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http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/print-edition/2011/03/04/lofty-psu-plan-ups-the-competition.html

Portland State University is gunning for the big time.

PSU President Wim Wiewel's ambitious, far-reaching expansion plans aim to make the university one of Oregon's top research
institutions. That is exactly what Portland's economy needs as it transitions from big small town to major metropolitan city.

Wiewel's vision seeks to extend PSU's downtown footprint by 7.1 million square feet. As staff writer Matthew Kish details in his page 1
story, that's larger than the combined campuses of the University of Oregon and the University of Portland.

City leaders have long lamented the absence of a so-called world class research university. If PSU can even partially accomplish its goal
- a big if - those concerns would vanish.

Though the plan seems sudden, it's actually been years in the making, before Wiewel ever set foot on campus back in 2008.

A 2006 PSU document lists a goal of becoming a comprehensive urban research institution. That evolution is already happening.

For years, Portland State was considered primarily an undergraduate teaching institution. That's still a core function, but research
expenditures topped $50 million for the first time in 2009 and continue to grow.

Recent examples include the new Green Research Laboratory, which studies ways to make buildings more environmentally friendly, and
PSU's involvement with the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute, which works to commercialize technology
breakthroughs.

PSU's Maseeh College of Engineering & Computer Sciences, the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and the College of Urban & Public
Affairs have been particularly aggressive in seeking and landing research grants.

Despite its progress, PSU doesn't yet have the reputation, funding or volume of research to be considered an elite university.

As the mere presence of the plan suggests, that's rapidly changing.