This summer there was a small and interesting bit of news. A new appointment at Willamette University, Assistant Professor Nicole Iroz-Elardo is a transportation researcher in the Department of Public Health.
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| via Twitter |
The Hatfield Library had tweeted out a link to an article on a study in LA showing that less off-street parking means fewer miles driven! AKA, the more parking we provide, the more people drive. Parking induces driving. (Free download: "Households with constrained off-street parking drive fewer miles.")
Last year Portland State also tweeted out her study on walkability surveys. (PSU summary, and the article itself, which is paywalled, "Measuring perceptions of social environments for walking: A scoping review of walkability surveys.")
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| via Twitter |
Has Willamette had someone with a specific academic interest in transportation planning before? That may be a new thing, and something very exciting to watch!
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| via FB |
As Council considers the recommendation to eliminate parking minimums, and our debate on parking cranks up again, her research might be useful.
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| Our Great Parking Myth h/t our Strong Towns group |
As we've seen with Associate Professor Janet Lorenzen, whose involvement with our local 350.org chapter has been great to see, it would be terrific to see another voice from an academic background weigh in on our planning and transportation reforms.
Just generally, are we entering a new age of town and gown collaboration?! The Oak Salvage Project, that cookie collection and its associated research, has seemed so wonderful.
In very different contexts, Willamette was often in the news a century ago during the fall of 1922.
Exactly 100 years ago plans for what became the first endowed chair finalized. It was front page news.
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| November 11th, 1922 |
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| The very first one (WU undated pamphlet) |
In his 1943 Chronicles of Willamette, Robert Moulton Gatke located funding the chair in the context of the endowment drive of 1922.
The Willamette students were not idle spectators of the great campaign. Students individually and in their organization subscribed liberally, and dedicated their givings to the endowment of the James T. Matthews chair of mathematics.
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| Collegian, November 9th, 1922 |
Matthews, class of 1889 also, and appointed to the faculty in 1893, appears often in the book, certainly as sentimental favorite, and possibly institutionally significant as well.
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| as in Gatke |
The endowment campaign was big news. Edgar B. Piper, editor of the Oregonian, and son-in-law of former trustee Leo Willis, helped kick off in September of 1922.
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| September 9th, 1922 |
In November the morning paper ran an editorial about the endowment campaign and called Willamette the "biggest thing in Salem."
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| November 3rd, 1922 |
And in December reaching the goal got a banner headline.
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| December 21st, 1922 |
As best I can tell, the Matthews chair is currently vacant. Sam Hall, who had been managing partner of Sustainable Fairview, had held it.
1 comment:
Salem Reporter takes a pass at the endowment drive from another angle, "100 years ago in Salem, a fundraising drive for the state’s oldest university."
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