OSU-Cascades enrollment ramping up

OSU-Cascades is preparing to wrap up its first school year on its brand-new west Bend campus.

Along with the new buildings and dorms, enrollment is also ramping up.

Currently, about 1,200 students including graduate students attend the Bend four-year branch of Oregon State University

And right now, high school students here in Oregon and across the country are trying to decide if OSU-Cascades is the place to go.

“So a big chunk of the applications have come in, so we’re kind of trying to get students to make decisions now, scholarship information has been sent out,” Admissions Director Blake Vawter explained Tuesday. “So we’re pushing students to deposit and also live on campus with us in our new residence hall.”

Once those decisions have been made, OSU-Cascades is looking at a quickly growing campus.

Vawter couldn’t say exactly how many students will be admitted next year, but said it’s expected to be well above this year’s number.

As the school grows, students and faculty seem excited to be part of the new campus atmosphere.

“I think it’s an exciting, because again it’s a community, it’s brand new. not all students get to be a apart of a community that’s just started,” said Gabby Bangert, student legislative coordinator. “So, creating those first steps for the future students that are going to be coming here, it’s going to be quite amazing to see it continue.”

Vawter added, “Here in Bend at OSU-Cascades, it has the same quality of education, but the experience is a little different, a little smaller. I think it really engages faculty and students to be collaborative, not just in their work, but what they do outside the classroom. And I think that provides a very unique experience for undergraduate students here.”

OSU-Cascades projects having 3,000 to 5,000 students attending by 2025. Right now, the school is working to secure more state funding that would dictate the type and size of the campus, as well as the sort of services the school could provide to both students and the community.

These are two groups the school has spent the past year working to unite, especially after a tough start when the issue of parking got heated between the school and nearby neighborhoods.

Bangert said, “It is really us trying to figure out the programs that work well with both the community and the students that work well here on campus. And trying to find that balance, which we have been moving things around a lot for the first year here, but it’s definitely coming along in a good way.”

Vawter added, “I think that we’ve settled into the neighborhood as it were pretty well. I think people are seeing the real benefits OSU-Cascades is going to bring to Central Oregon. So I think we are doing our best to be good neighbors.”

OSU-Cascades is holding an event Wednesday to unveil its own new logo, much as the parent Corvallis campus did last week. OSU President Ed Ray delivers his annual State of the University address Wednesday evening at Riverhouse on the Deschutes.

We’ll have a live interview with Ray Wednesday on NewsChannel 21 at Five.