Compelling Learning Experience

The learning environment at Oregon State recognizes an expansive view of higher education in which students gain life experience with persons from different backgrounds in unique settings. The University strives to provide opportunities that will prepare students well for success and leadership in an ever-changing world.

Faculty are vital to the process, and OSU has some of the best, including many teaching award winners. Among them is Janine Trempy, 1996 Oregon Professor of the Year. Other noteworthy accomplishments are expansion of The Valley Library, evolution of the University Honors College, and creation of minority education centers to support educational diversity.

When the $40 million Valley Library project is completed in early 1999, it will be a showcase for University scholarship and research.

The enlarged library will enable Oregon State to display numerous materials from Linus Pauling's personal archives, and allow students and researchers from all over the world to examine notes and correspondence from throughout the life of the only person to earn two unshared Nobel Prize awards.

Top high school students interested in the University Honors College are applying to OSU in record numbers. A special course in the study of leadership ethics, supported by a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, gave students an opportunity to study issues such as labor practices and the use of gambling revenues to fund educational programs.

To provide a better support system for African American, Hispanic / Chicano / Latino, and Asian / Pacific American students, the University opened three new minority education offices fall term. Modeled after OSU's successful Indian Education Office, the offices will strengthen advising and counseling support for enrolled students and improve ties with Oregon's ethnic communities. Students have been instrumental in helping to shape programming, including improved recruitment and retention of minority students. The new offices join OSU's existing Educational Opportunities Program in providing support for these students.

OSU students can study almost anywhere in the world by taking advantage of a variety of Study Abroad programs. In addition to traditional exchange programs, OSU offers its unique International Degree program and Global Graduates internships, which allow students to gain professional work experience in other countries.

• OSU students learn from their predecessors in the Alumni Fellows program. This year Karl Drlica, biology and microbiology professor at New York University; Stephen Roath, president of Longs Drug Stores; and Jean Thomas, senior marketing director for Nabisco, returned to share their expertise.
• A grant from the National Science Foundation enabled OSU's Program for Ethics, Science, and the Environment to host a National Bioethics Institute for faculty members from throughout the nation.
• The Faculty Grants and Awards Program offered by OSU's International Program has presented 40 grants totaling more than $148,000 to support the international dimensions of teaching, research, and service at OSU.
• Exciting speakers visit OSU each year to challenge students and faculty. This year, James Fallows, editor of U.S. News and World Report, delivered the 16th annual Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Memorial Lecture for World Peace, and Sally Ride, America's first female astronaut, visited in April to speak on "The Future of the American Space Program."
• OSU undergraduates benefit from the Baccalaureate Core, studying writing, critical thinking, diversity, arts, science, literature, fitness, and global awareness.
• Karyle Butcher, OSU's Delpha and Donald Campbell University Librarian, and director of The Valley Library, was named Oregon Librarian of the Year for her contributions to library work around the state.
• OSU awarded its first six Doctor of Pharmacy degrees, preparing graduates for a new era of pharmacy study--one that prepares them for an increasingly complex career in modern medicine.
• Signer Motors hired the OSU Marketing Club to create a college marketing program for its cars and trucks. Using a $2,500 budget, the club created its own public relations firm and staged promotional activities for GM.
• Roberto Martinez of Nyssa became the first student from the Science and Math Investigative Learning Experience (SMILE) Program to earn an OSU bachelor's degree. SMILE, a nationally recognized enrichment program for middle and high school students, began at OSU in 1988 to help minority and low-income youth acquire science and math skills.
• OSU is 21st among all American colleges and universities in producing Peace Corps volunteers. Since 1961, some 946 OSU alumni have served in the Peace Corps.
• Forest ecology alumna Dr. Pamela Matson has earned a five-year MacArthur Foundation "genius grant." She gained international acclaim for studies on land clearing in Brazil, fertilizer use by Mexican farmers, and the ecological impact of plants introduced into Hawaii.
• OSU's departments of Ethnic Studies and Sociology combined to offer a special five-day course on the cultural impact of migrant workers in the Willamette Valley. With grant support from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, participating students spent spring break in Independence, Oregon, interviewing migrant families, their employers, social workers, teachers, and others to learn first-hand about the migrant experience and its cultural impact in our state.

Letter from the President
Top Tier University
Compelling Learning Experience
Statewide Campus
New Facilities
Toward the 21st Century
Financial Summary