(Photo: PSU)
The newly hired president of Portland State University will join the throngs of downtown bike commuters this Monday when he reports for his first day on the job.
According to PSU spokesperson Scott Gallagher, 57 year-old Wim Wiewel will join school Provost Roy Koch and City Commissioner and Mayor-elect Sam Adams on the ride and a small reception will follow in the South Park Blocks.
Wiewel hails from the bike mecca of Amsterdam and Gallagher says he’s doing the ride in part to “promote and emphasize the alternative transportation research goes on here at PSU.”
When he was hired back in May, Wiewel told The Oregonian that he, “loves to ride bicycles” and the Associated Press reported that he is “a little bit daunted” by Portland’s hills (unfortunately his residence is in a hilly area near Lewis and Clark College).
Their route will take them on SW Terwilliger Blvd., onto Sam Jackson Parkway and then into downtown via Sixth Ave. and Hall St. before ending up in the South Park Blocks.
A statement issued by PSU says that, more than half of PSU students, faculty, and staff ride their bikes, walk, or take alternative transportation to campus.
Wiewel and Adams will be available for questions after the ride.