The Oregon State University Center for the Outdoor Recreation Economy will host the “Be Bold Conversation Series,” a six-week slate of workshops on leadership development for outdoor industry professionals at all career levels.

The free virtual series will be held via Zoom at noon on Feb. 8, Feb. 22, March 8, March 22, April 5 and April 19.

Oregon State University – Cascades’ annual fact sheet, which addresses topics including student enrollment, student demographics, the campus’ economic impact and campus expansion plans, has been updated for the current academic year.

To view the fact sheet and download a PDF, visit osucascades.edu/about.

To sign up for OSU-Cascades news and event announcements, visit osucascades.edu/signup.

Oregon State University - Cascades has launched a new Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry and molecular biology in response to industry need and student feedback.

The new degree, which will be available to students starting in fall 2023, will help OSU-Cascades develop a pipeline of graduates for positions in the health care and biotech sectors in Central Oregon, as well as around the state and nation. These sectors are growing rapidly with available positions outpacing the number of graduates in the field in Oregon, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

 A $60,000 gift from Visit McMinnville, will enable the Sustainable Tourism Lab at Oregon State University – Cascades to help support the tourism bureau’s goals to serve visitor needs and advance community quality of life.

Oregon State University - Cascades and Scalehouse, a Bend-based arts collaborative, will host artist and independent curator Jessica Nickel who will talk about a series of art exhibits she curated in Portland and her experience as an artist.

The talk “Finding Space, Curating the Inbetween,” is part of the “Scalehouse Voices” series and will take place from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Nov. 29. in the atrium of Edward J. Ray Hall. The event is open to the public. Registrants can attend for free or pay on a sliding scale

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.