BEND, OR -- Construction crews have laid the foundation for another building at OSU-Cascades, following more than five years of planning and fundraising. 

The university’s Jarrod Penttila is managing the project. "It’s a 17,500 sf building; mass timber again for this building," he tells KBND News, "And that building’s going to be there - just like the name says - to serve students and help them succeed."

Penttila says, "It really centralizes a lot of the student services on campus. A lot of those exist already on our campus, but this provides one central place for those services. Things like Health & Wellness, Academic Advising, Career Advising, a place for our Student Life and Student Government folks; and then a coffee shop, a study commons and a lounge commons." He adds, "Really, this building acts as kind of a family room for the campus, over the next 30 to 40 years."

Some of those amenities already exist inside Obsidian Hall, "But, as we expand, we’re just kind of outgrowing that. And there’s also been a lot of studies over the course of the last 20 years or so that have shown that centralizing a lot of these services in one building can have a dramatic impact on student achievement."

Students agreed to raise their own fees, in order to raise $5 million for construction. The legislature committed another $13.8 million. It’s expected to open in the 2024-’25 school year. Click HERE to learn more. 

Penttila hopes eventually, OSU-Cascades will also have its own recreation facility, "One of the things the students increased their own fees for was to help support paying for that facility. And then we’re also looking to Central Oregon for different partnership opportunities that may support building a facility that might also serve the community in certain ways." He says the existing small workout room at the Bend campus isn’t enough for some students.

 

Rendering courtesy OSU-Cascades