Higher Education Industry

Portland Public Schools, in collaboration with the Portland Schools Foundation and the alternative educational options are sponsoring a Come Back Fair.

The Come Back Fair is an opportunity for youth that are no longer in school to get back on track and find an educational program that fits their needs.

An important economic impact for Portland and Oregon, will result from the capital funding allocation for the Oregon University System. The $561 million capital budget  including the $60 million allocated to reduce the system's $640 million deferred maintenance backlog will help meet critical repair needs, and modernize classrooms and laboratories.

The efforts that will take place on campuses across Oregon will also create more than 11,800 construction jobs over the next several years. The projects will provide a $1.25 billion economic output of goods and services through the projects, and provide almost $400 million in increased earning for Oregonians.PCAT Building in the Background on PSU Campus

With Sam's advocacy, this is the first year the City of Portland has added higher education to its Legislative Package. Several of the higher ed priorities have been successful; including increased funding for the Oregon Student Opportunity Grants, and establishing Aspire as an officially recognized State Program. Both of these programs are run out of the Oregon Student Assistance Commission.

Aspire is a highly successful mentoring program, training and coordinating volunteers to help high school students be successful getting Aspire Mentoring Programinto college and applying for scholarships and financial assistance. Beyond being recognized as an official state program, Aspire has been allocated $700,000. These funds will allow Aspire programs to expand from the current 83 high schools in Oregon, to 115 schools next year. $300,000 of the allocation will serve as match, for school districts and high schools to develop their new programs.

Thank Goodness, and THANK YOU Governor Kulongoski and State Legislators.

The Oregon University System (OUS) received a 23% increase in a combination of operating and capital projects funding from the State Legislature and Governor Kulongoski. The General Fund budget for the OUS system for 2007-09 is $870.4 million. As OUS Chancellor George Pernsteiner stated, "This budget signals a major commitment by the legislature to meet ...the ten-year reinvestment plan to improve student access and affordability, high quality learning, innovative research and programs directed at economic development, workforce shortages, and other state priorities for Oregon."

As the President of the Local Elected Officials on the Workforce Investment Board and the Higher Education Liaison for the City of Portland, Sam has been advocating for more state funding during this legislative session.

Unfortunately, the federal trends are worst. Since 2003, federal allocations for our region have gone from $25 million to an anticipated $15 million for 2007.

"Never before has the academic mission of colleges and universities-to generate and impart knowledge-been so fundamentally tied to regional economic success."
Greater Philadelphia's Knowledge Industry Plan

Oregon's and Portland's economy depends on our ability to meet the knowledge and workforce needs required to strengthen, attract and keep businesses that will provide family wage jobs.

Thomas Friedman has written an interesting column about the education goals necessary for the global economy that exists today. Competence, skill and creativity will be crucial for thriving in an economy that can scan the globe to find the least expensive resources and labor. A continuing committment to learning and changing will serve us well as individuals and as a community.

The New York Times

In early November, Sam met, in his capacity as Council's liaison for Higher Education, with representatives from more than fourteen Portland public and private higher education institutions to discuss their legislative priorities for the upcoming state legislative and national congressional sessions.

Those present represented a range of perspectives on budgetary, legislative, and student assistance concerns. State funded institutions, including those represented by the Oregon University System and Oregon Association of Community Colleges, are concerned about operating budgets, capital expenditures, and student assistance resources. Private non-profit institutions do not receive public operating support, but share a desire for increases in student grants and loan assistance. The for-profit institutions asked for support lobbying for students to qualify for student assistance dollars.

 There is a new program in town, at Portland Community College. 

Halton CAT, of Portland, is one of  six regional Caterpillar dealerships stretching the region from Montana, to Eugene, and up to Alaska who are partnering with PCC to provide a Caterpillar Dealer Service Technician Program.

PSUPDOT

Who do you talk to when you have questions about speed limits, speed humps or parking policies? Why do density and design matter when you're trying to cut traffic? How can you best go about making sure public transportation projects meet the needs of all users as effectively as possible? Who can help me get a good project considered and funded? Who's paying for transportation projects and who's benefiting?

Portland has gained a national reputation for bicycle-friendliness and it attracting interest across the country.  The latest sign of this interest is the Bicycle and Pedestrian Institute at Portland State University.

 Read about this and other developments in Portland bicyling in the Daily Journal of Commerce article below.

 Road to Success

 A proposed Bicycle and Pedestrian Institute at Portland State University would educate the next generation of transportation design cities less focused on cars. Biking and walking provide healthy, low-cost
and pollution-free alternatives to commuting in cities crowded by motor vehicles. The problem is that most American cities are still being designed
for cars in ways that are unsafe or inconvenient for cyclists and pedestrians.  "The suburbs are just hell for cyclists," with streets that dont connect, six-lane thoroughfares and gated communities, said PM. Summer, transportation alternatives coordinator for the city of Dallas, Texas.

PSU is a real-world university; it really reflects Portland and truly serves the city.  I’m a good example.  My background:
I lived on my own in high school, and paid my own way through my first round of college.  I quit college when I got a job with now Congressman Peter DeFazio.  I was 38 when I started at back at PSU.  I went back to college because I do not like to leave stuff undone.
I also went back to college because PSU made it possible for me to hustle up here from City Hall during the day and after work…
Attending classes for two years at PSU allowed me to finish my degree at the U of O  – but I will always be a Viking at heart.

PSU doesn’t have to wow people with statistics on diversity… just walk around the campus.
Nearly everybody is represented. 
And because everyone is expected to be here,
   everyone is pretty well accepted as belonging here.

According to a Fall 05’ survey on perceptions of PSU, that dedication to diversity is one of the qualities students, faculty, and staff identify as something that sets PSU apart from other institutions.

I am grateful for PSU's mission:  "Let Knowledge Serve the City".

The educational opportunities you provide and the academic excellence, including research, that you perform are often where the conversation concludes about how universities serve. But at PSU, another large category of impact exists: public and community service and engagement.

Currently, our economic development plans do not set attainable, measurable goals. Our cities and counties are pulled in different directions and, as a result, we get muddled outcomes. Meanwhile, our cost of living is increasing; our median family income is declining. The economic challenges facing our region are not unique but our lack of urgency to deal with them is unique!

I also think we need to turn PSU’s motto around and
Let the City Serve Knowledge.
I have a responsibility to serve you as a City Commissioner.

I asked Mayor Tom Potter to create the position of Higher Education Advocate and I asked to be appointed to the job.   He did and I am. 
So, I am responsible to help PSU serve Knowledge to the city through its teaching, research, and civic engagement.  I bring passion and ideas to this new role:
I plan to launch a Knowledge City Strategy:

1. “Knowledge Cities” are characterized by a significant investment of community resources in research, education and training.  (We clearly have to work on this. Sunday, Feb. 12th’s Oregonian article on "Two States, Two Directions" pointed out the dismal Oregon Higher Ed spending level of $613 million, compared to Washington’s $1.53 Billion.) And our current K-12 funding crisis reflects our long standing battles over school funding.

2. Knowledge Cities engage in knowledge-driven community development: development that provides both direct and indirect benefits to individuals, communities and institutions.

3.  Knowledge cities rely on a critical skill base in the business and legal sectors;

4. And in research excellence in social and life sciences, as well as technology;

5. They build, and build on an entrepreneurial culture linked to local and global expertise and enterprise;

6. They depend on efficient and accessible infrastructure to facilitate the flow of people, goods and information.

Please click here for the entire text of Sam's speech to the Ferdinand Faculty Club.

Who: University of Portland

When: September 27, 2005

The University of Portland is a Catholic college that is ranked among the Top 10 regional universities in the west.  It boasts a faculty-student ratio of just 13:1 and academic offerings that include over 1,100 courses, 60 undergraduate programs of study, and 12 graduate programs.  Education is a major player in today's economy, and the University of Portland is a great asset to the city not only for the educational services it provides Portlanders and the dollars it attracts to the city, but also its sensitivity to the Portland community and emphasis on charity and community service. UP is a great neighbor in a host of ways and Sam appreciates the institution greatly.