ABSTRACT

Wandering the hallways of Cramer Hall on any weekday morning, one is likely to encounter the hum of a University Studies class in session. Within these classrooms, students from various majors are grouped around tables, engaged in dialogue or working on projects related to pressing social and environmental themes. These courses, with titles like “Healthy People, Healthy Places,” “Global Environmental Change,” and “Indigenous Gardens and Food Justice,” form the backbone of University Studies, a unique general education program at Portland State University. While the course themes vary tremendously, all of the courses are designed to help students develop the knowledge and skills to engage in civic life and bring their disciplinary expertise to bear on real-world problems. The faculty represent individuals from a range of disciplines and academic ranks who contribute their own academic knowledge, community contacts, and passions to the course design.