It’s the biggest idea in the entire proposal: Make PSU one of the two focal points of a science center that would be the core of scientific research in Oregon. It’s an easy resolution to the longstanding idea to combine OHSU and PSU into a single private university.
Portland State’s developers love it because it gives more prominence to the university than it typically ever sees. Portland State, in this case, would be the big brother this time, while Oregon State and University of Oregon sit on the sidelines.
If it seems so good, why is it a bad idea? Because it overshadows the only valuable tenant of the Portland Higher Education Agenda for the 21st century: increasing access and affordability.
The scientific center would do some good for Portland State and other Oregon schools. Unfortunately, however, it is obvious that the committee who developed this proposal spent all of their time discussing the research hub, and almost no time making actual plans to increase affordability and accessibility to higher education.
The result? The only real plan to increase affordability is to develop a marketing campaign that will tell people they have access to grant programs such as the shared responsibility model.
Otherwise, the committee who developed the proposal, called the Portland Agenda, also hope to raise funds with foundations and the Portland business community to create scholarships. They want to push outreach programs that help young people know what opportunities higher education can provide.
It’s all so shortsighted. People don’t need to know that they can go to college, they must be given the money to do so. It shouldn’t be the goal of a committee like this to work as a marketing firm, advertising how to apply for scholarships or why college is valuable.
The committee must work to support the heart and soul of this university: the students who pay tuition and the faculty who teach here. There need to be better ideas than a marketing campaign in this proposal if this committee hopes to increase the affordability and accessibility of higher education.
The Portland Agenda aims to prioritize development in higher education until 2025. It’s obvious that the committee realizes accessibility and affordability are important. So what have they done? Made plans for a commercial campaign and the equivalent of a science-based theme park.
Whether it be a tuition freeze, giving state-sponsored scholarships to every student or granting faculty a raise each year that keeps their salaries above inflation rates, this committee needs to continue working on this proposal until it comes up with a plan that adds up to more than a sparse marketing campaign.