OSU Board approves strategic plan, including goal to nearly double OSU-Cascades enrollment by 2030

CORVALLIS, Ore. (KTVZ) – The Oregon State University Board of Trustees on Friday accepted a university strategic plan that will guide Oregon State through 2030, and in which OSU seeks to increase research activity, improve graduation rates and increase enrollment online and at OSU-Cascades in Bend, the latter to 2,200 students.

The board also accepted the board chair’s report on the fiscal year 2023 assessment for Oregon State President Jayathi Murthy, including her goals for the next year, and expressed its strong support for the president’s overall performance over the last year, including progress on her previous goals.

The strategic plan, “Prosperity Widely Shared: The Oregon State Plan,” which will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, contains three goals to position Oregon State as a university focused on big discoveries that drive big solutions, a university where every student graduates and a university that fuels a thriving world.

“At Oregon State we create and share knowledge that changes the world for the better,” said Oregon State Provost and Executive Vice President Edward Feser. “This strategic plan rests on a vision for widely shared, environmentally sustainable prosperity in Oregon, the nation, and the world, with our role as a top-flight research university as a driver toward that vision.”

The plan identifies five targets the university seeks to achieve by 2030:

• Increasing annual research expenditures to $600 million. Last fiscal year, the university set a record with $367 million in research expenditures, a 23% increase over the previous year. Research expenditures have risen 19 of the past 21 years.
• Increase six-year graduation rate to 80%. Oregon State’s latest six-year graduation rate is 70%.
• Equalize six-year graduation rates. Current rates vary widely across gender, ethnic group and financial need of students.
• Increase online-only enrollment to 30,000, more than double the current online enrollment.
• Increase enrollment at OSU-Cascades to 2,200. In fall 2022, the Bend campus enrolled 1,271 students, which included a 16.6% increase in first-year students from a year earlier.

Board Chair Kirk Schueler of Bend applauded the plan.

“I appreciate that the planning team and steering committee thought deeply about what the university in the future might look like,” he said. “The plan takes into account the dramatic changes in the world and seeks to be ahead of them.”

The board approved these eight goals for Murthy:

• Start implementing the new strategic plan; work with the OSU Foundation to advance the latest capital campaign; modernize and solidify University Relations and Marketing; develop physical infrastructure to support OSU priorities.
• Also, deepen connections to OSU stakeholders, communities, the nation and beyond; develop and implement a strategy to address athletics re-alignment; develop a long-term strategy to improve higher education funding in Oregon; and develop long-term artificial intelligence and machine learning strategies.

Trustees praised Murthy for her performance the past year, citing her transparency, leadership on conference realignment and willingness to address pressing worldwide events.

“President Murthy is not afraid to take on any topic or subject, and she takes it on with a seriousness and practicality,” Schueler said. “It’s that calm and serious approach that positions OSU well to address the issues that arise in higher education.”

On Friday, the board also discussed a report on advancing equity, inclusion and social justice; heard a legislative update and an update on the Elliott State Research Forest; and approved a 2024 board work plan.

Full materials about the board meeting and its committee meetings, which were Thursday, can be found on the board’s web site. 

About Oregon State University: 
As one of only three land, sea, space and sun grant universities in the nation, Oregon State serves Oregon and the world by working on today’s most pressing issues. Our more than 35,000 students come from across the globe, and our programs operate in every Oregon county. Oregon State receives more research funding than all of the state’s comprehensive public universities combined. At our campuses in Corvallis and Bend, marine research center in Newport, OSU Portland Center and award-winning Ecampus, we excel at shaping today’s students into tomorrow’s leaders.