PSU Friends of History Celebrates Quarter Century of Service with New Plans and Goal

July 22, 2009 - PRLog -- During the 2008-2009 PSU school season the Friends of History at PSU had a banner season with an exceptionally high number of top-class programming that was capped with the 2009 Earth Day Week at Portland State University which featured the Endowed Lecture in Environmental History with acclaimed professor and author John R. McNeill and a morning panel discussing featuring both Professors Mc Neill and Karl Brooks. It was an outstanding event, attended by overflow audiences and ended the season on a high note, as befits our Annniversary year spotlighting over a quarter century of service to the PSU Community, to students and to the City of Portland.

New ground was broken in the Friend's never-ending quest to extend our outreach to the community at large especially during the concurrent sesquecentennial of the state of Oregon.  New areas of programming were rolled out to meet the needs of our changing society and constituents and to widen our purview.  

Years of receiving phone calls from alumni, potential sponsors  and the general public as to whether the FOH would be devoting time to elucidating the public about different sectors of history has bourne fruit.  Public perception of what seemed to be an inordinate narrowcasting of resources and publicity focused on the "conflict between the states"  has been turning  away potential new PSU "Friends of History" members. As of June 12, 2009, the Civil War Round Table aka the Oregon Civil War Roundtable was no longer affiliated with the PSU Friends of History. The Round Table will be working on building  it own non-profit identity and will continue to hold a series of lectures; but not under the aegis of the PSU Friends of History.

As the PSU Friends of History enters its second  quarter century of service, new ground will be broken.   All aspects of history matters to the Friends of History and future programs will include World History, Public History, Environmental History,  the History of Space Exploration, Civil Rights History,  Medical History and more. The Friends of  will be looking beyond American History to include programs on European, Asian, South American, Middle East, African and Scandinavian history as well.

2008-2009's outreach and lectures commemorating Womens' Rights, African American Heritage Month, and Asian/South Pacific Islander Heritage Month has ensured that  the Friends of History  is living up to PSU's motto of “Let knowledge serve the City.” As attested to by the overflow crowds at the new events...the PSU Friends of History is on the right track.

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The Friends of History is the non-profit support group, whose volunteers put on special events for the History Department at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon.