When the State Board of Higher Education decided Feb. 16 to award Oregon State University the privilege of managing the branch campus in Bend, it also told the OSU administration to work with the University of Oregon in a collaborative effort to give Central Oregon the best higher education institution possible.
Following the board’s February meeting, both universities’ provosts pledged to work with each other in that joint effort. But now, two months later, University Provost John Moseley says there could have been more effort from OSU to ensure the University was on the same page throughout the planning process.
The board will meet Friday at Western Oregon University in Monmouth to discuss plans for the Bend campus, and Moseley said he didn’t want “to create problems” by being too critical. He said most of the questions the University has with OSU’s plans could be just semantics. He added he was optimistic the concerns will be resolved either at the board’s meeting or before it.
But when asked if the collaborative spirit mandated by the board had been present throughout the development of the plans for the Bend branch campus, Moseley said it had not.
“That has not happened at this point,” he said.
Moseley said the two schools are now “trying to deal with things that should have been dealt with earlier” because of the low amount of cooperation.
Yet Moseley said he remains optimistic the kinks will be ironed out between the University and OSU and the two will be able to offer Central Oregon a full range of courses offered by both universities.
He said the University will continue to offer full bachelor’s degrees in the humanities in Bend and also provide an administrative licensure program that could lead to a master’s in education.
OSU Provost and Vice President Tim White said there had been “innumerable interactions” between the two universities in forming the implementation plans for the Bend campus and that he was quite pleased with the level of collaboration.
He said part of OSU’s plans has been the formation of a implementation counsel that White said he has invited several provosts from other universities to join.
“I feel very good about our willingness to cooperate and collaborate,” he said.
OSU has already compiled a detailed implementation plan that outlines both the curriculum and administration of the branch campus that will be named Oregon State University — Central Oregon.
Several schools in the Oregon University System already offer courses at the Central Oregon Community College campus where the branch campus will be located, and White said OSU will work to retain those academic programs.
“We wish to be as cooperative and collaborative as possible,” he said.
OUS Chancellor Joe Cox said the implementation plan is well on its way and that he expects the board to be pleased with the discussion on Friday.
He said there has been some tension in the planning stages, but that could be expected.
“Is everyone going to be a happy camper?,” Cox said. “Probably not.”
While Cox would not directly comment on the cooperation between the University and OSU, he did say that there will be a strong level of cooperation between the academic programs that are already in place on the COCC campus.