Mike Goodwin

Goodwin has been named one of two 2013 recipients of the CASE Commonfund Institutionally Related Foundation Award. He will receive the award on April 18 at the annual CASE conference for this group of foundations. This prestigious award recognizes professionals who have made extraordinary contributions to the advancement, quality, and effectiveness of their foundations and the sector.

OSU President Ray received the 2013 Leadership Award from CASE District VIII at its annual conference earlier this month. See this LIFE@OSU story for more details. It is rare for both a university president and the CEO of a university foundation to receive top honors in the same year, according to CASE president John Lippincott.

Here is a list of CASE District VIII awards received by OSU at the conference this month. OSU was the second-most honored institution at the conference, according to Michelle Williams of the OSU Foundation.

President Edward Ray

Viewbooks and Prospective Student Publications

Silver
Oregon State University
Oregon State University Student Recruitment Viewbook
Long Lam, Gary Dulude, Amy Charron, Teresa Hall, Laura Shields, Santiago Uceda, Melody Oldfield

Other Special Purpose Publications 

Silver

Oregon State University
Evans Scholar Foundation booklet
Long Lam, Gary Dulude, Amy Charron, Melody Oldfield, Laura Shields

Special Constituency and Research Magazines

Gold
Oregon State University
Terra Magazine
Nick Houtman, Lee Sherman, Teresa Hall, Amy Charron, Steve Clark

Multipage print design

Silver

Oregon State University
Oregon State University Student Recrutiment Viewbook
Long Lam, Santiago Uceda, Amy Charron, Teresa Hall, Gary Dulude, Melody Oldfield, Laura Shields

Posters

Silver

Oregon State University
Morrill Act 150 year anniversary posters
Long Lam, Gary Dulude, Shelly Signs, Amy Charron, Melody Oldfield, Laura Shields

Individual Features or Feature Articles

Gold

Oregon State University
Plates of Honor
Angela Yeager

Silver

Oregon State University
The Ethic of Care
Lee Sherman 

Bronze
Oregon State University
Far and Away
Lee Sherman

News Writing

Silver
Oregon State University
Yellowstone transformed 15 years after the return of wolves
David Stauth

Bronze
Oregon State University
Sporting event ads viewed favorably – especially if the game is close
Angela Yeager

Bronze
Oregon State University
Jurassic pain: Giant “flea-like” insects plagued dinosaurs
David Stauth

Special Events

Bronze

Oregon State University Foundation
Building a Community of Major Donors
OSU Foundation Strategic Communications & Donor Relations

Web Magazine (periodical or continual)

Gold
Oregon State University, College of Public Health and Human Sciences
Synergies online magazine
Kathryn Stroppel, Alan Calvert

Student Recruitment Videos

Bronze

OSU College of Public Health and Human Sciences
MPH Student Helps Improve Women’s Health in Uganda
Heather Turner

Multimedia for Special Events

Gold

Oregon State University
Harris Recognition Dinner Multimedia
Steven Lont, David Baker, Michelle Williams, Kegan Sims, Oliver Day, Justin Smith, Santiago Uceda, Evan Gutt, Richard Hibbins, Deborah Correa, Cathleen Hockman-Wert, Ashley Fuszek Lindsley, Audrey Wiltz, Alex Crawford

OSU President Ed Ray gave a State of the University speech in Portland on Jan. 31, 2013. (photo: David Baker)

President Ed Ray gave a “State of the University” address at the Portland Hilton Thursday afternoon, where he shared a long list of achievements with the crowd of nearly 500 people.

Ray announced two initiatives supported by private gifts – a $40 million engineering research facility leveraged by three gifts totaling $20 million; and a $5 million gift commitment to boost performing arts at OSU and throughout the state.

Ray outlined Oregon State’s role as a 21st-century Land Grant university that is “reinventing the workforce,” a notion that is appealing to top students within the state. The OSU president noted that more than 40 percent of the university’s incoming freshmen from Oregon had a high school grade point average of 3.75 or higher, and Oregon State attracts more valedictorians and salutatorians than any other institution in the state.

OSU’s enrollment has climbed every year and is near 26,000, and it has nearly doubled its international enrollment. To meet the demand, the university has hired more than 180 tenure track faculty in the last two years.

“I know of no other university in the nation that has hired this many new faculty,” Ray emphasized.

Despite the nationwide recession, Oregon State is on solid financial ground, Ray said, and praised his faculty for their research contributions and the Oregon State University Foundation for its successful Campaign for OSU.

Last year, Oregon State faculty brought in $281 million in research funding – despite federal cutbacks at the agency level. At the same time, the university signed a record 108 licensing agreements.

“Since 2006, we have spun off 17 companies that have attracted more than $180 million in capital investment,” Ray said. He added that earlier this month, OSU launched a new initiative – the Oregon State University Advantage – to serve business partners throughout the region in areas including innovative materials, advanced manufacturing, energy and clean technology, high tech, health care and innovation related to food, water and the environment.

The Campaign for OSU has raised some $888 million toward a goal of $1 billion and was bolstered by Ray’s announcement of new gifts.

The engineering initiative is being fueled by a $7 million gift from Peter and Rosalie Johnson, a $10 million gift from an anonymous donor, and $3 million in additional private funds and matching state funds. Peter Johnson, a 1955 engineering alumnus, ran Tekmax, Inc., in Tangent, Ore., a company that revolutionized battery manufacturing equipment.

The gifts will fund a new educational and research facility for the College of Engineering that will help accommodate a near-34 percent growth in student enrollment that has occurred over the past three years; will provide additional labs for collaborative research; and will expand Oregon State’s nationally recognized leadership in chemical, biological and environmental engineering.

“This new building will help to revolutionize how Oregon State approaches collaborative projects involving scientists and students in engineering and other colleges in essential areas of study and discovery,” Ray said.

Performing arts at OSU is getting a $5 million boost from an anonymous donor. (contributed photo)

A $5 million commitment from an anonymous donor – the largest gift the university has ever received for the arts – will advance performing arts at OSU and beyond. The anonymous gift establishes endowments for four faculty and staff positions, including support for the head of the School of Arts and Communication and two professors. The fourth endowment will support a new position at the university:  a director of the performing arts who will promote arts offerings at OSU and connect with arts programs in the area.

“This cornerstone investment in the arts is vital to our mission because great arts and sciences programs are at the core of every great research university,” said Ray. “The arts provide the context and inspiration – they drive the culture of creativity, innovation and diversity that is essential to a thriving research environment. Excellence in the arts supports OSU’s growing impact and influence in all arenas.”

A portion of the gift comes as a challenge, with $1 million of the commitment contingent upon the university securing an additional $1 million in private support for the School of Arts and Communication. Any gift or pledge of $25,000 or more to the school qualifies for this challenge.

Among other OSU accomplishments Ray pointed out:

• This week, the National Science Foundation announced that it has selected OSU as lead institution on a project to design and coordinate construction of as many as three research vessels – a 10-year project that could total $290 million;
• The state’s first branch campus, OSU-Cascades, is rapidly moving toward becoming a four-year institution. Since late April, the campus has raised $3.3 million of a $4 million private fundraising goal to help fund the expansion;
• This fall, the Fiske Guide to Colleges named OSU as one of the nation’s 41 “best buy schools” based on strong academics and reasonable cost. Only 20 public universities were so ranked.
• During the last year, OSU opened the Linus Pauling Science Center, the Hallie Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families, the International Living Learning Center, and the Graduate Studies Center at OSU-Cascades, and renovated Furman Hall.

President Ed Ray has received an award for his leadership.

Edward J. Ray, president of Oregon State University, has been named the 2013 Leadership Award honoree by the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District VIII, the CASE VIII Board has announced.

CASE is a leading international professional association serving educational institutions and the advancement professionals who work on their behalf in alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and other areas.

“The CASE District VIII Recognition Program celebrates exemplary achievement in the field of advancement by member institutions,” said Cheryl Nations, chair of the CASE VIII Board of Directors. “On behalf of the board I congratulate Dr. Ray for his outstanding leadership and his commitment to higher education. He exemplifies the standards by which we compare our work, and educate and inspire ourselves to greater success.”

Ray, who became president of Oregon State University in 2003, has led OSU through the creation of a strategic plan, re-organization of the academic colleges and the launching of the university’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign. To date, donors have committed more than $868 million, more than has been raised in any fundraising campaign in the state’s history.

Under his leadership, OSU has seen record enrollment, substantial increases in annual research awards, which totaled $262 million in 2011, and unprecedented growth in tenure-track faculty, with more than 100 faculty hires in the last two years.

“Dr. Ray embodies a rare combination of traits, possessing the acuity and practicality grounded in his background in economics, paired with a tremendous heart for the OSU family, for education and for Oregon,” said J. Michael Goodwin, President & CEO of the OSU Foundation.

In addition to his institutional leadership, Ray is a national and statewide leader in support of higher education. He is immediate past chair of the NCAA’s Executive Committee, chair of the PAC-12 CEO Executive Group, and serves as a board member of the American Association of Colleges and Universities. As the senior president in the Oregon University System, he is leading statewide discussions regarding how public universities are governed in Oregon.

“Dr. Ray has clearly established himself as an influential community and academic leader, a risk-taking visionary, and an inspirational role model,” said Jill W. Eiland, vice president of the State Board of Higher Education and Northwest region corporate affairs manager for Intel Corporation, in a letter supporting Ray’s nomination. “My admiration continues to grow as I watch him in action and count his many accomplishments. He is a tireless advocate for students and investments in the higher education system.”

Ray will receive his award at the 2013 CASE District VIII Conference in Portland, Ore., on Feb. 15, 2013, during the Professional Awards Luncheon.

Let me use the few minutes I have to take stock of where we are.

When I came to OSU in 2003 – and I know many of you are familiar with this story– budgets were being cut and the mood was a little grim.  When I set out to meet with faculty, well-meaning folks warned me, “You know, a lot of faculty members are a little depressed.”

And I said to the faculty, when I met with them, “You know, given everything that’s going on, if you’re not a little depressed, you’re not paying attention.”

Well, I think I can say today that if you look around at Oregon State University and you are not proud of your part in what is going on, then you are not paying attention!

And I know you are all paying attention.

When we adopted our Strategic Plan in 2003 and began planning The Campaign for OSU, one of the things we talked about was the importance of doing our part to prepare OSU for the future so we could better serve Oregon and the world.

The evidence is that collectively we are doing this well despite the challenges we face.  Let me give you some examples.

We said it was essential we help keep Oregon’s best and brightest students in Oregon.

Well, over the last three years OSU has been enrolling more top-ranked Portland area students than any university anywhere.  This fall we were more than twice as successful as the second place school.

We made the same order of commitment when it came to diversity, and we have increased the percentage of minority students every year.

We are also much more international than we were.  We have more out of state students.  More graduate students.

Many of you will remember conversations about how essential it was that the University and Foundation and Alumni Association collaborate more effectively so that OSU could get up to speed with our contemporaries in fundraising.  This was crucial if our aspirations for OSU’s future were ever going to be realized.

Well, the success there has been really gratifying.  At the end of August we were at $743 million toward our reset goal of $850 million.  The success of this first-ever capital campaign has been remarkable. In particular, over the last year we have focused on increasing endowed faculty positions through the Campaign. We have more doubled the number of endowed faculty positions since the campaign started, and our total now stands at 95.  In this spirit, I am pleased to announce today that Allyn Ford, the head of Roseburg Forest Products, and his wife Cheryl Ramberg-Ford, have just made a $5 million commitment to endow the Dean’s position in the College of Forestry at Oregon State University. This is the second endowed deanship created during the Campaign for OSU.

And the OSU Foundation is now regarded as one of the real leaders among similar organizations nationally.

The numbers I think you should focus on and feel especially good about are these:

•    As of last spring, over 57,000 households have contributed to the Campaign.  Incidentally, this includes many faculty and staff, both current and emeritus. And

•    More than one-third of all Campaign gifts have been from donors making their first contribution to OSU!  That’s extraordinary, and it says a lot about the ability of the Foundation, the Alumni Association, and our volunteers to get more people on board and your ability to garner support for the important work you do here.

The news has been equally good for our research program.  We have routinely set records, and last year – when many of our peers were down significantly – we held our own at $262 million.

We talked about positioning OSU to make greater contributions to Oregon’s economic and social prosperity.  Here again, we’ve made great strides:

•    In Oceanography and other disciplines, we are now leading major national multi-year research initiatives in critical areas like climate change and ocean wave energy.

•    We have secured 89 U.S. & Foreign Patents and executed 156 licenses in the last 4 years.  Some of these discoveries, such as transparent electronics (HP) and soy-based laminate glues, could become entire new industries.

•    And we have established 10 startups based on OSU funded research, with approximately $140M raised and 175 jobs created so far.

As you all know, thanks to the generosity of our alumni and friends we are also transforming the campus physically with new facilities and renovated classrooms.

In sum, working together we are doing a lot to help strengthen OSU as a vibrant, growing institution able to pursue its mission passionately and effectively.  You should be very proud indeed.

I know there has been a cost to this.  Many people in this community have worked, and continue to work, at nearly an unsustainable pace and the sense of community that is so important in the history and fabric of this great place has been strained.

In my speech later this Fall to the Faculty Senate I will outline some of the steps we are taking to address this issue.  Let me highlight just a few of them.

For starters, we are adding new faculty, with 30 new tenure track positions added this year.  We will soon announce plans for adding additional new faculty.  We have also provided funds to add sections to so-called bottleneck courses.

We will moderate our enrollment growth rate and focus on recruiting entering classes that are increasing diverse and include the best and brightest students.

We are taking internal actions, including adding an ombudsperson and acting to address bullying on campus.

The Campus Business Centers are already helping streamline operations, and we are working diligently at the system level to make sure the new status for the university system translates into more operating freedom and flexibility on campuses.

We have come through a very bad economy in solid financial shape.  More importantly, we have been able to maintain our momentum and stick carefully to our Strategic Plan.  This is a credit to everyone in the community.

When we see the continuity of outstanding students and faculty who study and learn here; the students and faculty who join us this fall; and our graduates – our alumni – who represent this university in the world, we should be very proud.

When we celebrate the accomplishments of our colleagues, as we will shortly, we should be very proud.

This University is engaged in a continuing, evolving statement about our responsibility and opportunity to serve the state and nation and world.  We are all privileged to have a part in that mission. And the statement we are making together is profound and wonderful.

Thank you, and have a great year.

~ Ed Ray

Israeli President Shimon Peres, right, speaks to a group of American university presidents, including OSU President Ed Ray, on left. (contributed photo)

When President Ed Ray traveled to Israel in early July with a group of other university presidents, he was excited to talk with people on both sides of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, and learn more about the current political situation as well as to see places he’d only read about in history texts and the Bible.

What he wasn’t prepared for was the emotional impact the trip would have on him, from the power of the landscape itself to the stories he heard from those who had lived immersed in the conflict. It also helped him ease the loss of a close personal friend.

Ray was part of a delegation sponsored by Project Interchange, an educational institute of the American Jewish Committee. One of the participants who traveled with the Rays was Donna Shalala, former Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bill Clinton, and current president of the University of Miami. The trip emphasized a multi-faceted look at the current political and social situation in Israel, and provided the opportunity for the visitors to speak with academics, administrators, journalists, political leaders, and others on both sides of the conflict.

“I was interested in the possibility of going to Israel, because all of our lives we’ve lived with the Israeli-Palestine conflict,” Ray said. “To get a chance to have a first hand understanding of what the issues are today, where things stand on the ground, to see the physical environment and get a sense of how threatened people feel on both sides of the conflict, and to see historic sites, was pretty exciting.”

Although his schedule was jammed with stakeholder meetings, there was a little free time for Ray and his wife Beth to visit some of the more significant landmarks in the area, including the Dead Sea, Masada, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, and sites in old Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the Western or Wailing Wall.”

“One of the things that surprised me was the emotional impact,” Ray said. “To see all these Biblical, historic sights you’ve heard about all your life but never been able to visit is pretty powerful.”

The trip also took on significance because of Ray’s recent loss, the death of his best friend growing up, Ira Krause, who was Jewish.

“He and I basically were brothers. We went through junior high school, high school and college together,” Ray said. During his trip, his thoughts often turned to his friend. “When we went and visited the Western Wall, I found myself going up and saying a prayer for him. That’s not something you can anticipate.”

But most of the trip was filled with discussions and exchanges with some of the area’s most powerful leaders and thinkers.

President Ed Ray and his wife Beth were among the American university leaders who had the chance to visit many sites in Israel and to speak with key stakeholders in the region. (contributed photo)

“One of the things that surprised me most was that virtually everyone agreed that if there is a solution to the conflict, it is the two-state solution. That seems to be incontrovertible,” Ray said. “But what was striking was opinions ran the gamut from believing that economic progress and political dialogue would expedite the solution, to the other extreme where people felt after the failure of the Oslo agreement, this is really an existential issue, and groups like Hamas will never accept the existence of Israel and will always insist on the right to return for Palestinians. One observer told us that not all problems have solutions and maybe this is a problem without a solution.”

Optimism was in short supply, Ray said, although one of the more hopeful leaders was Salam Fayyad.

“We went into the West Bank to Ramallah, and met with Prime Minister Fayyadd of the Palestinian Authority,” Ray said. “He’s an economist so I found that interesting (Ray is also an economist). He has been working for the last few years on local community projects, trying to change things at the street level to improve people’s lives. His basic strategy is if we can improve the lives of Palestinians and demonstrate the capacity to maintain security forces then that will speed up the day we can get to a solution. It was very uplifting and positive. In our next meeting we were told that Fayyadd’s party has 2 percent voter support. ”

The group also had the chance to sit down with President Shimon Perez of Israel. Ray asked Perez if he believed in the two-state solution.

“He said, ‘If you get a divorce and you live in the same house, you’re just going to fight the same battles over and over again. You’ve got to live in different houses.’ He was basically saying it was the only solution, but again, how you get from here to there is very difficult to fathom.”

One of the most heartening experiences Ray had was visiting the YMCA in old Jerusalem, where kindergarteners of Muslim and Jewish heritage played together.

“They don’t try to indoctrinate anyone to any other view. In every classroom they have an Israeli Hebrew teacher and an Arab teacher. They work together,” Ray said. “The director there told me that when he gets discouraged he watches the children interact and that provides hope on both sides of the conflict that peace is possible.”

Ray has been on many international trips during his time as president, from China and Thailand to India and Ireland and elsewhere. Each trip has given him perspectives on the cultures and educational backgrounds of some of OSU’s international students, as well as resulted in Memorandums of Understanding with some foreign universities. But the Israel trip had a particularly profound effect on Ray’s perspective about conflict.

“It has helped me appreciate that the problem they have may be unsolvable and that the divide among people there is very deepening. It does help put things in perspective.  We have great challenges here but there’s a lot to celebrate and feel good about too.”

~ Theresa Hogue

Oregon State University President Ed Ray has been named chair of the NCAA Executive Committee, effective immediately.

In his new role, Ray also will chair the Executive Committee’s Administrative Subcommittee, which will oversee the search for a new NCAA president.

Ray, who previously chaired the Executive Committee’s finance subcommittee, has been a member of the Executive Committee and the Division I Board of Directors since April 2007.

He replaces University of Georgia President Michael Adams, who announced he is stepping down from the Executive Committee with six months remaining on his term.

Adams, who completed his initial term on the committee last April but was given a one-year extension as chair to provide continuity in leadership during NCAA President Myles Brand’s illness, said he is leaving to ensure a similar continuity during the search for Brand’s successor.

Adams said he would prefer to avoid a change in Executive Committee leadership as the process likely evolves beyond when his extended term would have ended in April.

Adams also said that staying on as chair of the Executive Committee would be an unnecessary distraction since he has been mentioned as a possible successor to Brand.

“My name already has been and most likely will continue to be connected to the search – no matter how vigorously I will try to state my intentions to continue as president of the University of Georgia,” Adams said. “The fact is that my name has simply too often been mentioned in connection with the search to not run the risk of compromising the integrity of the effort by staying even until my extended term is completed.”

Adams has chaired the Executive Committee since becoming a member in April 2007. He also serves on the Division I Board of Directors and will continue to do so through January to ensure that the Southeastern Conference has representation on that body through the NCAA Convention.

“Like all of my colleagues on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors, I have a day job,” Adams said. “And after four and a half years on these two bodies – and a year longer than I intended – it is time for me to give my full attention to what are some critical future decisions for the University of Georgia.”

Before Ray became president at Oregon State in 2003, he was executive vice president and provost at The Ohio State University and a member of the economics faculty, including as chair of the economics department from 1976-92.

He received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Queens College (New York) and his master’s in economics from Stanford University in 1969. He received his doctorate in economics from Stanford in June 1971.

(See also Sports Illustrated)

President Ed Ray

A message from President Ed Ray:

As we approach the mid-point of the quarter, I want to take a moment to reflect on a number of challenges and opportunities facing OSU in the coming months and through the 2009-2010 academic year. Our enrollment for the school year will be nearly 22,000, with additional enrollment at OSU-Cascades surpassing 600. Because our students and their success are among our top priorities, we have met the increased demand for access to courses through increased financial aid and by adding course sections in high-demand areas. Compared to last year, we disbursed an additional $13 million in financial aid through tuition reimbursements to help students significantly affected by the economic downturn. And thanks to your efforts we have been able to create much-needed capacity in foundational courses for first-year students, enabling them to successfully start their studies at OSU.

In the depths of the recession last school year, we engaged in formal and informal conversations to consider and address questions about how OSU can continue its upward trajectory toward our goal of being a top 10 land grant university. Given the near-term challenges presented by state budget cuts, and the potential for additional reductions early next year, we also discussed changes that will allow us to emerge from this period more focused, more strategically aligned and better prepared for the future. Ignoring the problem and doing nothing would serve OSU and its students badly and is not an option.

I addressed these matters earlier this month when I spoke to the Faculty Senate regarding the state of the university. I described an “OSU 2025” profile, a vision to provide clarity about how current efforts to achieve strategic alignment and investments and budget reductions can ensure progress toward our longer-term aspirations, even in these toughest of times. Since the Senate session, I’ve heard from some who are energized and enthusiastic about this discussion. Others have wondered whether OSU 2025 is more about quantity than quality. Some have questioned how a statement about 2025 is connected to current budget realities.

To be clear, I intended “OSU 2025” discussion to do two things: 1) to provide a clear picture of the gaps we have to continue to close to reach our top 10 land grant goal; 2) to challenge the state and others to step up and join us in this effort going forward by conveying in substantive terms the proven value and future promise of investing in OSU. Our progress is contingent on securing resources to enable growth in faculty and infrastructure to support increases in our teaching, research and service capacities.

I have a very clear understanding of our current budget situation and the difficult decisions we must make during this biennium to ensure that we sustain the current impact and future potential of this great university. I commissioned the Advisory Council on Budgets and Strategic Priorities earlier this year to recommend areas where costs can be reduced and ways in which we can position the university for future growth in signature areas outlined in our Strategic Plan. Based on the council’s recommendations and the subsequent campus-wide discussions, I made a number of decisions that are posted at http://oregonstate.edu/leadership/budget/implementation.html . I shared some of the more important strategic and policy decisions with you via e-mail in July and during my recent address at the Faculty Senate.

We are undertaking cost-reduction activities in earnest, and recognize that because of the timing of the legislative cycle and subsequent decisions from the State Board, many activities cannot be stopped in mid-stream during the first year. Consequently, our focus for cost reductions in 2009-10 will be on streamlining and consolidating administrative services and reducing course offerings in low-demand areas to meet approved course guidelines. These transitional changes will also gives us time to plan transformational changes in academic programs and units that conform with divisional structures, consistent with approved academic system guidelines. This will allow for faculty engagement in shaping the university’s future consistent with our commitment to collaboration and shared governance.

The decisions that I have approved so far create a much-needed framework to make relevant decisions during the rest of this academic year. The description of Oregon State University in 2025 that I shared with you provides a long-term context within which to assess the appropriateness of short-term actions. In the Implementation Plan released by Provost Randhawa, a clear process and timeline has been defined for implementing decisions regarding programs, departments and colleges within each division. We will ensure that we stay with the implementation milestones that we have established. A set of dashboard indicators will be posted shortly online and updated regularly to clearly demonstrate the progress we are making toward cost-reduction goals. A Strategic Alignment/Budget Reduction Review Committee will provide oversight to the budget-reduction process, including validating and adjusting reduction targets associated with specific actions.

We will continue to make as strong a case as we possibly can with state elected officials and the Board of Higher Education for increased state support for OSU programs. While we implement actions to align programs and reduce costs, I will continue to work with you in advocating for the revenue base that we need to make substantial progress toward our collective vision.

The challenges we face in the coming year are momentous. I sincerely hope that by working together we can weather the near-term hardships in a way that prepares us for a much better future.

I encourage you to provide your perspective directly to me via e-mail or through the LIFE@OSU comments function.  Following my senate speech, which is posted online as streaming video and text, there were a number of thoughtful questions from faculty and staff; these questions and my responses are also posted.

President Ed Ray

President Ed Ray outlined  a new vision for OSU’s future on Thursday when he gave his annual State of the University address to Faculty Senate. He described a university that in 2025 will be as much as 60 percent larger, focused on signature research areas, more international in scope and built upon goals of student success and faculty achievement.

To see the full text of Ray’s speech, go to http://oregonstate.edu/leadership/president/state_university_address2009.html

Ray announced that the university would adopt a new divisional structure to focus its resources and foster even more collaboration – not only among faculty at OSU, but with partners at other universities, agencies and organizations in Oregon and beyond.

“If we are successful in setting and sustaining a course toward greater excellence, I believe that Oregon State University can be among the top 15 land grant universities by 2025,” Ray said. “Consequently, we will be an international research university that attracts the very best students and faculty from around the world to our education and research programs.”

Ray noted that OSU is poised to build upon its success over the last few years, including a record $252 million in external research funding in 2008-09, and private giving of $82 million – the second highest total raised in an academic year.

The OSU president also noted that The Campaign for OSU has raised more than $534 million toward its goal of $625 million, with almost two years left. This kind of fund-raising success will have to become the norm not the exception, he said.

“As great as these efforts have been, we must more than double the value of our annual awards of research grants and contracts by the year 2025,” Ray said. “And we must more than double the annual fund-raising level achieved through our campaign, which will require at least one and perhaps two additional campaigns over the next 15 years.”

Ray said that the decision to align OSU’s academic programs into divisions – an outgrowth of a year-long transparent process – would help the university focus its resources, make strategic investments for the future and better serve students. These divisions will include:

•    Division of Earth Systems Science: College of Agricultural Sciences, College of Forestry, and College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences;
•    Division of Health Sciences: College of Health and Human Sciences, College of Pharmacy, and College of Veterinary Medicine;
•    Division of Business and Engineering: College of Engineering and College of Business;
•    Division of Arts and Sciences: College of Liberal Arts, College of Science, and College of Education.

An implementation plan for the division structure is forthcoming, and it will call on deans to collaborate on a new administrative structure that will bring the divisions to life.

By 2025, OSU must be prepared to educate as many as 30,000 to 35,000 students, Ray said, and the makeup of the university’s enrollment may shift significantly. The percentage of OSU’s international student enrollment will double, one out of every four students will be enrolled in a graduate or professional program, and the university should graduate as many as 6,000 students each year. To guarantee access, OSU will continue its signature Bridge to Success program, which paid tuition and fees for 3,200 students last year and is projected to support a similar number this year.

“To realize these aspirations for 2025, we must increase the number of tenured and tenure-track faculty from 783 to between 1,300 and 1,500 in the next 15 years,” Ray said, “and we must begin now.”

Sabah Randhawa, OSU’s provost and executive vice president, is leading an effort to identify resources over the next two years that would add 25 to 30 faculty members in arts and sciences to boost the university’s capacity in its core teaching areas. Over the next three years, OSU will look to also create 10-15 new faculty positions in each of the other three divisions.

Ray acknowledged that looking to increase faculty at a time when the university is eliminating as many as 300 positions may seem confusing to some, but it’s about allocating resources more effectively to focus the university toward its strategic goals. Many of the positions eliminated will be handled through retirements and other natural attrition from the university’s employee ranks.

“We have reworked our base budgets to provide additional resources to the colleges most centrally engaged in delivering undergraduate education,” Ray added.

Ray said OSU also must increase its collaborative in-state research programs, pointing to the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI) and Oregon Built Environmental and Sustainable Technologies Center (Oregon BEST) as examples.

Ray also announced that the College of Education will move some of its programs to the OSU-Cascades Campus in Bend, while retaining the administrative structure on the OSU campus. Ray said his vision for OSU’s future growth includes the state’s first branch campus as an integral component of the university, and said it should seek an enrollment of 3,000 to 4,000 students by 2025.

“That level of success will require us to help colleagues there build signature programs that will make the Cascades Campus a destination of choice for students and faculty,” Ray said.

President Ed Ray presents OSU undergraduate Matthew Holland with a check for next year’s tuition. Holland won a diversity essay contest earlier this year for “This is My OSU: A Destination of Choice.” Holland is an English major. (photo: Theresa Hogue)

Inspired by his philosophy class, Ethics of Diversity and his professor, Lani Roberts, he says that “from slavery to suffrage to civil rights, the road ahead is not as long as it once was, and we must do our part today,”

Holland, a fifth-year English major, entered the “This is My OSU: A Destination of Choice” diversity essay contest during winter term and spoke passionately about the need for all OSU students to take classes such as Ethics of Diversity.

The contest was created by the Office of Community and Diversity to demonstrate a campus commitment to diversity and to get student input on diversity efforts. It invited OSU students to submit a one-page essay outlining their best idea for making OSU a destination of choice for people who are committed to diversity and inclusion.

The term “Destination of Choice” came from one of President Ray’s University Day speeches and the “This is My OSU” slogan was created by the University Advancement office.

“As we move forward on our ambitious diversity agenda, it is clear that we cannot do everything, and we have to develop priorities,” said Director of the Office of Community and Diversity Terryl Ross. “Student voice is our true north. This essay contest has generated some great ideas.”

The contest yielded 101 essays. The identities of the writers were kept anonymous and 37 students, staff and faculty read the essays. Each essay was read by at least five different people. The top five essays were presented to the campus for “American Idol” style on-line voting in May. President Ed Ray, who served as one of the readers, was impressed with many of the essays.

“I’m glad to see that so many people from different backgrounds took time to participate in the contest,” Ray said. “We are looking forward to implementing some of these creative ideas.”

Holland will graduate in Fall 2010, after studying abroad in Chile this fall. After graduation he plans to attend Marine Officer Candidate School and perhaps graduate or law school.

Holland appreciates that OSU is interested in what students have to say, and encourages others to reach past their comfort zone and get to know people and experiences that are different from their own. He encourages others to embrace the opportunity to take Ethics of Diversity and other classes from OSU’s nationally recognized Difference Power and Discrimination program.

You can read Holland’s award winning essay and those of the other finalists at http://oregonstate.edu/diversity/.The Office of Community and Diversity is seeking participants in an “Ethics of Diversity” class which will be taught by Lani Roberts M-Th, 10 a.m.-noon, Aug. 3-Aug. 27. This class is being offered to all OSU faculty and staff, free of charge, as a follow-up to the “This is My OSU: A Destination of Choice” diversity contest. If you are interested in participating, please contact Corrine Gerig at 54-1-737-4381 or Corrine.Gerig@oregonstate.edu by July 24. Thirty people are needed to conduct this class. Space is limited, participants will be selected on a first come, first served basis.

~ Diane Davis

(To see OSU President Ed Ray’s comments on the Governor’s budget, click here.)

Much of the proposed increase would go to a larger capital construction program, including renovations at Strand Agriculture Hall and completion of work at Education Hall, and a phase-in of debt service from prior biennia capital projects.

The governor’s proposal, which goes to the state Legislature for consideration when it convenes in January, includes a 1.7 percent reduction in OSU’s statewide public service programs (Agricultural Experiment Station, Extension Service, Forest Research Lab).

A glass-half-full view of the budget, said Jock Mills, OSU government relations director, is that the Governor’s proposal has $53.1 million more in general and lottery funds than the budget approved by the Legislature for the current biennium ($949.5 million vs. $896.4 million). Many other state agencies faired far worse, especially considering their increased case loads and costs.

For a glass-half-empty view, Mills said, the general funds devoted to higher education classroom services are 4.3 percent below the essential budget level – the level of funding necessary to provide the current level of service.  The Governor’s overall budget also relies on a number of tax proposals such as increasing the corporate minimum and cigarette taxes, both which were included in the Governor’s budget last biennium, but were rejected by the Legislature and Oregon voters.

The Dec. 1 budget release by the Governor is a first step in a long process that is largely dependent on future economic forecasts.  In the midst of a national recession, the proposal demonstrates an intent to minimize the damage to education programs across the entire spectrum, from pre-kindergarten through graduate school, Mills said.

But whether the proposal sticks will depend on an economy that is far more turbulent and uncertain than in previous biennia, he said. “With no expectation of a favorable forecast on the horizon, it is probably safe to say that it won’t get any better than this, and it could get far worse.  Nevertheless, given the prudent actions we have taken in the past, and our focus on managing our funds, OSU is about as prepared as we can be to address the upcoming challenges.”

The next significant step will be in late February when the state economist delivers the next quarterly revenue forecast.  It will indicate whether further cuts need to be taken during the current biennium while also will guiding the development of an alternative budget to be crafted by the Joint Ways and Means Committee chairs.

Legislators will not make any final decisions until May when the next quarterly forecast is issued.  That forecast will include information about income tax receipts based on the April 15 tax deadline, and will be used to guide “final” budget decisions, Mills said. “I use ‘final’ because it is likely a number of decisions will be postponed to February 2010, when the Legislature is likely to reconvene in another supplemental session.”

To read the press release that outlines the Governor’s Recommended Budget, click here.

For more detailed information, use this link to the higher education section in the Governor’s Recommended Budget. (Once in the PDF, go to page B-14. While you will find a number of interesting elements in the document, you will not find a definitive way to determine the extent of reductions from the current level of spending — the Essential Budget Level which is the amount that would be required if the same level of service provided this biennium were to be extended to the next one.)

For a summary of the Governor’s Recommended Budget prepared by the Oregon University System, click here.

For a link to a release from Senate President Peter Courtney (D-Salem) and Senator Margaret Carter (D-Portland) taking the budget to task for its cuts to human services and corrections, click here.

A press release from Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day) criticizing the taxes included in the Governor’s proposal and calling for greater fiscal restraint appears here.

For a link to a release from Speaker of the House designee Dave Hunt (D-Clackamas County) calling the effort a good first step but in need of work, click here.

The financial news of recent weeks, as we all know, has been deeply troubling, both nationally and closer to home. With the release last week of a new revenue forecast from the state economist, we know the expected extent of the downturn’s impact on Oregon’s public agency budgets: at least a $142 million reduction for the current biennium. As many of you know, Gov. Kulongoski has issued a directive that state agencies implement a 1.2 percent budget reduction to address the shortfall.

The impact of budget reductions announced last week can be seen in red at the top of each bar, designating the amount to be reduced between now and June 30. (graph: OSU Office of Budget and Fiscal Planning)

The Oregon University System’s share of this cut is expected to be $10.2 million — 1.2% of the current general fund budget.  For Oregon State University, this represents a minimum level of cuts of $2.8 million from our general fund budgets; $1.4 million from our statewide public service programs (OSU Extension, Agricultural Experiment Station and Forest Research Laboratory); and $120,000 from the OSU Cascades Campus.

OUS has announced that it will determine how it will allocate the reductions among the campuses in early December once the governor’s budget is released.  They have indicated that this will allow the system to align current reductions with the Governor’s budget for the next biennium. We will not know the exact level of current biennium reductions until early December, but now expect them to be roughly as outlined above.

There is much still to be determined.  It is possible that the next state revenue forecast in late February 2009 could be followed by another series of reductions.  In December, under the direction of Provost Sabah Randhawa, a series of planning sessions will begin with academic leadership to discuss changes to be made in the next biennium and beyond.

We are already updating the strategic plan that we launched in 2004 and that effort will provide the context within which to chart our course for the next five years. Therefore, this is an optimal time with our core mission in mind to determine what key areas we need to protect; what areas best meet the demands of our mission and the needs of our students; and those that we will need to downsize or even eliminate in order to sustain our current level of quality and service.

The update of the strategic plan will be completed during winter quarter. Through an open and transparent process we will finalize our plans for the next biennium by June 2009.

Many of you may have immediate questions concerning how these financial concerns will affect you and your units. Among the most pressing questions we’ve heard so far are these, as well as answers:

*       Will hiring processes move forward for vacant positions? It is difficult to articulate an institutional policy, as some positions are critical to essential functions of the University and to the strategic priorities of the University.  Unit administrators are asked to review open positions, taking into account unit budget realities and importance of each position to essential functions of the unit. Some positions will not be filled.

*       Will salary increases go forward? Yes. OSU has planned carefully and conservatively in this area and will support implementation of those increases, including merit/equity raises scheduled for January. These increases are in line with decisions made at the other OUS institutions.  And, with OUS salaries already below national averages, we cannot afford to balance the budget by reducing our ability to attract and retain the best talent for our faculty and staff. OSU’s faculty and staff are responsible for the level of success and quality that the university has attained, and your extraordinary contributions must be recognized through equitable compensation.

*       How has the downturn affected the university’s endowment, payouts from which affect many salary and operational issues around campus? As you might imagine, our endowment is down, though less so than many of our peer institutions.  While the Standard and Poor’s index was down more 15 percent through the end of June, the OSU Foundation endowment was only down 4.66 percent. This put us in the top quartile of performers for endowments of our size. We do not yet have final numbers for the third quarter, but like others, we expect a loss. The university is fortunate to have an exceptionally experienced group of business professionals serving on the OSU Foundation’s Investment Committee, and they continue to carefully steward endowment resources in difficult market conditions. 
     
These are challenging, difficult times.  At times like these throughout OSU’s history, the university family has come together in thoughtful and creative ways to keep moving forward on our mission to serve the people of Oregon. The current economic situation demands that we work together again. And I have confidence that we will succeed, as we historically have, through the caring actions of committed individuals across our campuses and in the communities that we serve.

I will continue to make the case for OSU as aggressively and compellingly as possible, so that we can leverage all available resources for a university whose future is so closely tied to that of Oregon’s. As this state’s land grant university, with a founding and current mission of serving every county in Oregon, we will not waver from our commitment to providing excellent teaching, research and service, even in the face of circumstances that would sometimes dictate we do otherwise.

Thank you for your commitment to that mission and for your dedication to OSU.

By earning emeritus status, individuals enjoy life membership on the OSU faculty with associated rights and privileges. The title also signifies the faculty member has earned “distinction and respect through many years of dedicated and effective service to the programs of the institution,” wrote Ray in letters of notification to each recipient.

In addition to Dutson, who is designated dean emeritus of the college and professor emeritus of food science and technology, other new emeriti faculty include:

W. Thomas Adams, professor emeritus of forest sciences; Susan Aldrich-Markham, professor emeritus of crop and soil science; Evelyn Arlene Engel, professor emeritus of extension and experiment station communications; Deborah B. Hackelman, assistant professor emeritus of library systems applications; Mark Mellbye, professor emeritus of crop and soil science; and Carol Savonen, associate professor emeritus of extension and experiment station communications.