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\f0\fs24 \cf0 Thank you very much for that very warm welcome. I want to thank Christy
and your colleagues for making this even possible, and Pat, I appreciate your leadership of the
alumni association's business roundtable. I was telling Pat before we came in for lunch,
I think the first meeting we had, there were about 25 of us in a side room at the mac,
and I think I had to bring my own bologna sandwich. We've come a long way. I want to
thank each and every one of you for being here today and for this remarkable turnout.
Your presence here affirms your interest in and support of Oregon State University, and
for that we are all very, very grateful. Today, as I share with you an update on the state
of the University, I want to emphasize my certainty that the achievements of Oregon
State University and the University's incredible promise for the future are the direct result
of faculty, staff, students, administrators, alumni, donors, OSU friends and higher education
supporters all working together. Together we have made Oregon State University an authentic
and accomplished community whose excellence, innovation and leadership promote a healthy
planet, wellness and economic progress. That is who we are and it uniquely defines this
great University. Oregon State's commitment to excellence is not based on some abstract
principal. The University was established in 1868, 145 years ago to serve others. And
we understand that the more extraordinarily capable we are at everything that we do, the
more profound and positive our impact will be on the lives of those we serve. This commitment
to excellence, innovation and leadership has never been more essential than it is today,
a time in which the economy remains unstable, a time when prosperity is enjoyed by fewer
and fewer among us, where competing social needs mount, and where the future for young
people is clouded by uncertainty. Looking ahead it has never been more evident that
as a land grant university, OSU must not only serve the state of Oregon, and do so exceptionally
well, it must also be a national and international leader and contributor of the 21st century.
As we work and invest together toward a brighter, more certain future, we must also do things
differently than before. I know that our graduates at Oregon State are the most important contribution
we make to society and the future. Therefore, ant OSU, we are not simply preparing people
for the workforce. We are about reinventing the workforce. Today I am pleased to welcome
a number of our Oregon State University students, who I am confident will change the world for
the better. Will those OSU students who are with us here today please stand and be recognized.
(applause) In the spirit of looking ahead at how Oregon State University is prepared
to address the future, I will focus on five key points: the financial state of the University,
OSU's decision regarding student enrollment in the future, the University's commitment
to excellence, the exponential growth of the University's research and Oregon State's impact
on innovation and discovery across the world and the remarkable accomplishments we are
realizing because of the campaign for OSU. To begin, let me review a couple of important
achievements since I met with you last year here in Portland. This past fall, more than
40 percent of our incoming freshman qualified as high achieving with a high school GPA of
3.75 or higher. In fact, each year, Oregon State enrolls more valedictorians and salutatorians
than any other university in the state. A number of the Portland area's brightest and
most accomplished high school students are with us here today. Will you please stand
and be welcomed. (applause) It bears repeating that I hope that each of these exceptional
students will enroll at OSU. Oregon State is an increasingly diverse and inclusive community.
This year about 1 in 5 Oregon State students is a member of a US minority. We continue
to build a global student body and we have more than doubled our international enrollment
to 2,400 students in just the last four years. Increasing the cultural diversity of Oregon
State enriches our lives and helps prepare Oregon State students to excel in a global
economy and community. In the past two years we have hired 180 tenure-track faculty from
prestigious universities across the world. I know of no other university in the nation
that has hired that many new faculty. The campaign for OSU continues to be a great success.
The campaign raised $106 million last year, and after a very strong first half of this
year, I am pleased to announce today that with commitments in hand and pledges to be
booked, the campaign total now stands at $900 million. (applause) Obviously we're well on
our way toward our goal of 1 billion dollars by the end of 2014. Despite cutbacks in federal
and state funding, overall research funding at OSU last year increased to 281 million
dollars. This included strong gains in industry-funded research, a priority in growing success stories
at Orregon State. Research grants and contracts at Oregon State have more than doubled in
the past decade, and provide for innovation and society that touches countless aspects
of the economy, wellness, and our environment. In central Oregon, an effort to expand OSU
Cascades by 2015 to a robust four-year branch campus of Oregon State has begun thanks to
an incredible outpouring of community support and financial investment. Since last April
more than $3.3 million of a $4 million goal has been raised in private contributions to
help fund the campus expansion. This total includes a $1 million award from the Tigason
family trust. Our goal is to grow OSU Cascades to an enrollment of 3,000-5,000 students by
2025, and it has strong leadership support from Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, key state
legislators, the state board of higher education and the people of central Oregon, and, bottom
line, Becky Johnson is leading this effort with extraordinary and exceptional skill,
and I know Becky is here, please stand up and be recognized. (applause) Just yesterday
the National Science Foundation, you may have read it in today's paper, announced that Oregon
State, would be the lead institution on a project to design and coordinate the construction
of as many as three ocean-going research vessels to increase the nation's marine science research
capabilities. If all three vessels are funded, the project investment that OSU would coordinate
would total $290 million. It is anticipated that one of the vessels would be based on
the West coast, hopefully at Oregon State's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport,
while the other vessels would be located on the East coast and the gulf coast. This would
be a 10-year project. For those of you that follow sports, Beaver athletics have enjoyed
significant success lead by this year's OSU's football team 9-3 season record. (applause)
Go Beavs! Meanwhile the PAC-12 media contracts are now in place, and our media funding for
athletics will more than triple in the next few years. In time, athletics will help us
fund academic and student support services, and as you saw in the introductory video,
First Lady Michelle Obama gave an inspiriting and memorable commencement address in Resser
Stadium this past June to a crowd of more than 30,000 people and Oregon State's largest
ever graduate class of nearly 5,000 people. While conferring the honorary degree on the
First Lady, I assured her that she would always be a member of Beaver Nation, so make no mistake,
Oregon State is a special place. The university offers more than 200 undergraduate and 100
graduate degree programs where students learn and work with world-class faculty in curriculums
ranging from forestry to crop science, business, public health and human sciences, public policy,
engineering, pharmacy, veterinary medicine, oceanography and many, many more. But what
you might not realize is that OSU also offers an acclaimed writing program and is developing
some of the nation's finest young writers; operates a 4H program that bridge the gap
between K-12 education and life skills; supports student-operated open source computer lab
that brings cutting-edge innovations in software to consumers and offers extension programs
in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas Counties that promote a healthy local economy and community.
Or that Oregon State's College of Business has a new executive MBA program that innovatively
focuses in area such as international operation, supply chain management and marketing management,
or that OSU's colleges of business and pharmacy are collaboratively addressing the business
of wellness with a new Farm D MBA program. But OSU is not just about how many or how
big, it's about value, benefit and impact. This past fall, the Fisk Guide to Colleges
named OSU one of the nation's 41 Best Buy School based on the University's strong academics
and modest cost of educate. In fact, only 20 public universities were so ranked in the
Fisk Guide, and Oregon State University was one of only two Pacific Northwest universities
to be honored. Now, given that, and given that 71 percent of OSU graduates at mid-career
work in their degree area and that they earn more than 50 percent of their peers nationally,
we think, appropriately, Oregon State degrees provide phenomenal financial and career values
for all of our graduates. OSU also has a strong sense of place. At Oregon State, students,
faculty, staff and community members thrive together. Last fall the America Institute
for Economic Research named Corvallis as the number 5 top destination among all college
towns in America. This designation captures the community's overall quality of life, cultural
and academic opportunities, natural beauty, employment opportunities and our community
values, but OSU is much more than a standalone, mid-Willamette Valley University. As I noted
last year Oregon State generates more than $2 billion in annual economic impact, and
its teaching, research, outreach and engagement activities reach throughout the state of Oregon
in the form of University facilities and programs in each of the state's 36 counties. Here in
Portland the OSU extension service, our food innovation center in the Pearl, OSU's College
of Pharmacy's partnerships with OHSU and the college of Veterinary Medicine Program with
the Oregon Humane Society help transform the Portland region. As you leave today, each
of you will receive our Impact 2013 report, which includes important facts and rich narratives
about OSU's faculty, staff, students and alumni. Today I will share with you a brief view of
Oregon State's future. First, through multiple initiatives including very effective financial
management and strategic planning, increasing research funding, the support of the campaign
for OSU and meeting targeted increases in enrollment growth, Oregon State University
is in a sound financial position. The financial state of the University remains strong for
the foreseeable future despite unrelenting challenges in state funding for higher education
and federal funding for research, student financial aid and statewide public services.
Furthermore, as we all understand, important governance issues within public higher education
and across the preK 20 continuum are now being addressed in the state. Oregon State University
is committed to being part of the solution in this change effort that is so essential
to achieving the state's 404020 academic goal. In fact, we have established a clear direction
for ourselves and in our partnership with the state on behalf of the people of Oregon.
Second, we've developed great clarity regarding academic and service excellence at the University.
We have reinvented our academic programs and nurtured an already strong culture of collaboration
at Oregon State. We've decreased - decreased - the numbers of colleges, schools and programs
at the University in the last two years from 63 to 42, and we have illuminated 25 historically
low-enrollment program, while at the same time, we have created and refreshed others.
We have streamlined OSU's administrative structure and transformed our focus into three signature
areas built on a strong foundation in the arts and sciences and we are investing in
recruiting and retention of world-class faculty, staff and administrators. Faculty members
are the heart and soul of Oregon State, and we cannot achieve the excellence we seek without
outstanding and diverse faculty. Third, we are successfully managing our enrollment goals
to immediately grow Oregon State's enrollment in Corvallis, serve our responsibility as
Oregon State University and recruit and retain the best and the brightest and most diverse
students. We are doing so to maintain a manageable campus size and community balance in Corvallis
by expanding our academic programing online, by growing OSU Cascades and by creating limited
academic offerings in Newport. Oregon State can attain top-10 national standing among
land grant universities with 28,000 students enrolled at our Corvallis campus, rather than
the 35-40,000 one sees at our peer institutions, and we will meet our targets in support of
the 404020 initiative. Fourth, we will continue to increase the amount and impact of grant-funded
research including increased University industry partnerships. Many strategic partnerships
are well underway. Last year, we signed a record 108 licensing agreements, and since
2006 we have spun off 17 companies that have attracted more than $180 million in capital
investment. Earlier this month we launched a new initiative, the Oregon State University
Advantage, which will serve business partners in the University's signature areas of distinction.
We commit to work with business partners to improve their bottom-line performance and
the national and global economy by providing access to world-class faculty and top students
as well as an open door to the world-class research and problem solving capabilities
found at OSU. And finally, we will successfully complete our campaign for OSU fundraising
in the next two years while maintaing strong momentum going forward. Today I would like
to make two major announcements regarding the campaign for OSU. First I am pleased to
announce that alumnus Peter Johnson and his wife Rosalie will contribute $7 million to
create a new world-class educational and research facility within Oregon State's College of
Engineering, along with an earlier $10 million gift from an anonymous donor and $3 million
in additional private funds, and possible state matching funds this $40 million building
will address space needs for faculty, lab space for interdisciplinary research and assist
the recruitment and retention of engineering students, one of the rapidly-growing enrollment
areas for OSU. This new building will help to revolutionize how Oregon State approaches
collaborative projects involving scientists and students in engineering and other colleges
in critical areas of study and discovery including chemical engineering, biological engineering
and environmental engineering. Thank you Pete and Rosalie Johnson for this wonderful, wonderful
gift. (applause) Second, I am pleased to announce that Oregon State University will invest in
the reinvention of the arts and the humanities at this great research University. Oregon
State has received a $5 million commitment from an anonymous donor to advance the university's
performing arts programs, thereby launching an unprecedented effort to built support for
OSU's school of arts and communication. This is the largest gift that OSU has ever received
for the arts, and it is dedicated to endowment, which will provide a permanent source of funding
for four faculty and staff positions including a director of the performance arts who will
lead arts offerings at Oregon State, and connect with arts programs in Corvallis and well beyond.
This $5 million gift is a cornerstone investment in our University. Excellence in the arts
and sciences it at the core of every great national and international research university.
The arts and humanities provide students the context and inspiration of life, culture and
society. They help drive creativity and innovation. At Oregon State, excellence in the arts will
be a growing part of all areas of study, research and outreach. I am so incredibly grateful
to the many donors to the campaign for OSU including the inspired generosity of the individuals
such a Pat Resser and her family, Bob and Charlie Moore; Ken and Joann Austin and so
many, many others. Still, none of this would be possible without the outstanding campaign
stewardship provided by the foundation President Mike Goodwin, and his sidekick Shawn Skoville,
and if they would stand and be recognized. (applause) Contributions to the campaign for
OSU through scholarships and fellowships now total more than $150 million. The original
campaign goal was $100 million. The campaign also is providing capital resources for state-of-the-art
classrooms and research facilities. A year ago, we opened the Linus Pauling Science Center,
the Hallie Ford Center for healthy children and families, the International Living and
Learning Center, a renovated Furman Hall and the Graduate Studies Center at the Cascades
campus. This year we will open the OSU Student Success Center, the Native American Cultural
Center, a new track facility and a new practice facility for our basketball program. In the
next few years we will build a new residence hall, and Austin Hall for our College of Business,
three new cultural centers, the student experience center, and hopefully with state support,
the engineering science center, an all-purpose classroom center and an expanded OSU Cascades
campus. With the leadership of Provost Randhawa, the campaign for OSU has increased the number
of endowed faculty positions at OSU from 47 positions to 117 positions. If Provost Randhawa
is here, please stand up and be recognized. (applause) And you need to know too that Oregon
State and the OSU foundation, alumni association are growing broader international connections
and partnerships with OSU alumni and international universities throughout the world, and particularly
in the Pacific rim in places such a Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Thailand. As we update
the University's strategic plan over the next 12 months, we will continue to serve as Oregon's
exceptional state-wide university and to provide a road map for the future that builds on our
strengths and secures OSU's commitment to serve the nation and the world. In that role,
Oregon State University will continue to grow its engagement in world-class academics and
ground-breaking research and in community outreach and service on everything from childhood
obesity to agriculture, forestry, climate change, nanotechnology, metals manufacturing,
clean technology, natural resources and high-tech healthcare delivery. Oregon State faculty
students and alumni will continue to teach the nation and the world's youth. Hundreds
of OSU graduates and current students will serve in our nation's military and Oregon's
national guard. Thousands will volunteer in communities in Portland, across the state,
the nation and around the world. I want to thank you all for being here today, and I
particularly want to thank you for making Oregon State University an authentic community
of accomplishment whose existence, innovation and leadership shape a healthy planet, promote
wellness and advance economic benefits. Thank you all very much. (applause)}