This is a special summer edition of Currently

Currently will resume weekly publications on Monday, Sept. 15, 2025. Please see submission guidelines and publication dates to have your events, announcements and news included in future issues.

August 4, 2025

Viking Days are an opportunity to welcome students to campus and get them involved with your department, resource or club. This year, events can take place between Thursday, September 25 and Saturday, October 4.  

If you are interested in hosting an event during Viking Days, fill out the event form by August 15 to be included on the Viking Days website. Once you fill out the form, someone from Conferences and Events will be in touch with you to confirm your event if you need a space in Smith Memorial Student Union.

This year, all events will be able to utilize Connect! If your organization or department does not already have access to Connect, you can get detailed instructions on how to set up your account so all students may view the details of your events by contacting Aimee Shattuck, shattuck@pdx.edu.

View a previous year's sample schedule to get an idea of what to host! Signature events of Viking Days include: Party in the Park, Night at the Rec, Welcome Days on the Plaza, Viking Athletic Games, Drag Show and SHAC Block Party to name a few.

Help students connect with engaging positions in your department or PSU organization by taking part in the On-Campus Job Fair on Sept. 16 at the Smith Ballroom. Students from the Summer Scholar Program and others looking for on-campus jobs will be seeking Federal Work Study (FWS) and non-FWS posts. Departments and PSU organizations are invited to table at this event free of charge. To sign up, log into Handshake and register by Friday, Sept 5.

Save the date! PSU employees are invited to kick-off the 2025-2026 academic year on the afternoon of Thursday, Sept. 18.

Employee Resource Fair
Time: 2 - 3 p.m.
Location: Walk of the Heroines
If your department would like to table at the resource fair, please complete this form by Sept. 6.

Convocation
Time: 3 - 5 p.m.
Location: Hoffman Hall

On November 15 at 2 p.m., the Viks football team will return to Providence Park for a homecoming Big Sky battle with the Montana Grizzlies. Tickets for this historic return to Providence Park are on sale now and PSU Faculty and Staff can take advantage of an exclusive discounted ticket offer. Use code: PSUStaff to purchase tickets at the discounted group rate. Please note that this game is managed through SeatGeek and not the University's Box Office. Please contact Athletics at vikingstickets@pdx.edu for questions or more information. 

Before we pack Providence Park this fall for Homecoming, let's come together this summer for Portland State Night at the Timbers!

On Saturday, August 16, PSU alumni, staff, students, families and fans are invited to cheer on the Portland Timbers and celebrate Viking pride with a special ticket package.

Choose your ticket:

Secure your seats and rep PSU alongside the Timbers Army! Questions? Reach out to Michael Rueda at mrueda@timbers.com

PSU’s College of the Arts announced its inaugural cohort of students and faculty to participate in its new partnership with LAIKA. Three faculty members were selected as the inaugural group of LAIKA Faculty Fellows and six students were selected for scholarships for the 2025-26 academic year. See who was selected and what they’ll be doing this year in PSU News.

The PSU-led Performing Arts and Culture Center (PACC) project now has $155 million in secured funding! Read about where the funding comes from and next steps in PSU News.

In late June, the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health announced a groundbreaking academic partnership with Multnomah County that will redefine public health education and practice in our region. Read about the formal affiliation as the first Academic Health Department in PSU News.

In June, PSU Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Shelly Chabon announced the hiring of two new deans:

Brenda Glascott was appointed Dean of the University Honors College. Glascott has served as Interim Dean since Fall 2023 and Director since Fall 2017. Under Glasscott’s leadership, the Honors College has flourished even as higher education has seen a reduction in enrollment. Read more about Dean Glascott.

David Bowman was appointed Dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (CLAS). Bowman was hired through a nationwide search — he comes to PSU from Eastern Washington University, where he has served as the Dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics since 2016. Read more about Dean Bowman.

The 2025 Oregon legislative session ended on June 27. During the session, legislators grappled with tough funding choices due to federal funding uncertainties and limited state resources. In the face of this, Portland State University (PSU) advocates showed up in record numbers! Students, staff, faculty and alumni rallied together in support of PSU’s legislative agenda, sending an impressive 6,926 emails to legislative offices and bringing nearly 150 people to PSU Day at the Capitol.

While a few items were unsuccessful, PSU's advocacy efforts led to key wins for PSU students, programs and initiatives during a challenging budget environment:

Portland State University and AAUP PSU share interests in stability for non-tenure track research faculty, retaining high-quality research faculty, and maintaining productive research programs. Principal Investigators occasionally experience breaks in external funding, which can result in loss of employment to personnel critical to the continuation of research programs and the University. Portland State has established a Research Bridge Fund of $150,000 for Fiscal Year 2026. The summer deadline to apply for Bridge Funds is August 15.

Every six months, salaried employees who are paid to work on PSU sponsored projects must review a Personnel Activity Report (PAR) to verify that the payroll distribution percentages reasonably correspond to the effort performed on the project. These time and effort reports are required to document that sponsored project awards are charged only for time actually worked on allowable activities and that the awards pay only their proportionate share of personnel costs.

Sponsored Projects Administration began distributing Personnel Activity Reports (PARs) on July 15 to salaried employees who were paid to work on PSU sponsored projects at any time during January - June 2025. PARs are transmitted via AdobeSign with the subject line: Signature requested on Personnel Activity Report(s) for REVIEW/APPROVAL.

If you receive a PAR via email, please review and take action on the request as soon as possible by: 1) signing the document to certify that the payroll distribution percentages reasonably correspond to the effort performed on the project(s), or 2) clicking the link in the email to notify SPA that labor distribution changes to correct or revise the percentages are necessary.

You're invited to the annual PSU McNair Research Symposium! Join in on a full day of engaging presentations by our dedicated McNair Scholars as they showcase their research projects.

This symposium is your opportunity to:

Date: Wednesday, August 13
Time: Check-in at 8:30 a.m.; Presentations begin at 9 a.m.
Location: PSU Smith Memorial Student Union, Vanport Room 338

Your registration helps ensure a well-organized event for presenters and guests.

The Portland Scholars Summer Program is a free, two-week course for first year students at PSU that is designed to prepare students for the rigors of college and introduce them to PSU and all the resources we have to offer. This year’s program runs from Sept. 9 - 19.

Here's how you can support this year’s Portland Scholars cohort:

After they attend the summer program, the Portland Scholars will continue to have holistic, year-round support through peer mentoring, advising and tutoring to help them reach their academic goals. The program is for incoming first-year students with an unweighted GPA below 3.0.

Several important student and faculty support centers are on the move as heating, ventilation and air conditioning work in Smith Memorial Student Union starts this month. The student union will remain open during the work period with events, retail amenities and most resource centers in their usual spaces. The following services will be temporarily relocated beginning this month until early 2026 while upgraded HVAC is installed in their areas. Please check the organization's web resources for regular updates on staffing, hours and events. 

Disability Resource Center — University Center Building, Suite 400

Office of Academic Innovation — Vanport Building, Suite 560

Student Legal Services — Parkmill Building, Suite 105 (opens Wednesday, Aug. 6)

Conflict Resolution Program — Cramer Hall, CH346

The Helen Gordon Infants & Tots Program, normally in the Broadway lobby of Smith, will be located in Epler Hall during the upcoming academic year.

Reserving an event venue at Portland State — whether for student activities or departmental events — is now being done with the 25Live academic scheduling system. 25Live allows you to discover details about available dates and campus event spaces of any size before you submit a request.

Note: If you were frequently booking events in the previous EMS system, contact the Campus Events office at meetings@pdx.edu to inquire about ways 25Live can make your requests more efficient.

There is nothing quite like the joy of commencement at Portland State! This year, PSU proudly celebrated the Class of 2025 with 10 commencement ceremonies held over a weekend in June at the Viking Pavilion on campus. Visit the PSU Commencement webpage to meet the Class of 2025, watch a highlight reel and explore photos from each ceremony.

Commencement, by the numbers:

Thank you to everyone who participated in the planning, organization and execution of the events — as well as everyone who helped our graduates along their PSU journey!

July's edition of Portland State Magazine includes a feature article and video about Poison Waters, famed Portland drag queen who received an honorary degree at the College of Arts and Sciences commencement ceremony.

Known as Kevin Cook in the off hours, she is a tireless advocate, educator and a fabulous personality deeply intertwined with the pulse of Portland. Her long-standing connection to Portland State University recently culminated in a momentous honor.

August is National Make-A-Will month, the perfect time to create or update your estate plan. The PSU Foundation's free Estate Planning Guide covers the essentials — wills, trusts, health care directives and more. You’ll also discover simple ways to include charitable gifts in your plans, making it easy to support the causes you care about, like PSU.

Presented

Tina Acker, Julia Freybote, Tom Gillpatrick, Daniel Jaffee, Cassio de Oliveira, Suwako Watanabe

People

Hyeyoung Woo, Aaron Roussell, Dara Shifrer, Kris Lucht Adams, Talya Bauer, Maura Kelly, Pronoy Rai, Ken Ruoff, Suwako Watanabe

Published/Exhibited

Paul Collins, Jon Holt

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CURRENTLY is a weekly newsletter for the employees of Portland State University, published by University Communications. News items, events and accolades should be sent to currently@pdx.edu. Deadline is noon, the Tuesday before publication. See the Currently website for submission guidelines and schedule.