News

A bountiful experience

WALK THROUGH our campus buildings and you will see lively classrooms teeming with students and faculty offices overflowing with books and projects. But understand that these rooms are just gateways—portals to further learning that may take place on Portland-area rooftops or riverbanks, in third-grade classrooms, or in company boardrooms.

This "engaged learning" is what attracted me to Portland State and now makes me proud of both the University and this wonderful community. Together we are forming valuable partnerships, providing real experiences, and making a difference for us all.

This culture of cooperation was literally brought home to me and my family this past year. In May, a group of graduate students helped us transform a portion of our front lawn at the PSU-owned president's house into a permaculture garden. It started out as a class project: Design a self-sufficient, organic garden for food, flowers, and herbs. But the students went far beyond the call of academic duty when they volunteered to actually put in the garden and brought along their spouses and friends to help. I was so impressed with their commitment to the cause of permaculture and also with their obvious belief in the value of "social capital"—doing something together that contributes to a greater good.

Alice and I both loved working with the students, as did our 17-year-old son, Sam. It took 10 of us all day to put in the garden. Since then Alice and I have maintained it: weeding, watering, and harvesting. So far, we have enjoyed strawberries, blueberries, lettuce, peas, tomatoes, and squash.

The garden is pretty low maintenance because of the design: Cardboard under the topsoil keeps weeds to a minimum and the co-planting of certain plants has totally discouraged pests. We use no fertilizer and are saving clippings and scraps from the kitchen in a compost pile to enrich the soil next year.

We look at the garden's growth with delight every mealtime, since we can see it right from our kitchen window.

Portland State students and faculty are responsible for hundreds of campus-community projects each year. Please read about a few Senior Capstone projects. I'm pleased that I can now talk about these learning experiences from a very personal perspective.