Portland State University
Portland State University (or PSU) is a university located in downtown Portland, Oregon. PSU's official motto is "Let knowledge serve the city."
The University was established as the Vanport Extension Center in 1946. (It became known as "the college that wouldn't die" because it refused to close after the Vanport Flood of 1948.) In 1952 the Center moved to downtown Portland and occupied the vacated buildings of Lincoln High School on SW Broadway street. In 1955, the Center changed its name to Portland State College to mark its maturation into a four-year degree-granting institution.
PSU struggled for the next couple of decades under the ruling that no university or college in Oregon could duplicate the programs offered by another, with grandfathered exclusions for the University of Oregon and Oregon State University. Nevertheless, graduate programs were added in 1961 and doctoral programs were added in 1968. The institution was granted university status by the Oregon State System of Higher Education in 1969. In 2003 PSU was approved to award degrees in Black Studies. That same year the university opened a center to support Native Americans studying at college.
PSU differs from the other state schools in Oregon partially because it attracts a student body older (on average) than other universities. A significant percentage of PSU's classes are offered at night. Indeed, some programs only offer classes at night, notably the . PSU also delayed the development of its campus for decades after its founding. The institution sold land in a neighboring block soon after its move to downtown Portland, and delayed the construction of student housing until the early 1970s.
