Portland State recently launched a new planning committee with a list of ways the college would like to create change on and off the campus. One of the committee’s primary purposes is to correct a decades-long decline in enrollment, deficit increases and rapidly depleting funding reserves, as voiced during one of the first meetings.
The university formed the Strategic Planning Steering Committee on Oct. 5, 2023. Its publicized intention is to engage with students and the broader PSU community to understand better how to close the spending deficit while maintaining the college’s core values.
Portland State University’s strategic plan development is considered an industry standard, at least locally. The University of Oregon and Oregon State University have strategic plans with similar general goals of improving student outcomes.
For instance, OSU outlines three objectives and proposes five actions to achieve them. The goals relay the university’s desired focuses, such as “big discoveries that drive solutions,” “every student graduates” and “fuels a thriving world.”
The actions then detail ways the universities will try to hit said goals, for example “explore instating a block (flat) tuition rate model.”
Portland State’s strategic plan raises the concern that balancing the college’s budget would likely require cutting certain programs. Lindsey Wilkinson—associate professor and co-chair of the Strategic Planning Steering Committee—alluded that part of the committee’s purpose is to help with this process.
“Soon, we’re going to start having to make more difficult decisions about an allocation of resources,” Wilkinson said.
The Office of the President sent out email surveys to the PSU community on Jan. 10 to determine the college’s values. The survey also asked respondents, “What do you love about PSU” and “Why did you choose to come to PSU?”
Samantha Warren—a PSU student studying social work—voiced frustration with the survey’s questions.
“‘What do I love about PSU?’” Warren said. “That’s not going to tell you what’s important to me.”
Warren explained that the survey could be clearer about asking what programs and resources are most valuable to respondents. Its vague nature led her to think that it was not important.
“I just went, ‘It’s another survey—delete,’” Warren said.
In addition to surveys, the strategic planning committee has organized three public forums where the Portland State community is encouraged to participate in the strategic planning process. These forums are set to take place in the Smith Memorial Student Union on Feb. 12 from 3:30–5:30 p.m., Feb. 15 from 9:30–11:30 a.m. and Feb. 21 from 9:30–11:30 a.m.
“I think it’s good they are trying to reach out to the students,” said Brian Andrews, a PSU student studying communication. “If this is something like a road map they want to go over with us, then that’s great.”
Getting feedback from the community has proven to be challenging, however.
Nearly 90% of PSU students are commuters, which presents a unique challenge for fueling engagement. In addition to having to travel to and from classes every day, many students have work and other obligations which demand their time outside of classes.
“One of the things we’re struggling with is we want engagement, but sometimes we don’t organize engagement in ways that actually gets the feedback we need,” Wilkinson said.
Andrews explained that participating in the strategic planning process would be difficult for him as his schedule is already at capacity with being a full-time student who also works full-time. Warren shared the sentiment, saying she is mainly focused on getting through her classes and returning home as quickly as possible. She said she would be more likely to participate in the strategic planning process if there was a way for her to participate over Zoom.
Wilkinson stated that the first year of the strategic plan will be used to determine a course of action, and the committee aims to have a finalized plan by June 2024.
