PSU’s Climate Survey Shows a Campus Where Students Struggle to Belong.
The crisis at Portland State University runs deeper than its budget. Students who report experiencing discrimination, bias or harassment account for one in seven. Of those who remain, one in eight wants to leave. These are not figures from a struggling institution on the margins. They describe Oregon’s only urban public research university, where more than 20,000 students, 43 percent of them first in their families to attend college, are trying to build a future.
PSU recently released the results of two campus climate surveys, one for students and one for employees. The findings should concern every Oregonian who cares about the state’s sole urban research university and the families it serves.
University-wide, the picture is stark. Only 60 percent of students said they feel they belong at PSU. Most feel respected by their professors, but when it comes to administrators, that number drops by more than twenty points.”
In the College of Education, the results are worse. Thirty-five percent of students surveyed said they had considered leaving their programs. Nearly one in five reported experiencing discrimination. Overall climate ratings hovered around 3.0 on a five-point scale, tepid reviews for a college that prepares Oregon’s future teachers, counselors and school leaders.
These numbers are not just troubling. They are a warning. A landmark study published in Science found that a single belonging intervention reduced the achievement gap among Black students by half over three years. Similarly, a 2024 Lumina-Gallup State of Higher Education Study found that Black and Hispanic students were significantly more likely than their white peers to consider leaving their programs, citing the campus environment as a primary factor. The research is unambiguous: when students feel they belong, they persist. When they don’t, they leave.
The employee climate survey suggests the problem runs deeper than student experience alone. There is a 20-point gap between white employees and employees of color on perceptions of campus inclusivity, and a 15-point gap in belonging. Just 23 percent of faculty agreed that the university prioritizes institutional welfare over external interests. Students do not experience campus life in isolation. They learn from faculty, seek guidance from advisers, and quickly figure out whether the institution values them. When faculty and staff feel marginalized or disregarded, students notice.
The consequences show up in the numbers. PSU’s six-year graduation rate trails that of comparable public research universities, and nearly half of part-time students do not return after their first year.
PSU deserves credit for conducting these surveys; many institutions never ask the hard questions. But a survey without action is an exercise in documentation, not reform. PSU’s Board of Trustees should require a public response plan with clear timelines and measurable benchmarks. The College of Education should conduct a targeted review of the conditions driving a third of its students to consider leaving. And the university should establish an independent mechanism, whether an ombudsman or external review, so that students and employees who report discrimination can trust that their concerns will be taken seriously.
A survey is a promise to listen. Now comes the harder promise: to act.