President’s letter

On my first day, I rode my bike to work and I couldn’t stop grinning. I was finally here, and I couldn’t be happier.

Now is an exciting time to be at Portland State University. We are welcoming 27,000 students to campus this fall, more than any other university in Oregon. We have more than 120,000 alumni living around the world. In 2008, our faculty attracted a record $50 million in external research funding and authored scores of books and journal articles. And that’s just the beginning.

We are growing not just bigger, but better, and we’re being recognized for it. U.S. News and World Report just released its “America’s Best Colleges 2009” and ranked PSU seventh among “Up-and-Coming” universities everyone should be watching.

Our motto–Let Knowledge Serve the City–is not just words on a bridge over Broadway. That statement describes everything the university does in the classroom, in the laboratory and in collaboration with students, faculty and staff. According to the same US News report, PSU is ranked among the nation’s best for offering outstanding programs that commonly lead to student success, such as our first-year experience, service learning and job internships. This is the seventh year in a row that PSU has been recognized, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. That level of “engagement” is why students like you continue to select PSU more than any other Oregon university.

I look forward to developing PSU’s already outstanding research, services, athletics and academic programs. I look forward to watching our Vikings once again become Big Sky champions. I look forward to meeting you and experiencing all that PSU and the city of Portland has to offer. And just like on that first day biking to work, I look forward to the ride.

See you around campus,

Wim Wiewel President, Portland State University