Oregon State graduates Alexa Humphreys and Jessica Hoffman are biking across the US. (contributed photo)

Two recent Oregon State University graduates are cycling across the United States via in an effort to challenge assumptions about how Americans, and particularly women, travel.

Starting July 1 from Portland, Ore., and riding to Portland, Maine, Alexa Humphreys and Jessica Hoffman plan on covering 3,500 miles as they bike and camp along the northern United States. The women call their journey “The Ride to Choose,” and say it reflects the myriad of choices one makes in life, including ones pertaining to health, travel, identity and personal goals.

“Much of the theme celebrates our ability to choose to cycle across the U.S. and embrace our privilege as two young, strong, independent, able-bodied women,” Hoffman said. “Rather than focusing on the hardships life has bestowed upon us, we are choosing to take charge of our lives, our freedom? and our choices and actually live.”

Some friends and family members thought the trip was a crazy idea, but four weeks into the journey, they’re now hearing more support and admiration.

“One of the top questions we get is, “Are you doing this alone?” and my response is always, “No, we’re doing this together,”” said Humphreys.

The women, both of whom have previously traveled internationally, estimate it will take around 10 weeks to cross the country. Their biggest challenge, in addition to the physical exertion of constant biking, will be finding safe and legal campsites as they travel.

Hoffman and Humphreys are blogging about their journey, at www.ridetochoose.com. Both women are avid photographers, and are capturing their travels on camera and sharing the photos, along with tales of their journey, on the blog. They hope the stories they share inspire others to consider taking their own journeys.

Jessica Hoffman cools down during the first leg of her cross-country bike trip. (contributed photo)

“We want to get people excited about traveling with their own sheer willpower as their fuel, while intimately exploring this expansive country,” they wrote on their blog.

Hoffman is a 2009 graduate with a double degree in Public Health and Secondary Education. A substitute teacher, Hoffman said she feels her journey can inspire others to realize how physical activity is empowering and essential to leading a fulfilling life.

A health crisis early in the journey stalled for a few days as Hoffman contracted strep throat in The Dalles. By the second week of July, they were leaving northeastern Oregon and heading toward the northeastern tip of Washington.

Humphreys said they’ve encountered few problems on the first leg of their journey.

Alexa Humphreys celebrates after catching a fish with a piece of driftwood and a rope. (contributed photo)

“We’ve had people make us breakfast, invite us into their homes, suggest routes, give us fishing tips, and even give us orthopedic insoles for our cycling shoes,” she said. “This trip has been an abundance of kindness and support.”

Humphreys, who graduated with a liberal arts degree from Oregon State, has spent time doing everything from bartending in the US Virgin Islands to living in Thailand for six months. While she was attending OSU, she met a group of cyclists who were riding cross-country, and the idea intrigued her enough that she eventually put it on a ‘life-list’ of things she wanted to accomplish. And Hoffman jumped at the chance to participate when Humphreys invited her.

When the friends began planning their trip, they laid out a map of the country and began highlighting which cities they wanted to see. Determined to travel light, they each packed 50 pounds of gear, including clothing, bedding, a tent and water and food to last them two days.

Both women credit their Women Studies courses at Oregon State with helping shape their world view and nurturing their personal growth.  Hoffman was part of the Women’s Affairs Task force for ASOSU, the Student Executive Council and the President of the Public Health Club during her time at OSU, and said she misses being a student.

“Having been out now almost a year I am very grateful for all my time spent at OSU, and I am looking forward to building upon my strong foundation,” she said.

With the support of their friends and family, and those they’re meeting along the way, Hoffman and Humphreys can almost taste the glass of beer they’ll drink to celebrate when they reach Portland, Maine. And they hope the OSU community will follow along with their adventures.

“Thank you to everyone at OSU who I ever encountered,” Humphreys said. “You are a piece of the intricate puzzle that makes me the adventure-seeking female that I am.”

~ Theresa Hogue

If your summer itinerary took you away for research, a sabbatical or just a good old-fashioned vacation, you may have missed some particularly interesting campus happenings. LIFE@OSU offers this recap for the information challenged.

OSU President Ed Ray presents honorary degrees to 23 former students. (photo: Jim Folts)

June
If you were unable to attend OSU’s 139th commencement ceremony, you not only missed the university’s largest-ever graduation, with some 4,600 degrees awarded, but the presentation of honorary degrees to 23 former students of Japanese ancestry who were forced to leave the university during the early years of World War II.

Victims of U.S. Executive Order 9066, which sent many of them to internment camps, most of the former students have since died. But several attended the ceremony, moving many in the crowd to tears by their grace and dignity.

Bindi, Terri and Bob Irwin visit Corvallis. (photo: OSU Foundation)

Later in the month, Terri Irwin, wife of the late Steve “Crocodile Hunter” Irwin, came to Corvallis to sign a memo of understanding with the OSU Marine Mammal Institute to fund a series of upcoming whale expeditions headed by Professor Bruce Mate. Accompanied by her Emmy-award winning, 9-year-old daughter, Bindi, and 4-year-old son, Bob, Terri captivated a standing-only crowd at the CH2M HILL Alumni Center and patiently indulged multiple interview requests.

Terri, who is originally from Oregon, disclosed that she and Bindi also plan to accompany Mate on at least one of the expeditions, which will be filmed for later broadcast on the Animal Planet cable network.

OSU Associate Professor Staci Simonich and Peking University student Wentao Wang gather air samples from a rooftop in Beijing during the Summer Olympics.

July
News that Staci Simonich, an OSU associate professor of chemistry and toxicology, would be part of an international team monitoring air quality in smoggy Beijing during the Summer Olympics prompted a spate of major, big media coverage. Outlets ranging from the Wall Street Journal to National Geographic to USA Today seized on the story, as did the Reuters and Associated Press wire services, sending the story around the globe.

The air quality, it turns out, was lousy for the Aug. 8 – 24 games, but not as bad as expected, Simonich reported. Chinese efforts to clean things up reduced particulates by 20 to 40 percent over previous year measures, but still left the air considerably below cleanliness standards that many visiting athletes experience in their home countries.

An interesting new partnership between OSU and the London-based Into University Partnerships firm began attracting its own considerable news attention in July. The agreement, the first that Into has signed with a U.S. university, aims to attract significantly more international students to OSU. If successful, the partnership could increase OSU tuition revenue by $25 million over the next five years. The New York Times and Chronicle of Higher Education were among the media writing about the arrangement, which promises to draw much more attention over the coming school year.

August
A pair of prominent new hires were announced in the first half of the month: new College of Liberal Arts Dean Lawrence R. Rodgers and Stephen Brandt, new director of the Oregon Sea Grant Program.

Rodgers , associate dean of Kansas State University’s College of Arts and Sciences since 2002, holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a scholar in ethnic and racial minority literature. He’s been a recognized innovator at Kansas State, leading establishment of a first-year experience program and leading creation of a university-wide strategic plan. Rodgers replaced Vice Provost Larry Roper, who had served as interim dean over the past year.

Brandt comes to OSU from the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, replacing Robert Malouf, who served as Sea Grant director from 1991 until June of this year. An accomplished scientist with more than 90 publications, 80-plus scientific cruises and more than 220 presentations to his credit, Brandt begins work in Corvallis in January 2009.

Finally, if the dog days of summer left you feeling your age, George Poinar put the passage of time in perspective with his discovery of the world’s oldest gecko.

Poinar, a courtesy professor at OSU and one of the world’s leading experts on insects, plants and other life forms trapped in amber, published the finding in the journal Zootaxa along with fellow researchers from the National History Museum in London. The ancient lizard’s age? One hundred million, give or take a few summers.

~ by Todd Simmons

As dean of the College of Liberal Arts, Larry Rodgers will oversee more than 200 faculty members.

Lawrence R. Rodgers, an associate dean at Kansas State University with a track record of liberal arts advocacy, fundraising, and creating new learning opportunities for students, has been named dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Oregon State University.

He will begin his new position on Sept. 8, succeeding Larry Roper, who has held the position on an interim basis since May of 2007. Roper will return to full-time duties as OSU’s vice provost for student affairs.

Rodgers has been associate dean of Kansas State’s College of Arts and Sciences since 2002, and a member of its faculty since 1989. After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he went to Kansas State as an assistant professor of English and was named head of the department in 1995, a position he held until becoming associate dean in 2002.

He has been a campus leader at Kansas State on many initiatives, including establishing a first-year experience program, creating a new university-wide strategic plan, revamping the honors program, and chairing the international activity council.

“The depth of those experiences – both as an administrator and a campus leader – make Larry Rodgers ideally suited to lead the OSU College of Liberal Arts,” said OSU President Ed Ray. “His vision of the importance of a strong liberal arts program at a Land Grant institution is consistent with our own at Oregon State, and he has the experience to help us realize that vision.”

As dean of the OSU College of Liberal Arts, Rodgers will oversee an academic unit that has more than 200 faculty members in 13 departments. More than 3,000 students pursue one of the 19 majors offered by the college, which also has an international degree and certificate programs.

Sabah Randhawa, OSU’s provost and executive vice president, said the College of Liberal Arts plays a pivotal role in providing critical thinking and communication skills to all undergraduate students at OSU. The university envisions a more prominent role for the college in graduate education – growth that will require private, foundation and corporate fundraising.

“The College of Liberal Arts will play an increasingly important role in addressing current and emerging issues of importance to the state of Oregon and beyond,” Randhawa said. “Certainly undergraduate and graduate education will be at the forefront of its mission. But Larry Rodgers also will provide the leadership that commits the college to critical research, scholarship and outreach efforts that will make it even more relevant.”

Rodgers was trained as a scholar of American ethnic and minority literature and his teaching and writing often has centered on multicultural and regional themes. This focus has resulted in courses, books and scholarship about people and places “that have traditionally been conceived of as marginal and marginalized,” he said.

The new OSU dean says he looks forward to working with faculty, staff and students in the College of Liberal Arts and collaborating with others on campus. He will be a strong advocate for liberal arts, Rodgers added, which he considers to be the crucial foundation of every OSU student’s academic experience.

“Liberal arts provides the fundamental disciplines teaching students critical thinking, collaboration, written and oral communication, ethics, citizenship, an awareness of place, and an appreciation not just for the value of diversity as a social good, but also as the best means of thinking intelligently and subtly about the complexities of the contemporary world.”

Rodgers’ wife, Susan Jackson Rodgers, will join the OSU Department of English as an associate professor in the widely recognized Creative Writing Program. An accomplished author and educator, she has published an award-winning collection of stories, “The Trouble with You Is,” as well as fiction in numerous distinguished literary journals, including the New England Review, Prairie Schooner and North American Review.