of knowledge and community guides our work in the state, the nation, and around the globe.

Great City, Great University

Our motto reflects an important part of my vision for Portland State--a university so thoroughly engaged with its community that people throughout the region refer to it as "our university." Former Portland mayor Vera Katz and I believed that a "great city and a great university" go hand in hand. The University has coined the term, "Metropolitan Collaborative Model," to describe our efforts to build this greatness together through alliances with educational, cultural, civic, social, business, and high tech partners. Using this model to guide us, I envision a future physical and intellectual landscape that encourages the free flow of talents and resources between the University and the community.

In planning the physical landscape of our future, we are taking cues from today's successes. Our new Urban Center and Plaza, the first university building completed in the 21st century, provides a gateway between the city and the University. The new complex has roots in the 1996 agreement entitled "A Metropolitan Compact: Portland and Its Urban University." With state-of-the-art distance learning classrooms and public transportation traversing its public plaza, the Center is a model for future facilities in our campus plan.

Innovative Academic Programs

The future intellectual landscape that I imagine also builds on partnerships and innovations already begun. Academic program design will reflect the changing world and new fields of knowledge. It will benefit from the lessons we have learned in our interdisciplinary and interinstitutional graduate programs and research activities, nationally-recognized University Studies program, integrated community-based learning opportunities and traditional disciplinary programs of distinction.

The Importance of Diversity

One of the characteristics of our great university of the future is the quality of the faculty, staff and students who inhabit it. Faculty for the 21st century will represent the diversity of our world and engage students in innovative teaching and learning, the creation of new research agendas and products, and the development of mutually beneficial partnerships. It will be a place that opens its doors to an increasing number and diversity of students while continuing to ensure that each of them has an educational experience that prepares them to fulfill their aspirations throughout a life-time of learning. This institution of the future is accountable and able to demonstrate student learning outcomes through student portfolios and assessment practices.

An element that continues to characterize this University is its willingness to take risks and provide opportunities for faculty and students to be creative and experimental. This spirit, in partnership with external support, will enable us to achieve our vision of a great university for the 21st century--a fusion of the best of academic tradition and intellectual innovation.