College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
November 2005 Volume 1, Number 3

In This Issue:    

Season's Greetings

Season's greetings from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). As we look back over the year's accomplishments, we are pleased to be able to say that we have made real strides, growing both in numbers of students and in the quality of faculty work. In the last five years, we have taught 41.5% more credit hours while doubling research expenditures from grants. On top of their teaching and research, CLAS faculty published 55 books and 276 articles.
We are poised to move to the next level. We are planning to develop more doctoral programs, to expand our research productivity, and to continue attracting top-notch faculty.
We are looking for new ways to "internationalize," that is, to expose students to international content and perspectives - all on the theory that students graduating today need to know more about the world and their role in it. As always, we continue to rely heavily on our alumni to help support our rapid growth, not just in numbers, but more importantly, in quality.
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for your confidence in us, and for your support. Our best wishes for a pleasant holiday season.
Duncan Carter
Associate Dean

Chicano/Latino Scholarship Gala

 
Twenty-five outstanding PSU students were honored at the ninth-annual Chicano/Latino Scholarship Gala on November 5th with scholarships of $1000 to $5000 in recognition of their academic achievement and community involvement. Celebrity guest speaker Ricardo Antonio Chavira, star of the popular television program "Desperate Housewives," spoke passionately about the importance of education and its role in the successes of the Latino community. More than 600 community members, parents, teachers and students attended the event at the Oregon Convention Center, raising additional funds for outstanding students.

Read more about the scholars and their sponsors.

Wanted: Information Leading to Discovery of New Meteorites!

Hidden in the outcroppings of basalt or stored in rock collections in attics, basements and barns, meteorites wait to be discovered. If you think you have a meteorite (hint: they are usually magnetic) contact the Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory in the Geology Department.
Under the leadership of Dr. Alex Ruzicka, along with Dr. Melinda Hutson and PSU alumnus Dick Pugh, the lab houses pieces of all four of the only meteorites found in Oregon.
The lab conducts meteorite research, contributes to space and planetary science education, acts as a repository for more than 260 meteorite samples, and reaches out to school children, teachers and other community members through displays, workshops and public talks.

Learn more about meteorites and the lab.

 

Contact Us

Email:
clas@lists.pdx.edu

Location:
491 Neuberger Hall
724 SW Harrison Street
Portland OR 97207

Mailing address:
PSU
P.O. Box 751
Portland OR 97207-0751

Telephone:
503-725-3514

Fax:
503-725-3693

Dean's Office:
Directory

Make a Gift to the College:
Give Online

Associate Dean Travels to Kabul

Grant Farr, Associate Dean, will be traveling to Kabul in November and December of this year to conduct research on the role of the traditional madrassas, Islamic seminaries, in Afghanistan. Since very little is known about the madrassas, his first trip will attempt to identify these religious schools, examine their curriculum, the nature of the students who attend these schools, and their political and religious orientation. This three-year research project is sponsored by the National Bureau of Asian Research and will be Dr. Farr's second trip to Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001. He has been traveling to Afghanistan for almost 40 years, having first lived in Afghanistan as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the 1960s. In addition, he has held professorships in both Iran and Pakistan.

On November 8th Senator Gordon Smith's office notified Portland State that the House and Senate conference report on the Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill (H.R. 2419) includes $150,000 in funding for PSU's "Solar Photovoltaic Test Facility System, Materials and Installation Project." Located on the roof of Cramer Hall, this large-scale solar test facility will be the first of its kind installed on a university campus for use primarily as an educational and research tool. Portland State University will use the project to continue its work as a leader in building a sustainable urban campus.   More

Alumni News

The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is Portland State's largest college with about 54% of the university's enrollment and more than 50,000 alumni. If we are reaching you, send us your news. If you know of an alumnus who is not receiving this newsletter, but who would like to reconnect, send us his/her email address. We want to reach as many of you as we can with current news of the college.

We all recognize the value of a college education. For many promising students cost is the only barrier to reaching that goal.
A generous challenge from the James F. & Marion L. Miller Foundation offers PSU an opportunity to raise $500,000 in scholarship funds. This would make a significant impact on PSU's commitment to raise $5.4 million for much needed scholarships by the end of this school year. Donations from new donors to any PSU academic scholarship will be matched by the Miller Foundation dollar for dollar through June 30, 2006. Here are a few of the facts:

  • Gifts from new donors to be matched dollar for dollar
  • Gifts must be received by June 30, 2006
  • Matching funds will be paid to the same scholarship as the donor's gift
  • Total available matching funds of $250,000
PSU Telefund Drive
In the coming weeks, a PSU student will call to ask for your support of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Please take a moment to speak with the student and participate in the fund drive. No gift is too small; every gift counts. Make your investment in a bright future by giving to a CLAS scholarship.
Thank you!

This e-newsletter is a publication of the Office of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Portland State University. You may unsubscribe from this e-newsletter by emailing us at clas@lists.pdx.edu.