OSU President Paul Risser

As president of Oregon State University, one of my goals is to help OSU become one of the nation's best universities — recognized as such by all of the most prestigious nationwide constituencies.

I would like every reader of this magazine to share that goal.

Oregon State is a very good university, and it is getting better every day. Several of our programs already are among the best in the country, and others are very good and increasing in quality and recognition.

Over the last five years, student enrollment has grown by more than 4,000 students, from 13,600 students to 18,000. The entering freshman class in the fall of 2001 may be the smartest ever recorded in the history of the entire Oregon University System (formerly the Oregon State System of Higher Education). Our incoming high school students have an average grade-point average of 3.53, much higher than at any other public university in Oregon.
On a competitive basis, Oregon State University was selected to develop the first branch campus in the state and has successfully launched the OSU-Cascades Campus in Bend. Our initiative to build a top-25 College of Engineering has been supported by more than $55 million in private gifts and about $30 million in funds from the state legislature. Next spring we will begin construction of a $45 million state-of-the-art teaching and research building for engineering. And I could enumerate many more successes from throughout the university.
So, with all this success, why should Oregon State University be in the midst of a redesign process?

Finances drive part of the impetus for fundamental change. The university is not in debt, and we will have a balanced budget for the 2001-03 biennium. However, as we project the revenues and expenses for the next two years, we now know there will be a continued and significant gap between revenues and expenses, requiring us to make every effort to raise the former and cut the latter. As a university, we need to be more thorough and rigid in monitoring our situation so that any changes in our financial picture are apparent much earlier. We will do that. Already, the university has implemented new financial reporting systems, with more stringent oversight and new personnel assignments.

Even with ideal financial management in place, however, the university would still be dealing with the same shortfall, though we would have had a longer time in which to deal with it.
Although OSU has virtually unlimited potential to pursue a wide variety of funding sources, biennial subsidies from the state of Oregon are less than those typically received by our peer universities in other states. This situation is unlikely to substantially improve in the foreseeable future. In FY 2002, the university received strong support for selected programs, but the basic core funding from the legislature for educational programs was reduced. In addition, many costs have increased substantially in the last year, including health care, salaries, and energy. And with the state's slowing economy, the governor and legislature have further reduced funding of public universities and all other state agencies.

If we expect to radically change our position on the landscape of very good universities, within our setting in Oregon, we must manage our resources much better than other universities. Otherwise, we will be destined to plod along, year after year, trying to eke out small and non-transformational funding victories.

This uninspired continuation of the current situation is not an acceptable future for Oregon State University. Moreover, the leadership at OSU is determined to assure that the university will be able to exert even bigger positive impacts on our students, our many constituencies, and on the state of Oregon and beyond.

As I write these words, the university is fully embarked on the redesign process, involving literally hundreds of people throughout the university. As the framework for redesigning the university takes shape, advice from outside the university will also be widely sought and valued.

It is likely that the redesign will focus around four themes.

1. Streamlining administrative processes and reducing organizational layers and redundant processes;
2. Aligning and reorganizing academic programs to focus on interdisciplinary learning opportunities that prepare students for today and anticipate their needs of tomorrow;
3. Focusing resources on key areas of research and teaching that are important for Oregon and beyond, and that offer a powerful intellectual environment for students, staff and faculty;
4. Implementing programs that generate revenue for reinvestment in the university.
Our goal is to finalize most of the details of the redesigned Oregon State University by July 1, 2002. Although full implementation of the redesign will take longer, we see OSU entering into continuous change as it constantly adapts to changes in its environment and as it creates and seizes new opportunities.

How will OSU remain the same and how will it change? Our university will certainly retain its traditional values and a wonderful sense of community where students and all members of the OSU family are nurtured, supported, and challenged to grow. We will retain our emphasis on citizenship and our dedication to improving the world, in which we live and learn. The combined strengths of liberal arts and sciences coupled with a broad array of professional programs will remain as our academic program hallmark. Our strong research programs, now larger than those of all the other state public universities combined, will continue to focus on important practical problems and on the most interesting intellectual challenges. And, our extensive outreach mission will continue as we treat the entire state of Oregon as the campus of Oregon State University.

Provost Tim White and top financial officer Mark McCambridge

But there will be significant changes. Many of our academic programs will become much more integrated and interdisciplinary in exciting ways. There will be new programs while other programs will be consolidated, and some with smaller participation may be closed. The university will set program priorities and align its human and financial resources to ensure that these are accomplished at top quality. Layers of administration will be reduced, and wherever possible administrative processes will be consolidated. Particular attention will be devoted to conducting selected programs with the intention of generating revenue. Our internal institutional research activities will collect and analyze more data to increase accountability for all of our human and financial investments.

Oregon State University will only reach its full potential with a broader portfolio of private support. This means increasing the number of funded grants and contracts from agencies and foundations and expanding our partnership programs with the business sector. The great public research universities of this country do not become successful on the basis of public funding alone — their greatness originates from the investments made by private donors who see the potential of the university and want to have a positive impact — they want to make a difference. Our success will also depend upon this generosity, from small and large gifts, and from many people.

Let me close by noting the unprecedented changes that are occurring at OSU. Virtually no large research university has ever undertaken such a fundamental redesign, especially with this rapidity. There will be some persons within the university who will resist the change for any number of reasons. It is likely that there will be fewer jobs at OSU immediately after the implementation of this redesign. This change will be difficult, probably the greatest challenge ever undertaken by the university.

Because the redesign process is very open and participatory, none of the details is yet available. I know that the lack of finality at this time can be frustrating. In many ways, this open letter is merely an introduction. But even at this early stage I want you to be aware of this process, the reasons for it, and to begin to envision the ever more dynamic university that will emerge from this work.

Despite the obstacles, I can assure you that there is great momentum to redesign the University, to look toward an even brighter future for OSU, and to build a university that is truly one of the best in the nation. I invite you to become engaged in this process through the university's Web site or the numerous discussions, to offer your advice and support, and to take great pride in our success.