Barbara Roberts to speak at commencement

Former governor of Oregon Barbara Roberts is scheduled to be the keynote speaker for the expected 2,000 graduating students and their friends and family attending this year’s spring commencement ceremony.

Roberts said that she feels a very strong connection to Portland State. She currently works with the Hatfield School of Government as the associate director of leadership development, and she attended PSU from 1961-1964.

“I feel quite honored to speak at this year’s commencement,” Roberts said. “I’ve always felt like part of the Portland State community and I look forward to celebrating the advancement of this year’s graduates.”

Roberts was Oregon’s first female governor, serving from 1991-1995. She was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1981 and during her second term became Oregon’s first female house majority leader. She was elected secretary of state in 1984.

Roberts said that her true passion has always been education and that she has focused most of her career on benefiting students of both primary and higher education. She served on the Parkrose School Board and later on Mt. Hood Community College’s board, and the Barbara Roberts High School in Beaverton is named in her honor.

“I’ve always been dedicated to helping young minds grow,” Roberts said.

Roberts continues to dedicate her time to education at PSU. She worked to establish the Urban Pioneer Awards Dinner, an event held to honor urban studies students that get involved in their communities. Roberts is also active with the National Education for Women’s Leadership Program Oregon, and Portland’s Walk of the Heroines, a memorial for women of leadership in Oregon history.

Roberts’ late husband, Frank Roberts, a former senator in Oregon, served as a professor in PSU’s speech department for 37 years. Frank Roberts began his tenure at the Vanport Extension Center, the foundation of modern-day Portland State, and he continued to teach until his retirement in 1982. PSU offers a regular scholarship in his honor, called the Frank L. Roberts Community Service Scholarship.

Roberts recently dedicated much of her personal paperwork from her political career to an archive at the Millar Library. She said that she feels her work can serve as inspiration and a case study for women students who are interested in a political career. The archive includes speech tapes, press releases, letters to the public and records of her work with the Oregon Legislature.

“I basically sent the library all of the artifacts from my public life,” Roberts said.

Roberts published a book called Death Without Denial, Grief Without Apology following her husband’s passing due to prostate cancer. Roberts said that she wrote the book as a way to examine her past and find inspiration to continue working with students. She also said self-examination is an important quality for students to have as they finish college.

Graduating student Lindsay Swan, a communications and arts and letters major, said that she is excited to see Roberts at the commencement ceremony. Swan is the president of the Greek Life Counsel at PSU and says that she believes Roberts is an inspiration for women of leadership, particularly at PSU.

“I think that Roberts is a great example of PSU’s diversity,” Swan said. “I’m thrilled to hear her speak.”

Swan is applying to deliver a speech on behalf of this year’s graduates. She said that she will know within a few weeks if the commencement board will approve or reject her application to speak during the ceremony.

The ceremony will be held at the Rose Garden Arena in northeast Portland, beginning at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 16.

The commencement board expects 2,000 graduating students and about 300 faculty members to attend the event. Students are asked to arrive at the Rose Garden by 8:45 a.m. to assemble on the stage and guests will be allowed in at 9:00 a.m. The commencement is expected to last until 1:00 p.m.