Ed Ray first visited Oregon in 2003, but the longtime Ohio State University administrator was a quick study.
Among his observations: Oregonians enjoy discussing important issues, but struggle to move from Kumbaya moments into action. Ray, a 71-year-old economist with a wily East Coast charm, has no such qualms.
"The point of having really meaningful conversations is to actually decide what you're going to do," Ray said, his voice rising as he emphasized the adverb, "and then actually do something."
Ray took over as Oregon State University's 19th president in July of 2003, shortly after campus leaders had conducted interviews with 700 people and spent a lot of time plotting the school's future. The groundwork was there, Ray said, but the ambition wasn't.
"There was no vision to it," Ray said of the draft report. "It was not very good."
But Ray, who had spent 27 years in leadership roles at one of the nation's largest universities before landing in Corvallis, quickly understood what he had at OSU. He was struck by the deep connection Oregonians felt with the land-grant university, which has extension offices or agricultural experiment stations in each of the state's 36 counties.
Inside the Numbers
$307.9 million
- Research grants awarded in 2015, which Ed Ray said is more than Oregon's other six public universities combined (not including OHSU)
1,936 - Tenured/tenure track faculty and professors at OSU in 2015, up 41 percent since 2003
8,400
- Out-of-state students attending OSU in Corvallis, more than one-third of student body.
32
- Major new construction or renovation projects on campus in Corvallis or in Bend that were completed since 2004 or are under construction now (projects of $2 million or more included and provided by OSU)
$732.25 million
- Estimated cost of those projects, which were funded by variety of sources (university resources, capital campaign dollars, state funding and private donations)
$167.5 million
- Estimated cost of sports facilities that primarily benefit student-athletes, such as expansion of Reser Stadium, the Valley Football Center, Basketball Center and others
3,328
- International students attending OSU, roughly 11 percent of student body
6,754
- Students of color, roughly 22.8 percent of student body
(Sources: OSU)
"We are clearly an integral part of all of the communities in this state," Ray said in a recent interview, in advance of his annual state of the university speech Friday in Portland. "It's just a wonderful heritage and just a real privilege to try to help sustain and build on that."
Oregon State is unique among the state's public colleges and universities. Rather than being tied to a single campus - or offering programs or classes in a few cities - OSU under Ray is doubling down on its mission as a border-to-border, truly statewide institution. You can see researchers in Malheur County experimenting with irrigation in the high desert and teams in Astoria studying sustainable seafood, and OSU is in the process of developing a significant new campus in Central Oregon and massive expansion on the Oregon Coast.
Thirteen years into Ray's administration, the signs of OSU's momentum are evident in a growing student body and relatively stable finances at a time when Oregon's funding for higher education overall remains one of the lowest in the nation.
OSU is both larger and more diverse than it was in 2003. Student enrollment is up 56.8 percent and the nonwhite population has more than doubled.
The university also carved a niche in the increasingly competitive world of online education, with more than 4,530 students enrolled in e-courses - up from roughly 650 pre-recession.
George Pernsteiner, chancellor of the Oregon University System from 2004 to 2013 and now executive director of a national trade group representing state education leaders, said OSU has changed a lot during Ray's administration.
"They've grown remarkably, and increased the diversity of that student body noticeably and intentionally," Pernsteiner told The Oregonian and Oregonlive.
Work on the first wave of a $62.9 million development at the school's long awaited Bend campus is underway, with a dorm and two academic buildings scheduled to open this fall. A $50 million expansion of the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport is moving forward, as well.
Ray helped rally the alumni base and finish the school's first capital campaign, raising an estimated $1.14 billion from more than 100,000 donors between 2007 and 2014. The bounty will help OSU recruit and retain faculty, renovate facilities and pad student scholarships and fellowships.
While the other public colleges in Oregon remain in various degrees of leadership or fiscal flux - the University of Oregon is on its fourth president in seven years and Portland State University is pushing for a tax on metro-area businesses to help fund scholarships - Beaver Nation appears to be humming along steadily.
Ray is quick to deflect praise for OSU's growth and accomplishments, saying the people whose names rarely appear in the newspaper are "the heart and soul of the enterprise."
But his long tenure and leadership do matter.
"It's rare in higher education for a major university president to stay in one place as long as President Ray has done," said Ben Cannon, executive director of Oregon's Higher Education Coordinating Commission. "That longevity, that commitment, pays off in spades."
Friday, in the state of the university talk, Ray is expected to tell OSU friends and alums the next mission is all about improving outcomes for students.
Growth plans
OSU can only grow so much on its 531-acre Corvallis campus. Ray said the school will cap enrollment there at 28,000 there, so it has set its eyes elsewhere to keep growing.
It has its eyes on Bend, for starters, where slightly more than 1,100 students currently take classes through OSU.
By 2025, OSU hopes to have as many as 5,000 students enrolled in Central Oregon.
Ray on Race and Sexual Assault
Ray's tenure hasn't been without controversy.
OSU has faced criticism for its handling of alleged sexual assaults on campus, including the 1998 gang rape of Brenda Tracy, which predated his administration.
"We all ought to be ashamed that it's only in the last three or four years we've gotten serious about domestic violence and sexual assault," Ray said, saying he reached out to Tracy after The Oregonian's stories. "It's not like it's a new thing. What the hell were we thinking."
The power structure was rightly challenged, Ray said, and he pledged further changes.
Despite a more diverse student body, OSU is still overwhelmingly white. Ray and other administration officials attended a campus speak out last fall where students of color discussed their fears and treatment on campus. "What we heard was incredibly heartbreaking and sad," Ray said, adding that while his office took some actions in 2011 to make the campus more welcoming, those actions "obviously failed."
"Business as usual is not going to get it done, so we've got to do different things," he said.
Ray's experience overseeing Ohio State's Columbus headquarters and its five regional campuses has proven to be formative, according to OSU-Cascades Vice President Becky Johnson.
Ray stressed the importance of ensuring Bend's campus is on equal standing with the mothership in Corvallis, rather than being viewed as a lesser extension. "He just encouraged me to the extent possible to make sure that we had really strong programs here," she said.
With construction already underway on several buildings on Bend's west side, OSU recently bought a 46-acre former pumice mine next door to give itself even more room to grow. The school is also eyeing a nearby 76-acre property owned by Deschutes County.
In Newport, meanwhile, the $50 million planned expansion of the Hatfield Marine Sciences Center could attract another 500 students and have an economic benefit extending up and down the coast.
Oregon Rep. David Gomberg, an OSU graduate who represents Newport, said the expansion is a "remarkable" proposal that would help put the Oregon Coast on the map as a global leader in ocean science and climate change studies.
OSU still hasn't finalized where to site a new building in Newport, and some issues like housing and where the expansion will occur remain either unknown or controversial.
But the state is chipping in considerable resources to expansion plans in Central Oregon and on the coast, including half of the $50 million Newport sticker price. "Carrying the state's portion of this expansion plan was something that I felt very, very strongly about," Gomberg said.
What's next
Ray, a widower following the 2014 death of his wife Beth, signed a five-year contract extension in 2015.
He was awarded a $20,000 raise by OSU's board this year, but he donated it to student scholarships. "I don't need more money, I want to see us succeed with students," he said.
The school has made gains in some academic metrics. OSU increased the number of degrees awarded to students who identify as nonwhite (black, Hispanic, international and other student groups) by 81 percent since 2003, far outpacing other state schools.
But the six-year graduation rate for students admitted in 2008 was just 67.6 percent, 4 percent lower than at University of Oregon.
With the capital campaign complete and expansion plans underway, Ray said his primary focus in the next five years is to improve that figure.
Along the way, OSU seems likely to check off another accomplishment.
Officials expect the school to pass Portland State this year in awarding the largest number of undergraduate and graduate degrees of any higher education institution in the state.
-- Andrew Theen
atheen@oregonian.com
503-294-4026
@andrewtheen