Oregon State University - Cascades will offer a new bachelor’s degree in outdoor products beginning fall 2020 that will be one of only a few such university programs in the nation. 

The College of Engineering program aims to meet demand for innovation and skilled employees in the outdoor recreation industry, a $16.4 billion industry in Oregon and the nation’s third largest area of consumer spending.

Oregon State University - Cascades in Bend will launch its first doctoral program, a doctor of physical therapy, in fall 2021.

The program will leverage research in physical therapy occurring throughout the university, undergraduate kinesiology programs at OSU’s Bend and Corvallis campuses, and the expertise of practitioners in Central Oregon, an area known to attract top athletes and health experts.

Local partners have decided to continue a revamped, on-demand Ride Bend van service that attracted more than double the users this fall over a year ago according to a study by a transportation research lab at Oregon State University - Cascades.

The study was conducted to help inform area transportation leaders if an on-demand transportation service can be a good solution for Bend and Central Oregon.

Raquel Willis, the executive editor of Out Magazine and a black queer transgender activist and writer, will speak Monday at Oregon State University in Corvallis. The presentation will be livestreamed to OSU-Cascades as part of the Bend campus’s celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The free event is open to the public and will take place from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in Tykeson Hall, Room 111. Following the livestream, Erin Rook, diversity coordinator at OSU-Cascades, will host a discussion on the keynote’s themes.

The Oregon State University - Cascades Advocacy and Advisory Board will meet from 9 to 11 a.m. on Jan. 29 in Tykeson Hall, Room 111 on the OSU-Cascades campus on Chandler Avenue in Bend.

This meeting will cover topics including the future student success center and terms for advisory board members. Amy Watson, assistant professor of marketing, will present on research looking at how marketers navigate controversial social issues.

At Oregon State University – Cascades’ upcoming Science Pub, bat ecologist Tom Rodhouse will explore the little known, yet extensive world of bats, including the role they play in natural ecosystems, why some populations are threatened and how citizen scientists can help them.

The Science Pub, “Out of the Night, Into the Light: The Secret World of Bats,” will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 21 in Father Luke’s Room at McMenamins Old St. Francis in Bend.

An Oregon State University – Cascades anthropologist has been awarded $750,000 by the National Science Foundation to research issues facing coastal communities exposed to repetitive flooding, and the effectiveness of federal disaster response policies.

Elizabeth Marino, an assistant professor in the OSU College of Liberal Arts, will lead a research team that will consider community needs and responses related to the impacts of severe storms and repeated flooding.

Oregon State University – Cascades students who are veterans are being recognized during a slate of activities hosted through Nov. 11.

Seven percent of OSU-Cascades students are veterans, including 77 former active duty veterans and 17 students receiving veteran dependent benefits. 

The activities include:

Fall term enrollment at Oregon State University – Cascades has increased 4.1% and includes 28% more first-year students than a year ago.

The cohort of 145 incoming first-year students dropped the average age of OSU-Cascades students from 25 to 24.

In total, 1,311 students are enrolled at the Bend campus.

At Oregon State University – Cascades’ upcoming Science Pub, researcher Chris Hagen will discuss how work underway in the university’s Energy Systems Lab may shape the future of how people and goods are transported in the future.

The Science Pub, “Planes, Trains and Automobiles: Future Transportation,” will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 19 in Father Luke’s Room at McMenamins Old St. Francis in Bend.