12 OregonStater.org VO I C E S agriculture and forestry. We have one of the largest engineering schools in the country. We have a big, highly ranked online program. We’re invested in areas that still draw enormous interest. I feel like our enrollment success is probably tied to that unique position. Public trust in American higher education is also at historically low levels. Do you think that’s affecting enrollment, too? I suspect that demographics is really the biggest part of it, but let me say something that I was struck by. You’ve probably heard of the Yale University report about public trust in higher education that came out this spring. It was a big report that took a year to write and had more than 300 sources. Much was made of it by the media. And yet, at the end of the day, what it calls for is for higher ed to commit to values that have been part of our land-grant mission for a century, if not more. I mean, we’ve been doing this forever, and for Yale to have woken up and suddenly discovered that this is the secret! It just kind of had me laughing for a while. We’ve always been about impact in our communities for all Oregonians, regardless of geography. We’ve always known that discoveries matter. We’ve always known that we’ve got to be an engine for prosperity. So I don’t know why the folks at Yale suddenly realized that this is the magic formula, but I will tell you that our public land-grants are a treasure.We’ve always known what our role is. We’ve talked about challenges, but Oregon State’s alumni and friends have also stepped up recently in pretty extraordinary ways. What does that say to you about this community and the university’s future? First of all, there’s simply moral support, right? Our alumni and friends have been with us through extraordinarily turbulent times these past couple of years and I want to say how grateful I am for that support. Another part of it is, of course, philanthropic support. This year on Dam Proud Day, we raised about $4.1 million across 12,000-plus gifts.That is a very broad range of support and tells you how deeply committed our community is to this university. Thank you for that! This year we surpassed $400 million toward a $500 million fundraising goal for student success in our Believe It! campaign. It tells you so much about our community’s commitment to our students. I mean, that’s a heck of a number, and I’m so proud of it. There’s also the Valley Foundation’s challenge gift for athletics. This is $24 million, and we unlock it by raising another $24 million — $8 million every year for the next three years. I can’t begin to tell you how important that is in these days of college athletics reconfiguring itself. This funds revenue sharing for our student-athletes. It will allow us to build a competitive program in this new universe. With the transition to the new Pac-12 on July 1, it really puts us in an absolutely fantastic place. So thanks again to our alums for making that happen. [Editor’s note: Two more athletics gifts were announced after this interview. See p. 18 for details.] Is there anything else you want to share? We enter the new school year with enormous momentum. Lots of good things are happening. There’s no question that there are challenges ahead of us, but we are entering it with so much promise. So when you hear things about loss of confidence in higher ed and all of the challenges, know that we’ve got a very strong base from which we’re entering these turbulent waters. We’ve got great students and great professors. We’ve got great folks in athletics and we’ve got great administrators. We will see ourselves through.We are going to do just fine. THIS INTERVIEW WAS EDITED FOR CLARITY AND LENGTH. daaaaaaaaaaam. no added hormones. never given antibiotics. Ranching at Nature’s pace. continued
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