LINKING THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE DURING A TIME OF TRANSITION IN THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY AT PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY

Hiring new faculty is an exciting process, but replacing half (5) of the tenure lines in a mid-size department in less than two years presents its own form of excitement. What values guide the department and provide a foundation for future students and faculty? Curriculum organizes the disciplinary content and skills the faculty values. Strategic partnerships with community colleges, advising, student support, and the learning and teaching environment operationalize curriculum. Dual enrollment and advising, shared pool of contingent faculty, career opportunities for our graduates, shared field, instructional, and laboratory resources, and joint funding proposals describe the strategic importance of our community college partners. Governance describes how we organize our common work and respond to University, state, and national mandates. Shared responsibility for faculty hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions provide powerful student engagement and responsibility in governance. The research environment for undergraduate and graduate students, post-docs, and faculty is organized around interactions with institutional infrastructure, strategic partnerships, funding sources, space, and equipment. Academic advising introduces undergraduate students to research options built into geology and Earth science majors in collaboration with the University Honors Program. Financial help from the Marvin H. Beeson Undergraduate Research Award endowment is supported by alumni and friends. M.S. theses in geology and hydrogeology mirror the breadth of faculty research interests. For many students the M.S. is the professional degree that opens career opportunities in private industry and public sector jobs. Our graduate program focus is on the M.S. degree. The School of the Environment is where Geology, Geography, and Environmental Sciences and Management collaborate to provide an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Earth, Environment, and Society. Institutional priorities provide opportunities for the evolution of this program. Alumni provide context for educational programs, input in planning and hiring, and in times of limited institutional resources play an increasing role in supporting departmental initiatives.