OSU president applauds OSU-Cascades expansion
At his annual State of the University address in Bend, Oregon State University President Edward Ray said school leaders will keep working to secure more state funding to continue the expansion of OSU-Cascades.
More than 400 people attended the address Monday night.
The campus will seek about $17 million for a Student Success Center and $17.5 million to support future development.
The efforts come just months after $39 million in state-backed bonds was approved by the Oregon Legislature for the university’s second academic building.
According to Ray, more than 330 students graduated from OSU-Cascades in June of 2017. Total enrollment reached over 1,200 students, and 92 percent of those students are from Oregon, helping leaders reach their goal of providing more educational access to Oregon residents.
OSU-Cascades Vice President Becky Johnson said applications are up 11 percent from the previous year. One of the challenges the university faces is offering enough majors to interest a wide variety of potential students. Eighteen majors are currently offered.
“It’s really a challenge, (because) we have to weigh the fact that we have 1,200 students, so if we have too many majors, you don’t have enough students in any given major — and then your class sizes become really small and then students aren’t having a good experience,” Johnson said.
“We listen to what students want and we talk to high school students. We listen to trends around the country about what students want to go into and major in, and then we talk to our community about where the jobs are going to be in the future.”
Some potential added majors include degrees in outdoor products degree, English and engineering science.
Ray said OSU’s economic impact on the state totaled $2.71 billion last year. That’s up $343 million from three years ago.
Ray also explained the school’s plan to expand in Portland, eventually offering a hybrid online undergraduate and graduate program.
OSU alumnus Tom Herburger graduated in 1969. He said he’s very excited that a campus has opened in Central Oregon.
“I think you have the people that live in Eastern Oregon and Central Oregon, and they’d like their kids to go to a four-year university, and here’s an opportunity to go to a four-year university right here in Bend, Oregon,” Herburger said. “They might be a little reluctant for their kids, or the kids might be reluctant to go across the mountains to Corvallis, so I think it’s a huge opportunity. I think economically it’s going to help Bend, Central Oregon and help Eastern Oregon.”
Ray said he wants to seek school improvements that help students graduate in a more timely manner. He also wants to address the broader issue of an economic and educational gap. He said last year, 43 percent of graduates had no student debt.
“As we begin Oregon State’s next 150 years, we must join with others to address how higher education nationally will better contribute to society,” Ray said. “Let us agree on a few things – a college degree is the surest factor for substantially increasing a person’s career earnings in a globally competitive economy compared to those without a degree.”
Ray and Johnson expressed their thanks to the Central Oregon community for their support of OSU-Cascades.
Below is a press release issued Monday evening:
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BEND, Ore – Oregon State University President Edward J. Ray today said that university leaders will work to secure state bonding to help support continued expansion of the OSU-Cascades campus and the construction of a student success center during the 2019 legislative session.
Ray gave his annual OSU-Cascades State of the University address today to more than 400 people at the Riverhouse Convention Center
OSU will seek legislative bonding authorization totaling $34.5 million, including $17 million for the student success center and $17.5 million to support development costs to expand the Bend campus, Ray said. Already, students at OSU-Cascades have approved a student fee increase that over time will raise $5 million to support construction of the proposed student success center.
The new funding priorities come months after the Oregon Legislature approved $39 million in state-backed bonds for OSU-Cascades’ second academic building.
“I am very grateful for the support and leadership of Governor Brown, Speaker Kotek and Central Oregon’s legislators,” Ray said. “I am also grateful for the incredible ongoing support provided by members of Now4 OSU-Cascades, Katy Brooks, president of the Bend Chamber of Commerce, and OSU-Cascades students who helped support funding for our Bend campus during the 2018 legislative sessions. Thanks also to the many generous donors whose gifts of over $9 million helped match this state funding.”
Ray also used his address to share an update on OSU’s 15-month commemoration of its 150 th anniversary, and to urge the Oregon Legislature to prioritize higher education funding.
“We must work with state leaders to make college students and their future a priority once again,” Ray said. “Such an opportunity continues as we work to advance state support for higher education, in general, and OSU-Cascades, specifically, during the 2019 legislative session.”
Ray said that tuition now pays 67.3 percent of the cost of Oregon State’s educational operations, and the state only contributes 21.6 percent. This represents more than a 50 percent decline in the state’s relative contribution over the past two decades.
In his address, Ray pointed to notable achievements for the university and OSU-Cascades in the past year:
In June the university graduated its largest class ever: 6,807 students, including 334 from OSU-Cascades. In the fall, OSU-Cascades enrolled 1,204 students, an increase of 7 percent from 2016. Ninety-two percent of those OSU-Cascades students were Oregonians, and 67 percent were from Central Oregon. In 2017 grant-funded research at Oregon State totaled a record $441 million – a 31 percent increase over 2016. Ray also recognized two faculty at OSU-Cascades, Yong Bakos and Ann Peterson. Bakos leads the computer science program and partners with local companies and organizations to allow students to gain work experience. Peterson, a biology instructor and researcher, is studying the health effects of pollution in the Deschutes, John Day and Crooked rivers. In 2017, the university reached 2.3 million Oregonians with the help of 13,000 community volunteers, and investments by the state and counties through its outreach and engagement programs. Ray cited OSU’s Juntos program, which serves more than 3,000 Latino families in 23 Oregon communities. Juntos is located in nine Central Oregon high schools and middle schools and serves more than 800 families in Bend, Redmond, Jefferson County and Crook County. Of those students participating in Juntos, 100 percent earn their high school degree and 92 percent go to a community college or four-year university or college. Oregon State’s gross economic and societal impact in 2017 totaled $2.71 billion – up $343 million from three years ago, according to a study completed by ECONorthwest. University operations were responsible for supporting 30,451 jobs statewide. OSU-Cascades is expected to contribute $134.4 million and 2,083 jobs in 2025, which is more than a threefold increase since 2015.
OSU-Cascades Vice President Becky Johnson also spoke at the State of the University Address. She said that OSU-Cascades’ second academic building is critical to the success of the campus.
“The new building will help OSU-Cascades both meet our growing student enrollment,” said Johnson, “and provide an expanding pool of skilled graduates for the state’s fastest growing regional economy.”
Ray also discussed the university’s plans to expand its presence in Portland. Beginning this fall, the university will occupy the entire second floor of the historic Meier & Frank Building in downtown Portland. The space will be used to offer hybrid online graduate and undergraduate classes in business, cybersecurity, psychology, and human development and family sciences.
“Serving the Portland region is part of our mission as Oregon’s statewide university and complements the work we do in Corvallis and Bend, as well as major OSU initiatives,” Ray said.
He also shared an update on the university’s student success initiative that by 2020 seeks to raise first-year retention rates for all undergraduate students to 90 percent and raise six-year graduation rates for all undergraduate students to 70 percent.
