To: Oregon State University Community Members
From: Edward Feser, Provost and Executive Vice President
February 4, 2020
Dear Oregon State University community members,
I am pleased to announce that during his last commencement ceremony serving as OSU president, Edward J. Ray will be our speaker and honorary doctorate recipient.
Dr. Ray is a strong advocate locally and nationally for access to excellent higher education opportunities for all learners. As OSU president, he has worked to reduce barriers to access to higher education for historically underrepresented populations throughout Oregon, while also increasing academic excellence for all students. His leadership in starting the national University Innovation Alliance, expand OSU’s dual enrollment program among all of Oregon’s 17 community colleges, and grow OSU’s nationally top-ranked online education programs are just a few examples of his commitment to higher education access and student success.
Dr. Ray has served as the university’s president for nearly 17 years, and before that, as a professor, department head, and provost and executive vice president at Ohio State University. While at OSU, he has made extraordinary contributions as an educator, respected university leader, and as an accountable and passionate advocate for excellence in public higher education nationally.
President Ray has made inclusive excellence a foundation for success in teaching, research, and community outreach and engagement throughout the university. In 2017, he established the offices of Institutional Diversity and Equal Opportunity and supported the implementation of the university’s required critical training for all faculty and staff to understand and report acts of bias, discrimination and harassment.
During his tenure, the OSU Foundation completed in 2014 the university’s first major fundraising campaign that raised $1.142 billion and included contributions from more than 106,000 donors. At the time, The Campaign for OSU helped build or renovate 28 buildings, endow 79 new faculty positions, and create more than 600 new scholarship and fellowship funds for 3,200 students.
President Ray has received many awards and recognitions throughout his career, but most notably, the CASE District VIII Leadership Award, an Oregon History Maker’s Award from the Oregon Historical Society, and an award by the League of Oregon Minority Voters for his social justice efforts.
Dr. Ray received his undergraduate degree in mathematics from Queens College (CUNY) in June 1966, graduating cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a master’s and Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University in 1969 and 1971, respectively.
Sincerely,
Edward Feser
Provost and Executive Vice President