Campaign for OSU Update!

News from the OSU Foundation! They write:

The Campaign for OSU surpasses half billion milestone!

Supporters of Oregon State University have contributed more than $500 million to The Campaign for OSU, keeping the university on track for meeting its goal of raising $625 million by 2011.

The campaign, which was publicly launched in 2007, is the university’s first-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign and, to date, has received support from one in every five OSU graduates. Additionally, some 30 percent of donors supporting the campaign are parents, volunteers, and other friends who did not graduate from the university.

“We are surrounded by a vast community of friends, thousands strong, who believe in our mission, support our work and share our vision of greater excellence,” said OSU President Ed Ray.

Campaign gifts include 90 commitments of $1 million or more, representing 60 percent of all million-dollar gifts the university has ever received, and over 600 commitments at the $100,000 level. Despite the economic downturn, OSU is experiencing its second best fundraising year on record and has raised almost $70 million in the current fiscal year to benefit students and faculty through scholarships, endowed positions, and new facilities for research and learning.

“We’re delighted to see that alumni and friends are continuing to make OSU their philanthropic priority even during these challenging times,” said Mike Goodwin, President and CEO of the OSU Foundation.

Campaign achievements include:

• The opening of Kearney Hall, an historic building renovated with over $12 million in private support

• A gift of $1.25 million from alumni Scott and Sandy Campbell to establish the Banfield Professorship in Companion Animal Industries in OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences

• 28 new endowed faculty positions, an increase of 40 percent since the start of the campaign

• More than $78 million toward a $100 million goal for scholarships and fellowships; see related release on recent $275,000 scholarship gift from Penny Atkins and her husband, Gary.

The Oregon Way

On February 11, 2009, Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski issued an executive order (link opens as a PDF) creating a new public/private partnership to advance Oregon’s recovery. Peggy Fowler (OSU/College of Science Parent), Catherine Mater (Political Science ‘75; M.S., Civil Engineering ‘84), and Jim Walls (Wildlife Science ‘75) have been appointed to the group which will coordinate federal stimulus money coming to Oregon.

The new partnership, called The Oregon Way Advisory Group, will use Oregon’s green advantage to compete and win grant dollars included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed by President Barack Obama. The Act includes $37 billion in competitive grants. For specific information on these grant dollars, please visit www.staterecovery.org/federal-assistance.

The group will advise and assist state agencies and other partners seeking federal competitive grants by developing innovative proposals that create immediate jobs and promote renewable energy, reduce carbon, encourage greater energy efficiency or sustainable development.

Ms Fowler recently retired from Portland General Electric as CEO and President. Mrs. Mater is president of the Corvallis engineering firm Mater Engineering, Ltd., and director of Sustainability Programs at OSU. Mr. Walls is executive director for the Lake County Resources Initiative, a nonprofit in Lakeview, Oregon working on natural resource projects.

For more information, visit the website at Oregon.gov.

Save the Date: F.A. Gilfillan Memorial Award Lecture

Date: May 4, 2009

Austin Auditorium, LaSells Stewart Conference Center

Welcome: 7:15-7:30 p.m.

Introducing Dr. Peter Clark
Dr. Sherman H. Bloomer, Dean, College of Science

Lecture, Q&A: 7:30-8:30 p.m.

About the F.A. Gilfillan Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Science:

A true Renaissance man, Francois A. “Doc” Gilfillan inspired colleagues and students alike. He served the College of Science as dean from 1938 to 1962, and OSU as acting president from 1941 to 1942. Doc Gilfillan dedicated his professional life to scholarship and science at OSU as a faculty member in pharmaceutical chemistry.

During his administration as dean, the College gained stature because of his work to establish many new programs in research and education. He was fluent in German, Russian, French, and Italian; studied Latin, Greek, and Japanese; and knew ancient Sumerian and a few NW Indian dialects. His love of learning led him to explore new knowledge all his life.

In his memory, his family established the F.A. Gilfillan Memorial Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Science. The purpose of the award is to recognize distinguished scholarship in science by honoring a faculty member in the College whose scholarship and scientific accomplishments extend over a substantial period of time at OSU and are widely recognized by peers. The winner of the award receives a plaque presented at the annual College of Science Faculty and Staff Awards Day, a stipend, and an opportunity to present their research in a public lecture.

Micro-Hydro Project

Check out this video introducing the first joint JD/MS in water resources science student who is researching the feasibility of generating electricity from low flow springs in the Oregon Cascades.

Jennifer’s research is made possible by a gift from Mrs. Esther Rada to the Water Resource Management Research Fund at OSU. The fund is used for the study of water and watershed activities and the pursuit of solutions to the water and related environmental problems of Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and the world. We asked Todd Jarvis, Associate Director of the Institute for Water and Watersheds, for comment:

This project was originally suggested to me by the Rada family as a research project for a graduate student. The Institute for Water and Watersheds and the Water Resources Graduate Program was delighted to assign a student to complete the feasibility study as a research project because it fit perfectly within OSU’s Signature Areas of Distinction, as outlined in the university’s strategic plan of Advancing the Science of Sustainable Earth Ecosystems. The project also fits well within the Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center (Oregon BEST) program, which researches ways to transform green building and renewable energy research into on-the-ground products, services, and jobs that power Oregon’s green economy. And the Energy Trust of Oregon is also actively researching micro-hydro site suitability using Geographic Information Systems (GIS); we anticipate linking the Rada Family’s investment in the student’s research into this program as one means to ground truth their GIS work.

Click here to read more about Micro Hydro projects.

If you are unable to view the video, try viewing it here on OSU’s Media Manager.

more about “Micro-Hydro Project“, posted with vodpod

 

Committed to a Fault

In the arid environment east of Bend, erosion is slow. Topography reveals the presence of fault lines where they are not obscured by ancient lava flows. (Photo: Anita Grunder)

Some of us need a direct, physical connection with a subject to look at it through the lens of science. For Ajeet Johnson, an OSU master’s student in Geosciences from Bend, that connection came from rock climbing at Smith Rock and skiing at Mt. Bachelor. Now she locates fault lines and seeks answers to questions about Earth movements in Central Oregon’s High Lava Plains. She is looking for clues to explain a landscape shaped by volcanoes and colliding tectonic plates, and she wants to know what those clues might mean for our future. See “Committed to a Fault” in the latest issue of Terra.

Nick Houtman