PSU Dean Dawson should advocate more broadly for educational ...

"How can we remain competitive in an increasingly global marketplace if Oregon leaders have such a limited understanding of the culture and commerce of international markets?" - Dean Scott Dawson

I wish Oregon had educational leaders in our public universities that would speak clearly and strategically about our future. They know, I assume because they are smart, that Oregon?s best economic future is to sell more goods and services abroad. That is where most potential customers are. That is where rapid economic growth is taking place. And they know that Oregon will require a workforce with more foreign language skills and foreign market experiences to do that. Yet, they seldom say so in public.

Instead we get examples of narrow educational advocacy like Dean Scott Dawson of the PSU School of Business Administration today writing an Oregonian guest column ?Urban renewal will yield a big return on investment: A world-class Portland State? ?(here):

?. As dean of the School of Business Administration, I am compelled to make the case for investing $2 million of the projected $169 million generated by the URA over the next 25 years into the SBA's building project.

First, the majority of our 2,800 undergraduate and 650 graduate students will stay in the region and play a role in starting and leading the businesses and organizations that fuel our economy, create jobs and pay taxes. In my 12 years as dean, every businessperson I have met with believes that Portland should have a great university. If the region is to prosper, Portland needs a business school that attracts and produces the best talent possible, like Foster at the University of Washington, Haas at the University of California at Berkeley or Anderson at the University of California at Los Angeles. Faculty and graduates from those business schools have had a profound impact on their communities?.

First, we should not be shifting funds from K-12 to higher education like the urban renewal proposal does. It is a question of priorities. Second, we need educational leaders advocating for the general transformation of Oregon educational system into one which prepares graduates for the 21^st century. Who better than the dean of a school of business administration to speak to the future of Oregon?s economy in the context of a global economy and what skills students will need to compete.

Dean Dawson has done so in the past. In a January, 2011, Oregonian guest column "Fostering a global perspective is good for business," he wrote (here):

As dean of the School of Business Administration at Portland State University, I was struck by the fact that more than 90 percent of the leaders in our real estate industry had never seen the world's largest country and second largest economy. How can we remain competitive in an increasingly global marketplace if Oregon leaders have such a limited understanding of the culture and commerce of international markets?

To rebuild our economy, we need business leaders who have experienced firsthand the innovations and 21st century advances that are powering places such as China, Korea, Japan, India, Germany and the Middle East.

And:

At PSU, we're educating 650 graduate business students, and most will stay in Oregon to apply what they've learned from their MBAs and other degrees. They will be key players in shaping our future economy. We're taking them overseas to expose them to the cultures and economies that increasingly impact businesses in the United States. Using a general format of half classroom, half tours of businesses and institutions, PSU is taking students to Nicaragua, Mexico, India, China, Korea, Japan, Cambodia, France, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Because most of our students work full time and attend school part time, the overseas trips are short and intensive to accommodate their busy schedules.

Dawson understands, but he writes only about the institution he leads. We need him to thinks, write and speak more broadly about Oregon?s education system and what changes it needs. I think PSU needs (and Oregon needs) bilingual (in strategic languages like Mandarin)? high school graduates who have already spent a year abroad applying to the business school as undergraduates, and PSU needs to develop an undergraduate business curriculum that permits students to spend at least a full academic year abroad.

Let's get serious about all the educational changes we need to make!

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