Over the next decade, Portland State University wants to use a $25 million donation to gain a reputation as a global leader in environmental sustainability by turning the entire city into its laboratory.
Campus leaders and professors envision large-scale research throughout Portland on cutting-edge environmental, building, business and social projects. For example:
• New storm-water systems could transform city streets and sidewalks and reduce sewer overload by draining water directly into curbside plots of plants and trees.
• An 11-acre school garden project in Southeast Portland could become a model for teaching and learning about how to bring local produce to cafeteria tables.
• Portland neighborhoods could serve as test cases for finding out what it takes for people to change the way they live, build and consume.
"If Portland has a problem, then we have a problem to help solve," said David Ervin, professor of environmental management and economics. "We can't do it by ourselves. It's not ivory-tower stuff."
The first steps are expanding successful projects, laying the groundwork for new ones and defining what exactly "sustainability" means when the term seems to be everywhere.
But the money can go only so far. As the university reviews the first round of project proposals from faculty, due next week, it must be careful not to spread the money too thin.
"We don't want to be a mile wide and an inch deep," said Jennifer Allen, interim director of PSU's Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices. "We don't want to fritter it away."
The donation from the James F. and Marion L. Miller Foundation, the largest gift in the university's history, came with the expectation that it will benefit the entire city. PSU also has to raise another $25 million from other sources.
New PSU President Wim Wiewel wants the university to be "one of the places you go to find out what is true and what is hype" about environmental sustainability, he said. Portland already has laid the foundation, he said.
"This place is just totally different from anything I've seen or heard about in any other place of the country," he said.
Green credentials
PSU is not unique in wanting to be seen as a leader in sustainable studies and practice. Colleges nationally are touting their green credentials to attract students, faculty and dollars.
But "They aren't very deep if you poke at them very much," said Susan Anderson, director of Portland's office of sustainable development. "What we have here that's different is we have real in-the-streets stuff."
PSU wants to help business, nonprofit and government groups develop, refine and expand projects throughout the community. At the same time, the university wants to bring its academic expertise to the field.
To separate truth from hype, Wiewel envisions a green technology lab that tests processes and equipment to find out what they really do and how they interact.
Researchers also could monitor the carbon footprint of two types of neighborhoods, an old one and a new one, and measure the effect of changes in those communities. And the university could help find new ways to improve transportation policies by studying what works best, Wiewel said.
The study of sustainability doesn't end with environmental science at PSU. The university also wants to look at the economic and social sides of conservation.
For instance, when Vivek Shandas, an assistant professor of urban studies and planning, proposes to study new storm water systems in the Portland region, he and other groups involved in the project will measure the impact on people's opinions, housing values, traffic safety, and human and environmental health.
And Wiewel said arts and humanities should be part of the discussion, too.
Raising PSU's profile
Some faculty questioned whether the money will be diffused into a lot of little projects or spent in a way that raises the profile of the university.
"If it is going to be a pot of money in which everybody sticks a straw, I don't think the Miller Foundation will have achieved what it appears to me it intended," said Bill Lang, a history professor.
Wiewel agreed: "We don't want everyone to just drop everything and just do this," he said. "It's not like I need people to be hit around the ears every day with sustainability. There are a lot of other important questions in the world."
Allen, head of the sustainability center, expects about 100 proposals next week to compete for as much as $1.5 million.
She also expects the university to hire four or five faculty members this academic year, possibly in green building, energy economics, energy technology, natural resource policy and social sustainability.
Professors who get some of the Miller money will be expected to work with people from other departments and in the community. That will require setting up faculty rewards and a system to support that kind of work, Allen said.
They also will have to be committed to raising PSU's profile, said Roy Koch, provost and vice president for academic affairs.
"There are some resources on one side, but there are some high expectations on the other side," he said. "We really do expect that several years from now we'll have a much stronger national reputation."
Source: Oregon Live
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