Annual Campus Report 2010-2011

2010-2011 OUTCOMES

 

The following summarizes outcomes on key institutional metrics:

 

  1. OSU graduated 4,353 students with a total of 4,544 degrees. The graduating class included 3,484 baccalaureate degrees, 745 master’s degrees, 174 doctoral degrees, and 141 professional degrees in Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine. 368 distance education students received their diplomas through Extended Campus, nearly double the number from 2009-2010. The OSU-Cascades Campus awarded 173 baccalaureate degrees and 51 master’s degrees. Comparable figures for total 2009-2010 degrees for OSU and OSU-Cascades were 4,491 and 206 degrees, respectively.
  2. OSU was awarded $262 million in total extramural research funding, compared to $275 million in 2009-2010 which included the one-time 10 percent ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) funding. The competitive grants and contracts were distributed as follows: Division of Arts and Sciences, $20.2 million; Division of Earth Systems Science, $102.3 million; Division of Health Sciences, $23.6 million; Division of Business and Engineering, $34.5 million; and Centers and Institutes and other programs that overlap multiple divisions, $27.4 million.
  3. The Office for Commercialization and Corporate Development generated $4 million in licensing revenue for the University in 2010-2011, compared to $2.5 million the previous year. There were 76 invention disclosures. Recent innovation efforts include 36 licensing agreements during the 2010-2011 academic year.
  4. More than two million Oregonians were engaged at some level with the OSU Extension Service. The Extension Service trained more than 18,000 volunteers who contributed to the service of the state. More than 100,000 young Oregonians engaged in Oregon 4-H Youth Development programs and activities. In its first year, Oregon Open Campus reached 1,261 learners in Tillamook, Crook and Jefferson counties through courses, presentations, seminars and trainings.
  5. A total of 10,361 students took classes online via Extended Campus, a 15 percent increase from the previous year, and student credit hours increased by 20% to 95,982. Summer session enrollment increased 9 percent from last year to 6,240 students.
  6. The Campaign for OSU raised $112 million and the campaign total reached $738 million towards the revised goal of $850 million by 2013.
  7. Oregon State University enrolled 24,977 students in fall 2011 on its main campus, an increase of 5.1 percent over fall 2010. Increases in enrollment from fall 2010 to fall 2011 were: resident students – 1.1 percent; nonresident – 15.7 percent; U.S. minorities – 13 percent; and international – 19.6 percent. The year-to-year increases in undergraduate and graduate student enrollments were 5.4 and 4.4 percent, respectively. Consistent with enrollment increase, total student FTE increased by 4.6 percent from fall 2010 to fall 2011. Enrollment and FTE at OSU-Cascades in fall 2011 are 764 and 469, an increase of 12.7 percent and 14.5 percent over the previous year.
  8. The 2010 first-year retention rate was 83.1 percent, as compared to 82.6 percent for the previous year.
  9. Performance of OSU students continued to be excellent in professional certification exams:
  • Engineering—93 percent on Fundamentals of Engineering exam (national average 79 percent)
  • Exercise Science—67 percent on national athletic training association exam (national average 52 percent)
  • Nutrition—92 percent on American Dietetic Association exam (national average 82 percent)
  • Pharmacy—first time pass rate above 97 percent over the past five years, ranking us among the top 20 percent of all professional programs
  • Veterinary Medicine—100 percent on North American Veterinary Licensing Examination (national average 95 percent)
  • Accounting—63 percent on Unified Certified Public Accounting exam (national average 41 percent)

Acceptance rate for pre-medical students from OSU was over 77 percent, with students accepted to Oregon Health and Sciences, University of Southern California, University of Michigan, University of Washington, Dartmouth, University of Wisconsin and others.

 

The university and college metrics are posted at http://leadership.oregonstate.edu/strategic-plan/.

REVIEW OF THE 2010-2011 AGENDA

In my 2009-2010 Annual Campus Report, I outlined the year’s agenda which included work with the State Board of Higher Education during the legislative session to seek changes in the status of the Oregon University System (OUS) from a state agency to a statewide public university system, ensure that reductions in state funds targeted for the Statewide Public Service Programs (SWPS) and Engineering Technology Investment Council (ETIC) investments are at par with Education and General funds, and seek state match to key capital budget projects.

 

Internal to the University, our focus included continuing work on initiatives and activities that we had started over the past year, including alignment and program changes within colleges and support units, new faculty hires, expansion and monitoring of programs introduced recently to enhance student engagement and success, program outcome assessment, NWCCU re-accreditation review, IT and teaching and research infrastructure enhancement projects, and improving services provided by the seven regional business centers. Finally, we continued to focus on enrollment and program growth at OSU-Cascades Campus, including transition of the University of Oregon undergraduate programs to OSU.

 

Overall Assessment of 2010-2011 Academic Year Agenda

 

OSU continues to grow substantially and to improve in critical dimensions of our mission. Our actions during the previous two years, driven by strategic and fiscal imperatives, set the stage in 2010-2011 to systematically invest in building faculty capacity, student and academic services, and teaching and research infrastructure of the university. Continued strong non-resident student enrollment growth, coupled with the continued research growth and success of The Campaign for OSU, have enabled these long-term investments.

 

During the 2010-2011 academic year, for the first time in over two decades, OSU provided central funds to hire 30 faculty positions in the four divisions, with an initial focus on building critical areas in the Division of Arts and Sciences. An additional 55 positions were filled by colleges and units during 2010-2011, with about 50 percent of those being new positions using funds held back as colleges completed strategic staffing plans or from new revenue directed from growth in the INTO OSU program.

 

We continued to experience strong student growth, particularly in non-resident and international students, areas that we have intentionally targeted over the past couple of years. Students from U.S. underrepresented minorities continued the pattern of steady increase that we have seen over the past several years. The University provided $2.5 million in access resources, primarily to the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Science, to support undergraduate enrollment increases with the goal to provide foundational courses to all students during their first year and to eliminate backlog in those courses. Resources were provided for additional advisors and for the purchase and implementation of MyDegrees. The University sustained funding for the Bridge to Success program, providing support to approximately 2,650 Oregon undergraduate students through packaging of scholarships, tuition remissions, Pell grants, and Oregon Opportunity grant funds.

 

Construction of the Linus Pauling Science Center, Hallie Ford Center for Children and Families, and the International Living-Learning Center was completed on target and all three facilities opened for fall 2011, adding new classroom, teaching and research laboratory capacity for faculty and students. One-time funding of $25 million was directed to improvements in existing classrooms and common research facilities, addressing ADA issues, and in IT for administrative and research systems.

 

Academic faculty worked diligently throughout the academic year to follow up on academic and program realignment plans. Some of the work was completed during the academic year, including the new structure within the College of Public Health and Human Sciences and the new School of Public Policy in the College of Liberal Arts. An application was submitted and approved by the Council of Education of Public Health to start a two-year accreditation process to establish an accredited College of Public Health. A number of proposals are in various stages of development and approval in the colleges of Agricultural Sciences, Education, Liberal Arts, Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences, and Science, and will be completed during the 2011-2012 academic year. Realignment of units within the Divisions of Academic Affairs and Student Affairs was also undertaken to better support students and faculty.

 

There were four action items from the fall 2010 President’s address to the Faculty Senate: provide additional advising support; establish graduate fellowships/scholarships; review and adjust instructors’ salaries; and establish a University Ombuds position. The first three items were completed, including establishing six new advising positions, an investment of $1.5 million in graduate fellowship and scholarship programs through the Graduate School, and establishing a minimum salary baseline for instructors’ salaries and review and adjustment of salaries to meet the minimum. The search for the Ombuds position is in progress with hiring to be completed in fall 2011.

 

All seven business centers are now operational. While we made progress in improving our business processes and systems, human resource systems need attention and improvement. In particular, we must eliminate redundant processes and decision-making layers, improve the effectiveness of services, and improve communications between users, central HR and business center staff.

 

Outcomes of the Legislative Session and Financial Picture

The Oregon University System gained the status of a statewide education system with the passage of Senate Bill 242, which takes effect on January 1, 2012. This change will enable the OUS to better control its revenues and costs, develop a simplified block-grant approach to state funding similar to Oregon’s community colleges and K-12 system, and ensure that student-paid tuition revenues and the investment earnings on these cash balances are protected and directed towards education. The passage of Senate Bill 909 creates an education investment board for all P-20. However, this leaves uncertainty regarding the governance structure for all education sectors in the state. Clarity on the governance issue, as well as operational details resulting from Senate Bill 242, will be addressed during the 2011-2012 academic year.

 

The overall Education and General (E&G) budget absorbed a 14.4 percent reduction as a result of the State’s economy. Based on the State’s most recent economic forecast, state agencies have been asked to develop additional expenditure reduction scenarios in increments of 3.5 up to 10.5 percent. However, we will be able to offset current and projected reductions in E&G budget because of strong non-resident student growth and tuition increases.

 

Considerable advocacy and support from external constituents led to reducing the extent of proposed budget cuts in Statewide Public Service (SWPS) Programs — Agricultural Experiment Station, Forest Research Laboratory, and Oregon Extension Service — from a projected $20 million reduction to $8 million. SWPS programs developed plans to reduce their costs and reliance on state funding through regionalization of services, adoption of fee-based services, and greater engagement of SWPS faculty in the competitive grants process. Nevertheless, continued sluggishness in Oregon’s economy may result in additional reductions in SWPS budgets which remain a source of considerable concern in the absence of tuition revenue to offset those cuts.

 

Financial challenges persisted in OSU Intercollegiate Athletics and are expected to continue until the new Pac-12 media contract takes effect in 2012-2013. Working with Athletics leadership, we are developing a budget plan that will set up a pay-back schedule and reduce the University’s subsidy to Athletics once the new Pac-12 contract is in place.

 

Student Engagement and Success

We continue to serve more students and OSU remains the primary university of choice for Oregon residents. We continue to invest and focus on student engagement and success. We directed $2.5 million in 2010-2011 to create additional capacity in foundational courses in writing, speech, math, chemistry, physics, and biology. We increased the summer bridge program for the general student population by offering it to three cohorts, each consisting of 20 at-risk entering first-year students. We continued to revise first-year orientation courses with consistent university-level outcomes, and to expand and improve advising services. Considerable work was undertaken on assessment of academic programs, including development of broad based outcomes for all masters and doctoral programs.

 

The Faculty Senate’s Ad-Hoc Committee completed its two-year review and assessment of the Baccalaureate (Bacc) Core curriculum. The work concluded that the philosophy and goals of the Bacc Core was sound and consistent with the AAC&U Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP) Essential Learning Outcomes. As part of this process, the Faculty Senate unanimously adopted Learning Goals for Graduates and recommended a set of actions to improve retention rates and graduation times (e.g. guarantee foundational courses in the first year, increase advising effectiveness, and expand experiential learning opportunities). Much of the work related to student engagement through Academic Affairs and Student Affairs is aligned with the Faculty Senate recommendations. Work on better coordinating, monitoring and expanding experiential learning opportunities for students (middle years of their tenure at OSU) will be initiated in 2011-2012.

 

NWCCU Accreditation

The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) reaffirmed our university accreditation in August 2011. The process included preparation of a Self Study that started in spring 2010 and culminated with a NWCCU site visit in April 2011. We were also the first cohort of universities to be evaluated under the new NWCCU accreditation criteria and policies. The NWCCU commended the University on effective linkage between strategic planning and university’s core themes, exceeding our original capital campaign and extramural research funding goals, having robust assessment practices within Student Affairs and its collaborations with Academic Affairs on student learning, and growth of academic offerings at the OSU-Cascades Campus. The NWCCU provided two recommendations: stronger alignment of the assessment of core themes and their objectives and indicators with mission fulfillment, and additional assessment efforts in the baccalaureate core and graduate programs. Academic Affairs and the Graduate School will be leading work to address the two recommendations.

 

Other Key Activities

The extension for The Campaign for OSU was successfully launched and the campaign continues to be extremely successful with $106.7 million in gifts in 2010-2011. In particular, the Provost’s Faculty Match Program resulted in the creation of 22 new endowed faculty positions with donor commitments exceeding $21 million.

 

OSU-Cascades began offering undergraduate, high enrollment majors such as Psychology and Biology previously offered by the University of Oregon. The continued enrollment growth and program growth has led the campus to seek matching funds from the state to enable purchase of a new facility in Bend, a transaction that will be completed in fall 2011.

 

A task force on Shared Governance, jointly charged by the Faculty Senate President and the Provost, worked during the 2010-2011 academic year to identify a set of most important areas of decision making that require input of faculty and administration. Recommendations from the task force, posted at http://oregonstate.edu/senate/committees/other/jtfsg/Final110831rev.pdf, were formally endorsed by the Faculty Senate and the Administration in fall 2011.

 

Finally, we were able to fill a number of key administrative positions that became open due to retirements, attrition, or individuals stepping down from a position. These included: Vice President for University Relations and Marketing, Associate Vice President and Director of Alumni Association, Dean of the Graduate School, Dean of Education, Vice Provost for Information Services, Associate Provost for International Programs, University Librarian/Director of OSU Press, Director of Institutional Research, and Director of Admissions.

 

 

2011-2012 AGENDA

 

Priorities for 2011-2012 follow from the work that has been initiated over the past 18 months and the three specific areas of effort outlined by President Ray in his October 13, 2011 presentation to the Faculty Senate: recruitment and retention of the brightest and most diverse faculty and students, increased university-industry partnership, and exceeding The Campaign for OSU goals. Specific goals for 2011-2012 include the following.

 

Faculty Recruitment and Retention

  • Hire an additional 30 faculty members (15 in the Division of Arts and Sciences, and 5 each in the Divisions of Earth Systems Science, Health Sciences, and Business and Engineering) as part of the initiative started last academic year.
  • Hire faculty to address enrollment growth and provide support for SWPS faculty in selected areas, particularly those experiencing student enrollment increases.
  • Expand the faculty hiring initiative to build faculty capacity in signature areas of distinction. The initial areas of inquiry drawn from proposals and strengths identified by faculty in the previous proposals are biological information and genomics, geospatial intelligence and planning, prevention and treatment of chronic diseases, and materials and device innovation.
  • Initiate a spousal/partner hire program.
  • Extend the Provost’s Faculty Match Program in partnership with the OSU Foundation.
  • Implement a compensation increase package for 2012 following upon a period of wage freezes in the last biennium and begins to address matters of compensation equity and compression.
  • Implement and expand faculty development programs to ensure faculty success, including Leadership Academy offered through Academic Affairs.

 

Student Engagement and Success

  • Continue to expand and assess the effectiveness of programs introduced over the past couple of years to enhance student success for first-year students.
  • Introduce program to coordinate and expand undergraduate research and service learning opportunities for students.
  • Improve assessment of Bacc Core and graduate programs.
  • Fund graduate students fellowship and scholarship program.

 

University-Industry Collaborations

  • Establish a leadership position to lead, facilitate and grow university-wide a capability and commitment for expanded industry-based research collaborations. These efforts will be reflected in increased research revenue from industry, increased diversity of industry interests, and a higher rate of technology transfer and commercialization of inventions.

 

Other Key Activities

  • Complete development and processing of a number of Category I proposals pertaining to academic realignment and program changes/development.
  • Complete self-study and assessment for the Division of Equity and Inclusion and identify key goals for the equity and inclusion agenda for the next few years.
  • Improve effectiveness of business centers and particularly the human resource services across the university.
  • Complete work initiated to define strategic directions for graduate education (Graduate School), international education and research (International Programs), and enrollment growth (Enrollment Management).