Ways to interact with PUGS:
Take a course! That's probably the most important thing.
For enrollment issues and general inquiries, contact team@pugspdx.com
A short history of PUGS
I created Portland Underground Grad School in November 2014 because I always missed school. Every day I was always tempted with going back to grad school. But I didn’t want to pay tens of thousands of dollars or uproot my life to go get another degree. What I really wanted was school for the rest of my life.
So I created the thing I wanted: school for everyday life. It was a way for me and other lifelong learners to meet and stay intellectually engaged. At the same time, it was a way for local experts to share their knowledge without a big institution in the way. It was just better than learning on the internet; there’s something qualitatively different about learning in person, with other people, compared to learning by yourself. The experience is just richer, more fun, and more soul-feeding.
After PUGS had grown to 80 courses and 900 students, I realized that I only wanted to teach, not administrate a school. Steph Routh took over and shepherded the organization through the pandemic, primarily with a move to online courses. Steph passed PUGS onto Alder Commons and when they closed, PUGS was passed back to me in April 2025.
I’ll be started PUGS back up in Fall 2025. I hope you’re as excited as I am to bring back old instructors, find new ones, all with an eye towards both learning and connection in these perilous times.
Best,
Douglas Tsoi
