Though the Oregon State Board of Higher Education elected to begin phasing out the University’s undergraduate program in Bend, the University will retain and expand its
graduate and non-credit programs there.
The decision came on the heels of a review by the Higher Education Action Team (HEAT), a 22-person council that includes University Provost James Bean. The group’s conclusions
have prompted the state to consolidate the programs in Bend into Oregon State’s Cascades extension.
According to University officials, the withdrawal is scheduled to take place gradually
over the next two years. After September 1, no new Central Oregon Community College
students, who are the primary participants in the University’s Bend program, will be admitted  into the University’s courses. Students already working towards degrees will either have to finish them in the two-year time frame or enroll in the Eugene campus.
Bean stated that the primary factor in HEAT’s recommendation was the cumbersome logistics of having a college campus shared by three separate institutions.
“The recommendation was made to simplify the structure in Bend to better serve Central Oregon satudents,” Bean said. “Currently, some students need three ID cards: COCC, OSU, UO with the attending advising registration and other complexities. The new system will be more efficient.”
The University has maintained a small undergraduate core in Bend since the 1970s. In 2000, the University competed with Oregon State over the rights to establish a permanent presence in Central Oregon.
Though OSU was ultimately chosen, and in 2001 opened its OSU-Cascades facilities, the
University was allowed to continue to operate under the OSU banner.
However, this often required students to enroll in several schools simultaneously to get the courses they needed — a system the state has found to be insufficient.
Yet rumblings among University staff and those familiar with the situation indicate there may be more to the story of the Bend campus than the official position.
Some are skeptical of the University’s intentions with the Bend program, started under
the direction of former President Dave Frohnmeyer, which gave former Vice President
of Academic Affairs John Moseley a $124,000 per year salary for working  half-time.
Moseley was provost at the University in 2000 when it initially competed for the extension program and, upon his retirement, was given a contract worth $124,000 per year to act as the University’s “Central Oregon Liaison.” The University’s directory lists him as a special
assistant to the provost.
Critics of this arrangement argue that the University’s intentions were not focused on creating a sustainable program and insist that, according to budget figures, the University was hemorrhaging more than $1 million per year to keep the Bend undergraduate programs running. Moseley, however, contends that the Bend programs were not a drain on the University’s accounts.
“The statements that some faculty have made that the program was ‘costing UO $1 million a year’ are nonsense,” Moseley said, “The total cost of UO’s program has been approximately $1 million a year for the past few years (and was even less in previous years), with these costs covered by revenue from the program.”
In the summer of 2009, Moseley’s contract with the University was the subject of a review by the state’s Internal Audit Division (IAD) following a complaint to the Oregon University
System’s hotline. According to a June 31, 2009, memorandum sent to University President Richard Lariviere from IAD Executive Director Patricia Snopkowski, the investigation concluded Bean had failed to update the responsibilities outlined in Moseley’s original contract to reflect a reduction in workload enacted in July 2008. Moseley’s original post-retirement contract from June 2006 had included work with the Oregon Bach Festival and the University’s Portland campus.
However, at the time of the audit, the agreement continued to state Moseley was being paid for these duties he had been relieved of almost a year earlier, and the IAD instructed the University to amend the contract to more accurately reflect Moseley’s performance.
Despite the accusations, Moseley maintains that his and the University’s involvement
in the Bend area was ultimately for the benefit of Central Oregon students.
“In spite of my conviction that UO has been offering highly valued degrees of excellent
quality in Bend,” Moseley said, “at this point in time I believe that UO has too many other items of higher priority that it needs to pursue. While I see the end of UO degrees there as a loss to education in Central Oregon, I am hopeful that OSU will be able to fill that potential void and intend to do my best to help them to do so.”

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