The PSU community gathered Feb. 27 to celebrate the culmination of the Time to Act plan — and the many programs, initiatives and efforts that were inspired and informed by it.
In 2020, at the height of a national and local racial reckoning, Portland State students, faculty and staff envisioned what a racially just and equitable PSU would look like in 2025, setting the stage for an ambitious three-year action plan. Fast forward, and there is much to be proud of.
The PSU community gathered Thursday to celebrate the culmination of the Time to Act plan — and the many programs, initiatives and efforts that were inspired and informed by it.
“We want to celebrate the shifts that have happened in our culture over the last four years, even as we look to all the things that we still need to do to make our aspirations reality,” said Ame Lambert, vice president for Global Diversity and Inclusion. “We wanted to create conditions for transformation. The strategic plan of ‘Future in Focus’ is now the opportunity for us to take all we've built and actually lean into transformation.”
Over the last few years, cross-campus task forces worked through short-term, high-impact recommendations and actions in five key areas: student access success and equity; employee access success and equity; campus climate and intergroup relations; education, scholarship and service; and leadership and infrastructure. Some of the plan’s goals are complete, and some are still a work in progress. An equity scorecard comparing outcomes of different student and employee groups showed where PSU has made strides in fostering a welcoming campus community and where there is still room for improvement.
“The time to act is always,” said Iris De Lis, assistant director of Academic Testing Services and co-chair of the Campus Climate and Intergroup Relations task force. “Let’s look beyond just mere checkbox compliance and really be inspired by the spirit of what we’re trying to do here, this home we’re creating for one another at this time.”
Faculty and staff from units across campus highlighted some of the plan’s achievements including:
- Renovating and opening the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia (MENASA) and DREAMer student resource centers;
- Adding all-user restrooms to campus buildings;
- Strengthening community partnerships, including an effort with Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center (POIC) to train people in trauma-informed care and community safety practices;
- Training faculty and staff in equity-minded data analysis with initiatives such as Data Champions;
- Increasing student retention and persistence rates in programs supporting students who are first-generation, low-income and from diverse and multicultural backgrounds;
- Launching initiatives as part of PSU’s Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI) designation, including events to connect students with community and resources, the creation of a Pacific Islander student retention program and a Pacific Islander Day for prospective students;
- Building capacity to support PSU’s future as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) including launching the region’s first bachelor’s degree in Chicanx/Latinx Studies, establishing a bilingual Student Ambassador program and adding bilingual programming to admissions events for students and their families;
- Revamping the Tuition Free Degree program to ensure it would better serve the needs of PSU’s student population;
- Allowing students, staff and faculty to display their pronouns in class rosters and the directory as well as expanding the legal sex designation to include non-binary; and
- Reducing barriers and expanding access in the Graduate School through policies around the English language proficiency requirement, non-degree transcripts, application fee waivers and academic forgiveness after extended leaves of absence.
So much of the work has been grounded in responding to students’ needs. Ahmed El Mansouri, assistant director of PSU’s cultural resource centers and program coordinator for MENASA, said PSU can be most responsive to student needs when it takes a three-prong approach of reflection, initiative and action — asking students what they need, creating a plan to move forward and acting on the plan.
“It's a cycle because it's all connected,” he said. “You can act from the beginning without an initiative and without a reflection, and you miss the mark. You can just do an initiative without reflection and you miss the mark, and you can ask for the needs and not do an initiative or act, and you will probably cause more damage.”
Lambert urged the campus community to continue to work together to see that initiatives outlined in Time to Act continue to evolve.
“Nothing meaningful has ever happened without a group of resolute people linking arms and working hard for the greater good,” she said. “It is our hope that our time today served as a reaffirmation of our values and a recall to action that helps us to suit up one more time and head out to win tomorrow, today, because for a time like this, we are here.”
PSU President Ann Cudd, who arrived at PSU in the plan’s final year, says in many ways, the current national context has only reaffirmed PSU’s commitment to building a campus community where all students feel that they belong on campus and come to believe in and become their potential.
“This is what makes us Portland State,” she said. “We value the power of multiple perspectives and experiences, and we make space for them, even when we don't like them. We do not tolerate violence or hate of any kind, and we stand up strongly against bias. We believe that students, faculty and staff, with all their rich backgrounds, worldviews and beliefs, deserve to be safe and seen in our community.”