University officials dealt the latest blow in their battle with Oregon State University over a proposed Central Oregon branch campus recently when it announced plans for a field studies center in Bend.
The center will serve as a home base for students and faculty conducting field research in six liberal art disciplines, and is a component of the University’s branch campus plan, said University Vice Provost Jack Rice. The field studies center has no established location yet, but Rice said the University is looking at several sites close to Central Oregon Community College in west Bend.
“This is a nexus for the community outreach program that will be highly visible,” Rice said. “It will improve education opportunities for students in Eugene and on the [Central Oregon Community College] campus.”
The announcement has intensified what has become a “Civil War” between the University of Oregon and OSU to offer their four-year degree programs in Central Oregon through a partnership with COCC. The curriculum of the branch campus will be a mix of COCC undergraduate courses and the upper-division offerings of whichever university is selected.
Both universities have hammered out the final details in their branch campus proposals, which have not yet been released in their entirety, but must be submitted to the Oregon University System by Dec. 1.
Central Oregonians involved in the process said although OSU had an eight-month jump over the University on presenting their plan, the race for the branch campus has tightened. Bend residents are now finding their community divided between people with loyalties to OSU or the University.
“There’s a lot of politicking going on,” said Jim Carnahan, a COCC board member and OSU Central Oregon advisory board member.
Whatever the outcome of the OUS decision, the branch campus will quench a Central Oregon thirst for higher education that has built up over the last 20 years, Carnahan said.
What’s really at stake is the best higher education opportunities for Central Oregon, he said.
Several criteria — determined by COCC and later OUS for final approval — will determine which proposal is accepted, said Barbara Schenck, chairwoman of the Central Oregon Regional Advisory Board. Criteria could include how well the upper-division curriculum meshes with the undergraduate curriculum offered by COCC, and if the curriculum serves the needs of the community.
“It’s going to be a very difficult decision,” Schenck said.
“We’re going to have two wonderful proposals. I can’t wait to see them,” she said. “It’s going to be like opening a Christmas present to see in concrete form what they are offering here.”