BEND, OR -- The President of Oregon State University called for an infusion of state funds for OSU-Cascades, during his State of the University address delivered at the Riverhouse Convention Center in Bend, Tuesday evening. Ed Ray says the new Bend campus must be a statewide priority. He told the crowd, "[There is a] need for the Higher Education Commissioner, the Governor, the Legislature to have a serious conversation about what can be done to provide capital support for the Cascades campus."

President Ray says, "We need to continue the process of investing in OSU Cascades, if it’s to realize its promise of having a campus of 3,000 to 5,000 students around 2025." For the next biennium, OSU-Cascades has requested 69 million in state bonding for the next phase of its expansion." To do that, he says, "We need $150-$250 million over the next 10 years. So, what we’re asking for in the ’17-19 biennium is the 9.5 million for the land reclamation, another 11 million for infrastructure purposes, another 39 million to have the second academic building."