The P.S.U. Educational Center is an attempt to facilitate the access of Portland's inner city residents to higher education. It is an attempt to overcome the bitterness, defeatism and mistrust that many of these people feel toward education. In its four year history the Center has grown rapidly. The number of people served by the Center per term has risen from 15 in 1969 to 1,300 in 1972. Course offerings have increased from 5 to nearly 30. The Center offers both college credit and other types of courses at nominal fees. An evaluation of the Center--based in part on a student survey conducted in January, 1972--indicates that while the Center has been 2 substantially effective in meeting its objectives it is also reaching a large number of people with advanced educational and occupational achievements than would normally be expected. But this is not an overwhelming trend. The Center is also reaching those of poverty backgrounds and limited education. Racially, the Center serves all ethnic groups. The actual count of students responding to an ethnic identification item on a questionnaire distributed during winter term, 1972 are: American Indian, 2, Oriental, 5, Negro/Black American, 146, Spanish Surnamed, 1, Caucasian, 87. The majority of those registering at the Center do so for the purpose of earning college credit. In conclusion this thesis makes recommendations for the additional funding of the Center, for changes in the policy of the State Board of Higher Education that would allow for the provision of salaried teaching personnel from the various departments within the University, for the commitment of such personnel to the Center, for larger and more adequate physical facilities for the Center, for the elimination of the G.E.D. program, for the stabilization of the fee arrangement, for a survey to determine if the center is doing its best to reach the people who could most benefit from its services, for the granting of legitimate status to the Ed Center, and for the institution by the Admissions office of P.S.U. of an active program to recruit students from the Center to the main campus of the University.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pdx.edu/oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:open_access_etds-1734 |
| Date | 01 November 1972 |
| Creators | Rice, Harvey L. |
| Publisher | PDXScholar |
| Source Sets | Portland State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Dissertations and Theses |
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