Office of the Registrar

From: Office of the President

Dear OSU Community Members,

With great excitement and appreciation, I write to share incredible news about Oregon State University.

Last night, the university and the OSU Foundation launched “Believe It: The Campaign for Oregon State University” – OSU’s second university-wide fundraising and engagement campaign. The campaign seeks to raise $1.75 billion to support OSU priority initiatives – including student access and success, faculty positions, academic programs, research, statewide community engagement programs, OSU Athletics and facilities on our Corvallis campus and at OSU-Cascades in Bend.

Please join me in celebrating a remarkable accomplishment: More than 56,000 people have already made gifts to the Believe It campaign totaling more than $1 billion.

I share my heartfelt appreciation to all who have contributed to this fundraising and engagement campaign so far – and believe so profoundly in Oregon State University and its mission to provide excellent teaching, transformative research, and service and engagement across Oregon and beyond. I also thank the leaders and staff of the OSU Foundation and those who support the university through their service and engagement as employees and volunteers.

The foundation has received $100 million in gifts to launch OSU’s new Collaborative Innovation Complex – a $200 million research and education center. This center will harness one of the nation’s most powerful supercomputers and team-based interdisciplinary research in artificial intelligence, materials science and robotics. And it will bring together students, faculty, staff and partners to solve the world’s greatest challenges, in areas such as climate science, oceanography, sustainability and water resources. The center also will help advance Oregon’s valued semiconductor industry and economy.

This center is supported by a transcendent $50 million gift by OSU College of Engineering graduates Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang. You may know that Jen-Hsun is the founder and CEO of NVIDIA. The Huangs’ gift is thrilling, and their message of belief in OSU is powerful and inspiring. In recognition of their gift, OSU will name the CIC: The Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex.

Last night, Jen-Hsun shared that he envisions the complex as a spaceship to propel OSU students and faculty to new heights and incredible achievements. He said: “These are extraordinary times for Oregon State. These are extraordinary times for the students, the teachers and the researchers of Oregon State.”

We are so appreciative of Jen-Hsun and Lori’s support of the CIC and OSU’s university-wide research and education commitment. Learn more about the CIC from this university news release and please keep up with CIC developments by following this university website and by following on Twitter @OregonStatePres.

The heart of OSU is all the students we teach in person and online through Ecampus, from engineers and oceanographers to writers, musicians and economists; from science and public health majors to pharmacists to veterinarians; from educators to business majors to foresters and agriculture majors.

This university commitment is supported by the incredible Believe It campaign. This commitment also is embodied in the leadership and philanthropy of OSU graduate Pat Reser, who has invested significantly in the arts to ensure that Oregon State will not only be a globally recognized research university, but a university that also provides its students with access to extraordinary opportunities in the arts.

Last night, in recognition of Pat’s leadership gift, we announced that the arts and education complex under construction on the Corvallis campus will be called the Patricia Valian Reser Center for the Creative Arts.

I am so appreciative of Pat and her support for arts programs, faculty, students and facilities that over the past decade totals more than $36 million in transformative gifts.

I am confident that the Believe It campaign and the philanthropic and service contributions of donors and stakeholders will continue to advance the impact and momentum of this incredible university.

With such support – and with incredible faculty, staff and students – OSU will continue to expand pathways for success for all learners and contribute to the prosperity of communities throughout Oregon, the nation and the world.

None of this is possible without your collective engagement – your knowledge, your energy, your enthusiasm, your commitment and your service.

At Oregon State University, we are better together, and together we will continue to achieve the unbelievable.

Sincerely,

Jayathi Y. Murthy, President