Beth Alvarado, a faculty author in the Oregon State University – Cascades Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program has received the 2020 Oregon Book Award for Creative Nonfiction for her book of essays, “Anxious Attachments.”

The award was announced during a special episode of The Archive Project, hosted by Literary Arts and Oregon Public Broadcasting, during which Alvarado reads from her work.

Oregon State University – Cascades will host a virtual event June 29 to explore the racial unrest underway across the U.S. with a panel of Central Oregonians of color.

Community members are invited to participate in the event, which takes place from 6-8 p.m. via Facebook Live and YouTube.

The discussion will explore panelists’ perspectives of race relations, and with audience participation look at ways to advance racial justice locally and nationally.

The Oregon State University - Cascades Advocacy and Advisory Board will meet June 22 and hear reports on topics including student and academic success, advocacy and development, and progress of the campus expansion.

The meeting will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Bruckner Courtyard on the OSU-Cascades campus on Chandler Avenue in Bend. The meeting will also take place via Zoom.

Results from two days of door-to-door sampling by Oregon State University and OSU-Cascades suggest that one person in 1,000 in the Bend community during the weekend of May 30-31 had the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Risa Christie, Alaric Hartsock and Jessica Thomas were among 70 trained field staff knocking on doors of randomly selected homes in late May in Bend as part of Oregon State University’s TRACE-COVID-19 study to help understand the prevalence of the virus in the community.

For Christie, Hartsock and Thomas, all former or current OSU-Cascades students, the project provides hands-on experience and the potential to make a local and global public health impact.

Award-winning writer and poet Elizabeth A.I. Powell will share readings from her literary works on June 13 as part of the Hazel Hall Memorial Reading, a semi-annual event hosted by Oregon State University – Cascades.

The virtual event is sponsored by OSU-Cascades Low-Residency Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. The program begins at 6 p.m. and will be livestreamed via Facebook Live and YouTube. 

Researchers at Oregon State University will look in Bend’s sewer system for genetic evidence of the virus that causes COVID-19 in an effort to help determine the virus’ prevalence in the city.

Researchers will analyze “sewer sets” collected from six sewer line locations, looking for genetic material from the novel coronavirus that traveled from infected people into the city’s wastewater system. Researchers will also look at water samples from the city’s treatment plant.

TRACE-COVID-19, the groundbreaking Oregon State University project to determine community prevalence of the novel coronavirus, is expanding to include two days of sampling in Bend.

Random door-to-door sampling in 30 Bend neighborhoods will occur May 30-31 as a joint effort of OSU-Cascades, OSU faculty researchers in Corvallis and Deschutes County Health Services.

“As Bend and other Oregon communities reopen, it is important that we have baseline information regarding the prevalence of COVID-19 in our communities,” said Becky Johnson, OSU-Cascades vice president.

Oregon State University – Cascades will host a free, virtual summit on May 19 to provide business owners a framework for decision-making as the economy reopens amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Reopening Central Oregon” will take place from 9 a.m. to noon via Zoom.

At Oregon State University - Cascades' rescheduled virtual Science Pub, OSU marine scientists will host a screening and discussion on a documentary depicting how a submerged rocky bank 35 miles off the Oregon coast has beneficial impacts on our state’s coastal environments.

The event was originally scheduled in early March, but canceled due to social distancing requirements created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Science Pub will take place from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Monday, May 18 and will be streamed live on YouTube and Facebook Live.