(Oregonian (Portland, OR) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Feb. 6--A piece of Afghanistan's future sits in a 27th-floor downtown Portland conference room.

In the architectural firm Yost Grube Hall, two walls papered with diagrams of a 42-acre plot of land hold the promise of that country's first private university. The approximately $35 million campus also will be the country's first American university, taught completely in English.

Officials from the new American University of Afghanistan traveled from Kabul to Portland recently to discuss the campus with the architects who will make it a reality. In December, Yost Grube Hall beat seven finalists on the bid to design the master plan for the university, which is being launched with a U.S. Agency for International Development grant and a major international fundraising effort.

"The United States has sent $4 billion to Afghanistan (for reconstruction), but in Kabul you don't really see anything where you can really say, 'This is monumental. This will be,' " Sharif Fayez, the university's pro tem president, said during his Portland visit. "This is probably going to be the most beautiful campus in the country."

The discussions were about more than construction timelines and buildings, participants say. This "model university" for a nation emerging from the ruins of multiple wars will set the standard for educating entrepreneurs, teaching technology and giving women access to higher education.

And it will have an unmistakable Oregon stamp. From Yost Grube Hall's key role to the involvement of local individuals and universities with everything from the initial planning to offering fundraising advice, the gathering of key players in Portland reinforced that connection.

The vision for the university began in 2002, as Afghanistan's post-Taliban interim government looked at rebuilding the country and its institutions. Fayez was interim minister of higher education and handpicked a Portlander, Zaher Wahab, to be his senior adviser.

Fayez and Wahab, a Lewis & Clark College professor who was born in Afghanistan, set the vision for the university, got the startup money and oversaw the initial planning.

The Afghan government gave the university a free 99-year lease on land next to the historic but ruined Darulman Palace on the western edge of the city, next to the country's future parliament buildings. In March, during first lady Laura Bush's visit, USAID pledged $17.7 million.

Officials broke ground that month, starting construction not on a building but on a security wall that officials said was necessary to help keep the high-profile institution safe in a volatile environment.

Joachim Grube, a principal with Yost Grube Hall, said the project, the firm's first in Afghanistan, was a good match. The firm is known for designs of the new Portland Community College Cascade campus and Portland State University's School of Business, as well as its work in Sudan, Angola, Jordan and other countries.

"Having done work in countries which provided, physically and politically, major challenges, this was right up our alley," Grube said. "When you look at the site and the surrounding mountain ranges, being at the site of a former palace, you get a sense of the importance and possibility."

Fayez said university officials were particularly impressed that Yost Grube Hall submitted a joint bid with an Afghan firm, Studio Zarnegar.

"This collaboration matches our vision for an integrated campus, both in connecting physical buildings and in combining Islamic architecture and Western architecture," Fayez said. "It symbolizes an integration of knowledge."

The campus is not slated to be finished until 2008 or 2009, but the initial freshman class of 200 students will start this fall at a renovated international school building near the construction site. The goal is to gradually increase the student body to a maximum of 5,000 students, Fayez said.

The university will launch a major donor campaign to supplement the USAID money, Fayez said. During the Portland visit, university development officials from Lewis & Clark and Portland State University shared strategies.

The university has encountered criticism in Afghanistan from those who say such an elite, private institution would siphon resources and faculty from the public university system and benefit only wealthy Afghans, said Wahab, who is on the university's board of trustees.

"I still have very mixed feelings about it," Wahab said. "But the truth is that the public system simply cannot absorb all the students who want to pursue higher education."

Only one in three university applicants gain admission, he said. Furthermore, skills that are crucial to the reconstruction economy -- business administration and high technology, taught in English -- are not available in the current system.

In the tradition of such universities in the Middle East and elsewhere, this institution will provide more opportunities for Afghan students to connect with U.S. universities and Americans -- particularly Afghan expatriates -- who study or teach in Afghanistan, Wahab said.

Because the university will be a top institution, great emphasis will be put on recruiting female students, said Peggy Poling, the American University of Afghanistan's provost.

Even in the earliest planning, officials are considering things such as providing extensive, secure women's dormitories, she said. This will help persuade families, particularly those from outside Kabul, to make the unconventional decision to send their daughters away to college.

"One of the things we've talked about is starting a student government association as part of extracurricular activities and to encourage women to become officers," Poling said. "My experience is that Afghan women are a lot more self-confident than they are portrayed. Given just a little push, they will step into leadership roles."

Poling said she is grateful for Laura Bush's interest in the university and can't help looking ahead to 2010, when the first class of the American University will graduate.

"I have no idea where she'll be, or if she'd be willing, but I like to think of her as our first commencement speaker," Poling said. "Wouldn't it be wonderful if Laura Bush could go and do that?"

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