⁄Profile⁄ BY SANDER GUSINOW AS ANN CUDD MADE THE JUMP from academia to university administration in 2008, she realized she was part of the problem. Cudd became the associate dean for humanities for the University of Kansas in 2008 after spending 27 years as a philosophy professor. She says seeing the university operating model from the other side of the desk brought her face to face with the reality that institutions of higher education widen the economic gaps in society. She says the experience lit a fire in her to make college more affordable. “I really felt a duty or a calling to work on affordability-access kinds of initiatives. Just helping students to afford an education was a great need,” says Cudd, who begins her first term as president of Portland State University this fall. “Many students are just not able to afford a great education, and yet a great education is really necessary for joining the middle class, or for coming up with the kind of innovative and creative ideas that our society really runs on.” Raised by librarian-rancher parents on a horse farm in Ohio, Cudd says her parents’ love of literature and philosophy guided her down the path toward academia. She obtained her doctorate at the University of Pittsburgh—where she would later return to become provost—studying economics and political philosophy, with a specialization in feminist thought and theory. As a philosopher, Cudd’s research focused on examining feminist concepts through rational choice theory—a decision-making school of thought pioneered by the capitalist philosopher-economist Adam Smith. Her first publications centered on how people, particularly women, make decisions rationally, strategically and collectively. She says her training as a philosopher helps her consider all the possible angles and outcomes of a decision while also considering the school’s moral and ethical responsibility. “I am, after all, trained as a decision theorist, getting the data and having a good sense of what are the likely outcomes of a decision, what are the possible outcomes and what are the probabilities of each of those happening,” says Cudd. “Then also considering very deeply a principle’s perspective; that includes serving the city, opening doors of opportunity, being equitable, and doing everything with ethics and integrity. That’s the overall philosophy of decision-making that I have.” At PSU Cudd will face falling enrollment; cuts to faculty and classes; and what the school’s own board chair describes as a bloated, decentralized administrative wing she is tasked with trimming. Cudd says her role as a president is to make decisions necessary to achieving her vision for the school: choices that emphasize affordability for students, foster a JASON E. KAPLAN Ann Cudd makes her debut this fall as Portland State’s president as the school faces the headwinds of declining enrollment, rising tuition and administrative bloat. She’s optimistic the school can persevere — and help revive Portland’s embattled downtown. Course Correction 18
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