News

Robert D. Putnam, the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and author of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (Simon & Schuster, 2000), will give a free public lecture, "Community Engagement in a Changing America," at Portland State University on Thursday, February 26, from 4 to 6 p.m.

Putnam's most recent book, Better Together: Restoring the American Community (Simon & Schuster, 2003), highlights Portland in its final chapter as an example of a community that has bucked the civic decline trend. The chapter features several faculty members of PSU's School of Urban Studies and Planning, including Steve Johnson, Ethan Seltzer and Carl Abbott.

Putnam's lecture is sponsored by PSU's Center for Academic Excellence, PSU's College of Urban and Public Affairs and the Corporation for National and Community Service: Learn and Serve America. The lecture will be held in Smith Memorial Student Union, room 338 (1825 SW Broadway). Persons interested in attending should call 503-725-5642 as space is limited.

Putnam has been on faculty at Harvard since 1984 and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a fellow of the British Academy and past president of the American Political Science Association. Putnam earned degrees from Swarthmore and Yale and is the founder of the Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America. He will also be speaking on February 27 at the City Club of Portland, which has made Better Together its February book of the month.

Portland State University is a pioneer in the area of civic engagement and is recognized around the globe for its reform of undergraduate education to better reflect the values of community engagement. Most recently, the University was honored with a $1.2 million grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service to help Oregon's higher education institutions tackle the state's most pressing social issues: decreasing hunger, enhancing K-12 education and reducing the urban-rural divide. For two years in a row, U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" edition has featured PSU as a university "with outstanding examples of academic programs that lead to student success."

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Release Number: 04-014