Oregon State University - Cascades announced that Saoirse Jones has joined its campus leadership team as director of development.

“We are thrilled to welcome Saoirse to OSU-Cascades and continue the groundswell of community philanthropy that made the OSU-Cascades campus and its expansion possible, and that has helped countless students through scholarships as they pursued their degrees,” said Andrew Ketsdever, interim vice president of OSU-Cascades.

Jennifer Reimer, the director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Oregon State University - Cascades, is the author of a new book of poetry titled “keske.”

The poetry collection was inspired by Reimer’s experiences working as a university instructor in Turkey in 2016 during the failed military coup to unseat Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the nation’s president.

The Turkish word “keske,” pronounced kesh-kay, is used to express a wish or longing. In English, it translates as “if only.”

Oregon State University - Cascades students and Leona Ike, an enrolled elder of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, will host a presentation titled “A Walk Through History” on Tuesday that honors Native American Heritage Month by exploring the history of Indigenous peoples in Central Oregon.

The presentation is free and open to the public and will take place at noon in Tykeson Hall, Room 111 on the OSU-Cascades campus.

Oregon State University – Cascades will honor student and employee veterans at a luncheon to be held on Nov. 10, as well as through messages of appreciation submitted by students, faculty and staff, and departments across the campus.   

Student veterans can also to participate in the 21^st Annual Bend Veterans Day Parade on Friday, Nov. 11.

This fall, 74 or 5.9% of OSU-Cascades students are veterans, including former active duty veterans and students receiving veteran dependent benefits. Of the students veterans:

The 2022 fall class of 204 first-year students at Oregon State University - Cascades is the largest in the campus’s history and represents a 16.6% increase from a year ago.

OSU-Cascades students also are taking more courses than in fall 2021. Full-time equivalency, the metric used to measure the number of academic credits taken per student, increased by 9.8% from a year ago.

Oregon State University - Cascades will host an event that explores one organization’s dedication to find and repatriate Americans missing in action since World War II.  

The event, called “Project Recover: To What Remains” will feature clips from the documentary “To What Remains” and a discussion with Derek Abbey, a Bend resident, who is president and CEO of Project Recover.

Oregon State University – Cascades will host a public meeting to gather input on a proposal for an Environmental Protection Agency grant to remediate a portion of a former county demolition landfill in preparation for the first phase of development of a future campus innovation district.

The meeting will take place via webinar from 5 to 7 p.m. on Nov. 9.

The planned innovation district will bring researchers and businesses together to accelerate technology development and contribute to the regional economy.

The Oregon State University - Cascades Advocacy and Advisory Board will hear from campus leaders about efforts to advance the campus’s physical, academic and fundraising strategic priorities at its Oct. 6 meeting.

The board meeting will take place from noon to 2 p.m. in Obsidian Hall, Room 207 on the OSU-Cascades campus.  Members of the public are welcome.

Oregon State University – Cascades will host a free clinic for flu shots and COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters on Oct. 14 for Central Oregon community members and OSU-Cascades students, faculty and staff.

The walk-up clinic is hosted in partnership with Deschutes County Health Services and will take place from 1 to 5 p.m. in the atrium of Edward J. Ray Hall on the OSU-Cascades campus at 1500 SW Chandler Ave.

Free parking will be available to community members in the campus parking lot accessed via Simpson Avenue.

Oregon State University - Cascades, NewsChannel 21 and the City Club of Central Oregon, will host a live, televised debate on Sept. 27 featuring the three leading candidates for Oregon governor.

The 90-minute debate will be the only gubernatorial debate to take place in Central Oregon and will be televised from the OSU-Cascades campus at 6 p.m.

Republican Christine Drazan, Democrat Tina Kotek and Independent candidate Betsy Johnson will participate. NewsChannel 21 anchor Cathy Marshall will moderate the debate.