A letter from President Murthy

Dear OSU community,

When Beavers rally together, there are endless possibilities.

We are in year two of OSU’s strategic plan, Prosperity Widely Shared, with the pursuit of our three big goals underway. I am delighted to have some new leaders on board to help us achieve our ambitions goals, including Provost Roy Haggerty, Vice Provost for Enrollment Nechell Bonds, and Deans Forrest Masters of Engineering and Debbie Craig of Health.

I am pleased to share an update with you on how we are advancing Oregon State University:

OSU’s is a research and education powerhouse, and we are doubling down on our efforts to leverage our expertise in AI and robotics to solve problems related to health, climate, energy and more. The university is investing in promising faculty, research infrastructure and best-in-class facilities. Here are a few highlights:

• The Jen-Hsun Huang and Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex is on track to open fall 2027 and will harness the power of AI to solve some of the most pressing problems the world faces, while attracting top talent and support for groundbreaking research, creativity and innovation.
• Thanks to our generous donor community, we now have 212 endowed faculty position funds, which play a critical role in OSU’s ability to attract and retain some of the world’s top educators, scientists and scholars in their fields. Every gift supporting these OSU faculty positions has a ripple effect on the excellence of the university and makes a life-altering impact on students. Watch a video about the impact of these faculty members on our community and world.
• You may have seen social media posts about our College of Engineering’s O.H. Hinsdale Wave Lab. Across our digital platforms, posts received over 60 million views to this stunning video about OSU’s work to mitigate hurricane damage on coastal communities.

Read more about OSU research

This fall, OSU once again welcomed more students than any other university in Oregon. We have a responsibility to ensure that students who come to OSU have every possible opportunity to complete their degree. In fact, student success, at OSU and after graduation, is our ultimate goal. “Every student graduates” represents a commitment from us to our students, as part of a forward-looking, all-inclusive effort to ensure students have all the resources they need to meet rigorous expectations and graduate prepared for fulfilling careers, with minimal debt.

The university’s Finish in Four program is a key part of this strategy, designed to help us increase our graduation rate to 80% through a variety of efforts, such as:

• Four-year scholarships awarded with admission that help students stay on track to graduate in four years;
• Initiatives to help ensure first-year students succeed and continue onto their second year;
• Emergency grants for students facing unexpected challenges;
• Rigorous review of internal barriers to success (e.g. enhancing academic advising, ensuring students are able to register for the classes they need when they need them);
• And other scholarships and university programs that support college completion.

Earning a college degree is not only a rite of passage, but a predictor of long-term health, income and social stability. Many students begin this journey, but don’t finish it. It is unacceptable for students to enroll in college, accumulate debt, not graduate, and leave financially worse off than if they had never come at all.

I am grateful that donors have supported this priority university initiative and have already responded with over $7 million for the Finish in Four effort. With additional university investment, and the continued generosity of donors, we will together foster a sense of belonging, provide support systems for all students and help those with the highest financial need earn a high-quality education and graduate. Gifts of all sizes make a difference toward this goal.

Learn about Finish in Four

OSU makes a $3.5 billion annual economic impact on the state! That’s an extraordinary impact on Oregon’s economy through operations, capital projects, employee wages, student spending and visitor spending for events like athletic competitions, commencement, arts performances and more. This powerful ripple effect supports local and statewide economies.

Consider these examples from across the university:

• Frontiers of Advanced Semiconductor Technology (FAST), a statewide semiconductor coalition led by Oregon State University, has been named a finalist to receive up to $160 million in federal investment over the next decade from the National Science Foundation. This bold initiative would expand Oregon’s semiconductor industry, accelerating innovation and generating future-ready jobs.
• Agility Robotics is located in Salem and co-founded by OSU engineering professor Jonathan Hurst in 2015 with technology developed at OSU. Agility has since attracted more than $250 million from investors and employs more than 120 people in Oregon. The company’s 70,000 square-foot facility is the first full-scale humanoid robot factory in the world.
• Professor of Chemistry Rich Carter discovered a novel process that allows chemical manufacturers to readily add fluorine to other molecules. Carter’s groundbreaking discovery led to his co-founding of Valliscor, a thriving startup based in Corvallis. Its lead product, bromofluoromethane, gives pharmaceutical manufacturers a more cost-effective way to make fluticasone propionate, a key ingredient in widely used asthma inhalers such as Flonase.
• A collaborative research and outreach effort led by OSU to protect whales and sustain Oregon’s commercial Dungeness crab fishery has been recognized as one of four regional winners of the 2025 W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award. This honor reflects the strength of OSU’s partnerships with our Oregon coastal communities and our shared commitment to environmental stewardship and economic resilience.
• Oregon State University Ecampus specifically designs many of its online degrees, certificates, and microcredentials to address critical workforce needs within the state and nationally. This is achieved through close collaboration with industry leaders, government and community organizations, and faculty experts. Examples include programs in healthcare administration, natural resource management, special education and computer science.
• The OSU Alumni Association partners with the OSU Career Development Center to create sector networks to both build community around professional areas of interest and to assist OSU students with internships and finding fulfilling jobs after college.

OSU is doing so many great things to fuel our workforce and economy, powered by our strong partnerships with industry, government agencies and communities.

Find out more about OSU's economic impact

Thank you for your support and involvement as we work toward these ambitious targets for the future of OSU, our incredible students, our communities and the world.

Sincerely,

Jayathi Y. Murthy
President, Oregon State University