First day at CLSB

This morning marked the first day of classes for the fall 2014 term.  As in the past, I volunteered to work at one of our PSU welcome tables, but today was different in that I was among the first to welcome our students to the new Collaborative Life Sciences Building (CLSB).

My blog today is mostly pictures taken on iPhones by either Jason Podrabsky (Chair of Biology) or me.  It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words.  The streetcars this morning were packed with eager students.  Students streamed into Gwen Shusterman’s chemistry lecture (some in

time for the 8:45am start and some a little later).  

We passed out handfuls of chocolates to students on their way into the lecture hall and labs.  Nicholas Running from Enrollment Management and Student Affairs had the welcome desk setup and staffed.  Faculty were there to greet students. It was clear that students were excited about this new space and the start of the academic year. 

An unintended consequence of the morning was when a former PSU student, now an OHSU dentistry student, came up to Jason Podrabsky to say hello.  He let Jason know how much he had learned at PSU and how great it was that PSU students and faculty were in the CLSB.  I caught a picture of them reconnecting and exchanging contact information.  Jason let me know that he has run into a number of our PSU grads at CLSB who are OHSU medical or dentistry students or OSU pharmacy students.

The faculty and staff in Chemistry and Biology, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences dean’s office, staff in Finance and Administration and in Enrollment Management and Student Affairs all deserve a tremendous amount of thanks for all their work these past few years in taking a concept and making it happen.  Our students will benefit for a long time from these efforts.

I encourage faculty teaching in the CLSB to use this space to comment on how the facilities are changing the nature of the way they teach and how our students learn.

NOTE: In the CLSB PSU has three new research labs, 17 teaching labs, work stations, offices and our biggest lecture hall.  Our freshman majoring in biology, chemistry or physics and our non-science majors working on their general education requirement will take classes in this building.

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JENNIFER ALLEN’S CONVOCATION MESSAGE TO STUDENTS

Today, Monday, September 22^nd PSU welcomed new students during our student convocation.  Ten minutes before the event was to start there could not have been more than 100 students in the audience.  But then they came, like an army --hundreds of students filled the ballroom.  The program included a welcome from the president, the vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, our ASPSU president and an alum.  The featured faculty speaker was Jennifer Allen.  Many of you know Jennifer as the Director for our Institute for Sustainable Solutions.  She is also a public administration tenured faculty member.

Jennifer created a spark of excitement in our students by telling them that “one of the most valuable aspects of a university education is the opportunity for you to challenge your assumptions, to open your mind to new thoughts and new ideas, new perspectives.”  And she wasted no time in challenging one of their assumptions.  The assumption that they were “here to receive knowledge and wisdom from the faculty.  That we faculty have knowledge and wisdom and you don’t and that you’ll be part of a one way transaction where we give you what we have…Sorry, not so much.  While you certainly should gain some knowledge and wisdom while you are here at PSU, what you learn will be largely dependent on the level of engagement and open-minded inquiry that you bring to your classes, your interactions with your fellow students, and with the community. “

What a great welcoming message to send.  It was not about what we will teach them, but about what they will learn--about an education requiring a combination of “curiosity, passion, humility, compassion, courage, accountability, self-discipline and engagement.”

 

I can only believe students were listening because there were no other sounds in the room except Jennifer’s voice.  After the event ended I asked some students what they thought and one of them told me that was why she had come to PSU—one of her friends had told her that the professors do not spoon feed you here.

As we start the term we all might consider reinforcing Jennifer’s message to our students.  We can help all of our students, not just those new to PSU, by positioning them well to see the responsibilities they have in their own education and learning.  It is good to remind them, as Jennifer put it, that an education requires “a combination of curiosity, passion, humility, compassion, courage, accountability, self-discipline and engagement.”

Thank you Jennifer for representing what so many of our faculty do at PSU—inspire students.

 

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THE “NEW ECOLOGY OF LEARNING

This past Wednesday I attended 2 events that helped frame my day.  In the morning I was invited by PSUFA (Portland State University Faculty Association) to welcome our part-time faculty.  In the afternoon I attended the first Carnegie Conversation of the 2014-2015 academic year held by our Office of Academic Innovations (OAI). Over 100 faculty, staff, associate deans and deans came to hear Dr. Randy Bass, Vice Provost for Education and Professor of English at Georgetown University speak about “From Disruption to Design: the University in the New Ecology of Learning.”

Both events demonstrated the commitment our faculty have to creating a great learning environment for our students.  As I said to our part-time faculty, it is critical that PSU support all faculty members in their teaching efforts.  To our students you are their “professor” regardless if you are full-time or part-time, have been at PSU for decades or just arrived this academic year, or are tenured or not. In his presentation, Bass challenged us to think about “What might the world look like in 2030?” “What will the conditions of knowledge, technology and learning be like in 15 to 20 years?” “What will a graduate of a university need to look like in 15-20 years?”

He contrasted the traditional formal undergraduate curriculum as many of us know it, with experiential learning (internships, community based learning...).  He made the point that experiential learning tends to occur at the margins of the learning environment even though we recognize its high impact.  He also spoke about those aspects of the curriculum that distinguish (or do not distinguish) one institution from another.  He acknowledged that 20 years ago PSU broke ground in distinguishing itself with our University Studies program and that universities need to continue to seek new ways of delivering instruction.

Although PSU still has work to do, reTHINK PSU is keeping us ahead of the curve described by Bass.  The keynote presentation resonated with the recent experiences of many of our faculty and staff in the audience who are creating relevant curriculum, looking at new methodologies of delivery and assessment, experimenting, adapting teaching approaches, and going outside of current comfort zones.  It is clear that at PSU that faculty leadership has continually driven curricular change, whether 20 years ago in the creation of University Studies, or in the last year with the Provost Challenge initiatives. 

This is the 16th year Portland State has participated in Carnegie Conversations on Teaching and Learning; an initiative that began with support through the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to improve the quality of student learning and raise the visibility of scholarly approaches to teaching and learning.  The event this past week was the first in OAI's 2014/2015 series. See http://www.pdx.edu/oai/calendar/view/calendar  for more information on these and additional OAI campus events.

I hope the PSU conversations about the relationship and juxtaposition of formal versus experiential learning, about the use of technology, and about who our students will be in the next 15-20 years will continue.  I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on this and approaches PSU might take.

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INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATIONS

As a university, we have an organizational structure that puts academic disciplines into colleges, schools and departments.  We know that in reality the world operates as a set of interdisciplinary, inter-connected, complex systems.  Real world problems are solved when we blur and cross disciplinary boundaries. 

It is evident that PSU faculty members embrace interdisciplinary collaborations--in research, team teaching, requiring courses or electives in programs other than your own, and in joint programs. There is no doubt that we will see an increased need and desire to bring different disciplinary perspectives together to advance knowledge, the way we look at things, and to help our students learn to understand the complex world we live in.

I know that interdisciplinary collaborations are not easily achieved. It takes hard work and there certainly are many obstacles that prevent it from happening.  It requires creativity, time, effort and a willingness among individuals to work together.  Some faculty members at PSU have expressed concern that our new model of performance-based budgeting (PBB) will make it harder for interdisciplinary collaborations. That it will set up a competition between units and create barriers for working together.   If that were to happen it would certainly be detrimental to our research and teaching efforts. A budget model should support, not undermine, what our faculty members believe to be important ways of working together.  

I would like to bust the myth that our recently adopted performance–based budgeting will result in the demise of interdisciplinary collaboration.  It will not.  In fact, unlike our prior model of incremental budgeting, PBB makes it possible to recognize and create collaborations within and across schools and colleges at PSU.  I have written a PBB issue brief on this topic to explain how this works.  The issue brief can be accessed off of the Finance and Administration’s PBB main site (http://www.pdx.edu/budget/performance-based-budgeting) or directly at http://www.pdx.edu/budget/ppb-issue-briefs.

I would like to hear if at any time an interdisciplinary collaboration you wish to do is thwarted by our budget model.  If that is the case, we need to work to revise the model to make it possible for collaborations to happen.

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Drop-in conversations with the provost

We all know how important good communication is.  I am not only talking about effective dissemination of information, but also the sharing of ideas and listening that often times is enhanced through personal interactions.  There is no question that this is difficult to achieve in a large and complex organization like PSU.   

Over the summer I spent time thinking about my role in improving campus communication.  In addition to this blog and regular updates that I will ask department chairs and deans to pass along to you, I have decided to host monthly opportunities for faculty members and staff members to stop by for a face-to-face conversation.  You may choose this opportunity to share ideas, options and information.  You may choose it to ask questions. Or, you may wish to introduce yourself or to just say hello. 

I will be available the following dates and times during the fall term for these non-structured, open sessions:

Thursday, October 30, 3:00 to 4:00, room 296 SMSU

Monday, November 10, 2:30-3:30, room 294 SMSU

Monday, December 1, 1:30-2:30, room 294 SMSU

I look forward to the opportunity for interaction with you during these times and the many other venues throughout the year.

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