Fall 2025 13 PRESIDENT Q + A OSU in particular, we’ve got to recognize the potential consequences to science and the loss of American dominance in scientific research, which has really existed since World War II. The payout to American society has been enormous in all kinds of ways: in conveniences, in advances in medical care and in cutting-edge technologies that we all use every single day. Universities do a lot of that fundamental research. People have been talking about industry doing it more efficiently and how we should send this research over to industry. But the truth is, the arrangement that we’ve come to, which has worked well, is that the federal government funds high-risk research, and the results are owned by the public, not locked away as private intellectual property. This arrangement takes away the risk and expense for industry so they can create practical solutions and applications based on that research. Universities also train the next generation of researchers. Can you give an example of what you mean by high-risk research? Look at quantum science. Nowadays we’re talking so much about quantum computing, and all these folks are spinning off quantum computing companies. But quantum mechanics was developed in the early 1900s. And at the time, it was invented to explain certain measured phenomena that could not be explained by classical mechanics. Nobody thought that that was going to be the basis of microelectronics or computing — computers as we know them didn’t even exist. If a company took the risk of developing something like quantum mechanics with the view that it was going to pay off in 100 years — they would never do it. There’s no board of a company that would ever allow a company to invest in that way. We should also think about whether such fundamental knowledge can really sit in private hands. Imagine if Newton’s laws of motion sat in private hands. What would that even mean? A patent fee? Right? For use of Newton’s laws! There are things that have to sit in the public domain. So for OSU, what does this mean when we think about potential big funding cuts? We’ve got huge investments in all things sustainability, all things environment, all things climate. That means cuts to NOAA or the Department of Energy would mean the loss of valuable intellectual work. We won’t be training as many graduate students because we won’t be able to support them on research funds. We will have fewer undergraduates in the labs doing handson work and learning about the fun of science and perhaps choosing scientific careers. It means that the high-end workforce pipeline, particularly the science and tech workforce pipeline, will be much, much thinner. These hits will be felt five, 10, 15 years from now. These are very real losses, not just for OSU, but also for society more broadly. Have we felt any impacts already? Yes, we’re certainly beginning to feel them. For example, federal funding for an OSU project on K-12 mental health and counseling services for rural and Central Oregon schools was discontinued. Many Oregon school districts have very high student-to-counselor ratios and low retention rates for counselors, so this is a big blow.There are other types of impacts as well. Job prospects and internship opportunities for students have also fallen off due to federal funding cuts and uncertainty about the future. Do you think scientific research can survive without federal funding? I don’t think it can in its current form. Philanthropy doesn’t have sufficient scale. I mean, if you look at what foundations do, they’re incredibly generous and they fund good work. But nothing compares to the size of the federal government. Similarly, industry could fund it. Industry does have scale. But they just won’t support long-term research. And of course, industry will want to protect intellectual property. About 7% of Oregon State students — that’s about 2,500 — are international students. It’s not clear yet how new policies will affect them, but perhaps you can speak to why they’re important to OSU. For OSU, as for most U.S. universities, international students bring a wealth of talent and a connection to the world that we would not otherwise have. It is true that international students pay full freight, and this helps offset the costs that Oregonians bear. But they bring so much more — different cultures, different perspectives, food, music, the arts — all of this is incredibly enriching. As a land grant university, our connection to the world is especially important. The issues we work on — issues around food, water, climate, health, energy — these are global issues. International students connect us to the places and people to whom these issues matter most. And we shouldn’t forget the other advantages. The affinity we create in these young people for American values, for the American system, “THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FUNDS HIGH-RISK RESEARCH, AND THE RESULTS ARE OWNED BY THE PUBLIC, NOT LOCKED AWAY AS PRIVATE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY.” continued
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