Digital Commons Network^™

University Studies Annual Assessment 2006-2007, Portland State University. University Studies Program

University Studies Annual Assessment Reports

Annual in-depth examination and assessment of Portland State University's general education model, the University Studies Program. The tools and methods used to assess student learning are faculty driven and developed.

Enviromental Enforcement Solutions: How Collaborative Seps Enhance Community Benefits, National Policy Consensus Center

National Policy Consensus Center Publications

In March 2006, the National Policy Consensus Center (NPCC) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) co-hosted a multi-stakeholder Colloquium to consider whether collaborative approaches would allow Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) to leverage environmental, public health, economic, and social benefits for communities affected by environmental law violations. A SEP is an environmentally beneficial project that a violator voluntarily agrees to perform, in addition to actions required to correct the violation(s), as part of an enforcement settlement.

Colloquium participants explored the benefits of expanding the SEP process to incorporate multisector, community-based collaborations in the selection, design, and/or implementation of …

Globalization And Genocidalism: Fictional Discourse Without Borders (For Fun And Profit), Aleksandar Jokić, Tiphaine Dickson

Philosophy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this essay we explore the relationship between globalization and genocidalism. “Globalization” is understood as “freedom and ability of individuals and firms to initiate voluntary economic transactions with residents of other countries,” while “genocidalism” is defined as “(i) the purposeful neglect to attribute responsibility for genocide in cases when overwhelming evidence exists, and as (ii) the energetic attributions of “genocide” in less then clear cases without considering available and convincing opposing evidence and argumentation.”

The hypothesis that we defend here as explanatory of globalization’s “surprising” failure to live up to its often repeated theoretical promise that it is not a …

Interview With Ryan Temple, Hfhc, 2006 (Audio), Ryan Temple

All Sustainability History Project Oral Histories

Interview of Ryan Temple by Amber Kinter at Portland, Oregon on August 4th, 2006.

The interview index is available for download.

Digital Collection Management Through The Library Catalog, Michaela Brenner, Thomas W. Larsen, Claudia Weston

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

Digitization has bestowed upon librarians and archivists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries the opportunity to reexamine how they access their collections. It draws these two traditional groups together with IT specialists in order to collaborate on this new great challenge. In this paper, the authors offer a strategy for adapting a library system to traditional archival practice.

Behind The Rhetoric: Applying A Cultural Theory Lens To Community-Campus Partnership Development, Kevin Kecskes

Public Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

The nature of engagement between American campuses and communities is contested. This article is an invitation to reconsider why community-campus partnerships often look so different and have diverse and sometimes negative outcomes. Using a cultural theory approach (Thompson, Ellis, & Wildavsky, 1990) to elucidate the four main cultural frames that inform human behavior--hierarchist, individualistic, fatalistic, and egalitarian--this treatment maps these frames onto the broad terrain of community-campus partnerships. This exploration enables service-learning and other partnership building practitioners to more clearly recognize and understand the preconceptions that influence partners' approaches. Because service-learning rhetoric is heavily biased toward egalitarian (reciprocal, mutual) relationship …

Engineering Education Through Service-Learning In Developing Communities: Two Case Studies, Evan A. Thomas, Andrew Azman

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper provides case studies of two service learning projects that University of Colorado at Boulder (CU-Boulder) students are integrating into their academic experience. The projects focus on developing communities and are managed under the auspices of Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA), a group founded by Dr. Bernard Amadei, Professor of Civil Engineering at CU-Boulder. These projects expand students? understanding of the social value of their chosen profession, and expose them to a type of engineering significantly different than what is presented in most of their classes. Specifically, focusing on developing communities provides students with the opportunity to design solutions to …

Montavilla: Mapping Community Assets, Adrien Allred, Ann Shaw Lee, Chris Stahlberg, Eugene Nucci

Asset Mapping: Community Geography Project

In May of 2006, Southeast Uplift of Portland Oregon approached Portland State University Mapping Community Assets Senior Capstone class with a proposed project. They asked the class to explore the community connections and assets in southeast Portland, and, specifically in the Montavilla Neighborhood. They were interested in the community organizations that might exist in the area and the way these organizations interacted with each other and the community as a whole. The class goal was to come up with a tool that could be used in the other southeast neighborhoods based on the research and experience in Montavilla.

The 2006 Guide To Local Food Resources: Portland Region:, Liz Mahon, Pressy Sankaran, Ann Shaw, Russell Theodore Holzinger

Asset Mapping: Community Geography Project

This guide serves to list the organizations involved in the promotion and maintenance of a sustainable local food system. It will summarize the nature of the involved organizations in an effort to identify existing partnerships and provide information that may lead to new opportunities in the community. In particular, this guide provides a listing of organizations that focus on farmer and consumer education, public policy, advocacy, marketing, and building relationships within this extensive food network. Also included is a matrix identifying which organizations are involved in the various sectors of the region ’ s food network, as well as maps …

The Oregon Sustainable Community Digital Library: Built To Fill A Need, Rose M. Jackson, Gary W. Markham

Library Faculty and Staff Publications and Presentations

The article focuses on the launching of the Oregon Sustainable Community Digital Library (OSCDL) at the Portland State University Library in Portland, Oregon. The digital library is created to be a central repository for an access of historical planning documents within the area. The collaboration among the university, library, state and municipal agencies in this common goal has made the project more significant. Making the digitalization of vital planning reports and images from the 1960s through 1990s has been the latest goal of the project. This is in line of its vision in making information accessible regardless of physical location …

Forest Resource Use, Land-Use, And Ecotourism In The RíO PláTano Biosphere Reserve, Honduras, Christina Marie Friedle

Dissertations and Theses

The Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, a tropical rainforest reserve in the northeastern corner of Honduras, is home to several subsistence-based indigenous groups, including the Miskito, Pech and Garifuna, as well as the non-indigenous Ladinos. Communities within the reserve depend on forest resources, swidden agriculture, marine resources and/or small-scale ranching as the foundations for local economies. Regulations placed on these subsistence practices, after establishment of the biosphere reserve in 1980, have created unique and new pressures and resulted in a blend of traditional and innovative resource use. A notable result is the promotion of ecotourism as a solution for meeting the …

Portland Development Commission: Governance, Structure And Process, City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Sustainable Development Strategy For Springwater Community - Gresham, Oregon: Recommendations For Sustainable Development Incentives, Gary Albrecht, Laurie Harris, Steve Hansen, Colin Mcconnaha, Darren Nichols, Casey Nolan

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

This project researches and recommends alternatives for implementing sustainable development patterns and practices into this largely undeveloped land. The objective of the research is to provide a range of strategies that the City can incorporate into an incentives-based program that facilitates sustainable development. This project was conducted under the supervision of Sy Adler, Deborah Howe, and Connie Ozawa.

Planning A Sustainable Portland: A Digital Library For Local, Regional, And State Planning And Policy Documents, Carl Abbott

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper is intended as a guiding framework for the collection and digitizing program of the Oregon Sustainable Community Digital Library (OSCDL). The document addresses the following issues: (1) Portland and Oregon as centers of innovative planning (2) The institutional context of planning (3) The types of planning documentation typically found (4) The definition and dimensions of sustainability (5) Issue areas and topics that are most significant and interesting for electronic access.

It then offers suggestions about priorities for digital archiving based on a historical interpretation of Portland’s key planning and policy accomplishments and its consequent planning "gems" that are …

Meeting Notes 2003-05-15 [Special Meeting] , Joint Policy Advisory Committee On Transportation

Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation

No abstract provided.

Metropolitan Briefing Book, 2003, Craig Wollner, Debra Elliot, Heike Mayer, Joseph Cortright, John Provo, Ethan Seltzer, Barry Edmonston, Eve D. Pepos, Gary Perlstein, Steve Johnson

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

The Metropolitan briefing book was developed to provide elected and appointed leaders in the six counties with information about issues and trends common to all corners of the region.

Shared-Resource Housing: A Contemporary Approach To Community Living, José Alvarez, Danelle Isenhart, Mike Liefeld, Jeff Thierfelder, Jesse Winterowd

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

In February of2001, Sustainable Communities Northwest (SCNW), a local nonprofit housing developer specializing in sustainable development, contacted Portland State University's Planning Workshop with a request for assistance. Sustainable Communities Northwest was interested in the possibility of converting an apartment building into condominiums to create affordable homeownership opportunities for low-and moderate-income families. ]nspired by recent market rate cohousing projects in Portland and elsewhere, SCNW was also seeking to incorporate aspects of community-oriented housing into this development. Sustainable Communities Northwest was interested in evaluating if a sustainable, affordable, community-oriented condominium conversion concept would be feasible in the Portland area housing market.

Sustainable …

Building A Sustainable Future For Portland, City Club Of Portland (Portland, Or.)

City Club of Portland

No abstract provided.

Defining Issues: An Outline For The Future Of Our Region, Portland State University. Institute Of Portland Metropolitan Studies

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Exploration of critical "super-regional" issues defined at the 1998 Annual Leadership Conference.

Meeting Notes 1999-05-13 [Part B] , Joint Policy Advisory Committee On Transportation

Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation

No abstract provided.

Rebuilding With Habitat: A Feasibility Study For A Portland Re-Store, Eli Spevak, Rebecca Newman, Barbara Linssen, Clint Wertz

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

In September 1998 Habitat for Humanity's director asked our team to conduct a feasibility study on the possibility of opening a Habitat Re-Store in Portland, a store that would re-sell used building materials. In addition to exploring that question in the traditional manner - considering issues of supply and demand, local competition and potential market niches -- we found ourselves compelled by a deeper exploration of the possibilities. Given that the store would be a Habitat for Humanity venture.... how could the store be utilized to improve people's lives... to empower and to educate... to both gain from and give …

Meeting Notes 1998-06-11 , Joint Policy Advisory Committee On Transportation

Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation

No abstract provided.

Rain, Eco-Net

RAIN: Journal of Appropriate Technology

Volume 15, Number 1

Inside: People Power; Community Healthcare; Berlin Carsharing Interviews; Building for Pedestrians. Scanned from print copy loaned by Tom Bender

RAIN began in October 1974 as a publication of ECO-NET, an environmental education network funded by the Hill Foundation and an Environmental Education grant. Its office was based in the Environmental Education Center at Portland State University. With a focus on the Pacific Northwest, particularly Oregon, RAIN originally described itself as a “bulletin board” with an “emphasis on environmental/energy related and communications kinds of information” and interested in “the evolutionary possibilities of inter-disciplinary connections.”

A Pathway To Sustainability, Patricia Scruggs, Ethan Seltzer, Portland State University. Institute Of Portland Metropolitan Studies

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

This workbook is meant to provide basic information and options for developing a strategy within your own community. Since economic, environmental, social, and political aspects differ from town to town, there is no magic wand for developing a sustainable community effort. There are, however, common processes which have been used by communities across the country that can provide a foundation for local efforts.

Rain, Eco-Net

RAIN: Journal of Appropriate Technology

Volume 14, Number 4

Inside: Car Co-ops; Grassroots Bolivia; Berlin's Eco-Villages; Christopher Alexander's Latest

RAIN began in October 1974 as a publication of ECO-NET, an environmental education network funded by the Hill Foundation and an Environmental Education grant. Its office was based in the Environmental Education Center at Portland State University. With a focus on the Pacific Northwest, particularly Oregon, RAIN originally described itself as a “bulletin board” with an “emphasis on environmental/energy related and communications kinds of information” and interested in “the evolutionary possibilities of inter-disciplinary connections.”

Rain, Eco-Net

RAIN: Journal of Appropriate Technology

Volume 10, Number 3

Inside: Cut Housing Costs 90%; Avoiding the GRUCC; Prairie Perspective

RAIN began in October 1974 as a publication of ECO-NET, an environmental education network funded by the Hill Foundation and an Environmental Education grant. Its office was based in the Environmental Education Center at Portland State University. With a focus on the Pacific Northwest, particularly Oregon, RAIN originally described itself as a “bulletin board” with an “emphasis on environmental/energy related and communications kinds of information” and interested in “the evolutionary possibilities of inter-disciplinary connections.”

Rain, Eco-Net

RAIN: Journal of Appropriate Technology

Volume 8, Number 2

Inside: Tree Enterprise; Letter From El Salvador; PURPA People Heater

RAIN began in October 1974 as a publication of ECO-NET, an environmental education network funded by the Hill Foundation and an Environmental Education grant. Its office was based in the Environmental Education Center at Portland State University. With a focus on the Pacific Northwest, particularly Oregon, RAIN originally described itself as a “bulletin board” with an “emphasis on environmental/energy related and communications kinds of information” and interested in “the evolutionary possibilities of inter-disciplinary connections.”