The University of Oregon is Oregon’s first public university established by land grant and legislative act in 1872, with a mission to serve the entire state. UO is eager to work in partnership to develop a new campus for higher education in Central Oregon. If selected by the State Board of Higher Education, UO intends, first and foremost, to establish in Central Oregon a university campus responsive to the needs and desires of the Central Oregon community. Therefore, UO will develop this campus to meet what we have learned are the primary educational needs in Central Oregon–the essentials of higher education grounded in the sciences, the social sciences and the humanities, commonly referred to as the "liberal arts." In addition, our proposal contains numerous opportunities for professional development directly relevant to the region’s developing economic strengths.

This brief introduction emphasizes the practical and applied aspects of the arts and sciences, as well as their central importance to individual development. We highlight our proposal firmly in a vision for a robust future for the Central Oregon region. We advance a solid and largely existing administrative structure to support the rapid development of this unique educational partnership.

We underscore the special strengths unique to the University of Oregon. These strengths include Oregon’s excellent flagship arts and sciences programs and highest ranking professional schools. They also feature UO’s established record of successful collaboration with Central Oregon Community College, and our own unmatched technological capacity to bring state of the art electronic network access to all Central Oregon students–kindergarten through graduate school–as well as to other citizens in the region.

Finally, we advance a vision that can set a path breaking example for the nation. We will combine resources of a first rank community college and an internationally recognized research university, together with other higher education partners, to produce a new, dynamic and student-centered model of undergraduate education. UO now offers outstanding undergraduate education on its major research university campus in Eugene. In Central Oregon, we will offer, in cooperation with our partners, that same exceptional quality of education in a smaller campus setting.

In its Plan for Higher Education, dated 12/18/98, CORAB articulated that "[t]he studies consistently indicate that there is continuing perceived need for ‘Arts and Sciences’ or ‘Liberal Arts’ education in Central Oregon". CORAB affirmed this need in its report of December 17, 1999, recommending that this campus "offer the upper division curriculum for traditional baccalaureate degrees in the arts and sciences, as well as a number of regionally specialized programs at both the baccalaureate and masters degree levels." The OUS staff confirmed in its Strategy for Expanding Higher Education Opportunities in Central Oregon: 2000-2015: "education and training in computer science, math and liberal arts programs will help meet…workforce needs, both in Central Oregon and elsewhere."

The Governor’s Task Force on Higher Education and the Economy noted in its report to the Governor on December 15, 1997, "As Oregon’s knowledge-centered economy continues to evolve and grow, higher education is becoming critical to the economic security of Oregonians and the long-term health of our economy." Nowhere is this more true than in Central Oregon. The report continued, "There is a significant clamor for employee capabilities nurtured by the liberal arts. In today’s workplace, employers value workers with historical perspective, critical thinking skills, and competence in mathematics, speaking, writing, listening, and collaborative effort."

The set of programs that develop these skills are the core disciplines of science and mathematics, social sciences and humanities. They comprise what is commonly referred to as the "arts and sciences" or "liberal arts," and they form the essential core of any college or university. This is exactly the kind of education in which the University of Oregon excels, and which we are eager to bring to Central Oregon.

In our wide-ranging conversations with Central Oregon leaders and other residents, as well as with prospective students, the need for a commitment to this "essential core" of higher education has been a central theme. For instance, leaders in Oregon’s growing technology and creative services industries tell us that the degrees of greatest value to them are those that are well grounded in the liberal arts and sciences. Indeed, the increasingly technological nature of our society makes a broad educational base ever more important. An Associated Press story recently pointed out: "[i]n an age when technical skill learned in college might be obsolete within a year or two, many businesses are looking for graduates who are better able to adapt, solve problems, and think critically in an ever-changing economy…That’s what liberal arts majors do."

Surveys of liberal arts and sciences graduates show that although their initial salaries are lower than those of graduates from professional schools, in as little as three to four years’ time, the liberal arts and sciences graduate fares better, not worse, than their counterparts from more vocationally oriented fields. For example, a recent AT&T study found that liberal arts graduates progressed more quickly through the company than employees with other degrees. AT&T President Charles Brown says, "The humanities and social science majors were most suitable to change--the leading feature of this kind of high-speed, high-pressure, high-tech world we now occupy."

Moreover, a 1999 survey conducted on behalf of Hewlett-Packard Co. revealed that 48% of 291 information technology professionals at companies with 1,000 or more employees and annual revenue of at least $100 million had non-computer-related college majors. For example, Carly Fiorina, who recently took over as CEO of Hewlett-Packard, received a bachelor’s degree in medieval history and philosophy from Stanford University.

We are prepared to provide this kind of creative liberal arts education through face-to-face learning with the best from our academic and professional communities, in ways that concretely foster the skills and abilities essential for professional success.

Both the Governor’s Task Force and the University of Oregon Mission Statement identify a number of critical skill areas that need to be addressed if the needs of the state’s economy are to be well met. These include:

• Communication skills--both written and oral
• Critical thinking skills--the ability to see through issues and evaluate the merits of competing ideas
• Problem solving skills--the ability to analyze complex problems and proceed to a resolution
• Teamwork--the ability to collaborate and work with others
• Creativity--the ability to see matters differently and imagine new solutions
• International capabilities--knowledge of international content and culture to permit effective working relationships with international counterparts and
• Ethical judgment--the ability to evaluate ideas and actions for their more comprehensive impacts and meaning.

Our proposal for a Central Oregon campus is centered on the development of these critical skills. Through the study of content in the sciences, history, literature, business, and other areas, students will learn to write and argue effectively, to work together to solve difficult problems, to nurture creativity and judgment, and to work effectively in the international community.

The University of Oregon proposes to create this educational opportunity in partnership with the Central Oregon community on the campus of Central Oregon Community College (COCC). This campus, which we will call "UO/Central Oregon" for the purposes of this proposal, will offer a variety of upper division degree, minor and certificate programs and select graduate programs built around UO’s existing solid core of sciences, social sciences and humanities programs.

In addition, UO will both offer itself, and cooperate with other institutions to offer, a broad array of other programs. These programs will include innovative majors and/or minors in important areas such as business, education, computer information technology, hospitality management, psychology, geology, health related fields, information management, and environmental sciences, as well as selected master’s degrees in areas such as education, business, public administration and social work.

The UO/Central Oregon will also offer our longstanding Independent Study Program, designed for students who want to pursue extended scholarly studies in areas not represented in the established academic departments. Students can also participate in our newly developing Professional Distinctions Program that enhances the bachelor’s degree through a focused concentration in an area of professional expertise. We will also continue our strong emphasis on internships and other participatory learning experiences for all students, just as we do on the Eugene campus.

The University of Oregon believes that it is best positioned to successfully build the strongest higher education presence in Central Oregon for a wide variety of reasons. These include the following special and relevant strengths:

• UO’s successful track record in developing the liberal arts core in its science, social science and humanities programs at the COUC, in cooperation with COCC;
• UO’s innovative curricular ideas for the Central Oregon campus;
• UO’s strong record of student recruitment within Oregon as well as nationally and internationally, and its specific ideas for recruitment to the Central Oregon campus;
• UO’s strong commitment to enhance both diversity and community through research, scholarship, training, and community outreach directed toward fostering mutual trust and respect, open and informed dialogue, and innovative educational activities for all citizens in a diverse, multicultural world;
• UO’s outstanding international academic reputation. UO is the only Oregon university with membership in the Association of American Universities and the Association of Pacific Rim Universities, and the only public university with a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, all of which enhance the value of its degrees;
• UO’s ability to bring outstanding faculty from the Eugene campus to teach and work in Central Oregon, both because of the strong interest that already exists among our faculty to participate in this venture, and due to the incentives to teach in Central Oregon that will be offered by the Knight Central Oregon Lectureships.
• UO’s national leadership in networking and information technology, and its specific ability to bring state-of-the-art connectivity to Central Oregon, both on the COCC campus and beyond;
• UO’s unmatched regional leadership in networked library systems, including bringing the ORBIS network to COCC over three years ago;
• UO’s ability to raise other funds, including grants and contracts, to support the Central Oregon campus, as evidenced by specific planned grant proposals and a present commitment of over $2.65 million in private funds;
• UO’s long history of involvement in Central Oregon, dating back to geologist Thomas Condon and anthropologist Luther Cressman, and including numerous field programs each year, the Community Service Workshops, the Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) program, educational administration and teacher training programs, and the Pine Mountain Observatory;
• UO’s commitment to make these field study programs more accessible to Central Oregon residents through a Field Studies Center.
• UO’s excellent relationships with COCC, the Central Oregon Regional Advisory Board (CORAB), and the Central Oregon community;
• UO’s partnerships with other institutions, including EOU, OIT, PSU, SOU, OHSU, and Linfield College, to make available the wide variety of professional programs needed by Central Oregon;
• UO’s ability to bring the highest quality of cultural activities to Central Oregon, in areas such as music, theater, the arts, astronomy, and natural history, in conjunction with the Central Oregon campus;
• UO’s record of stable, creative administration, cost-efficient delivery of world-class programs, and outstanding financial management;
• UO’s history of effective collaboration in developing campuses, for example the development of Portland State University from Vanport College, and Oregon Health Sciences University from UO’s College of Medicine; and, perhaps most important of all,
• UO’s strong commitment, indeed, excitement, on the parts of its faculty, administration, staff, and alumni to the development of a truly outstanding and innovative campus for higher education in Central Oregon.

A combination of unique circumstances currently exists in Central Oregon that makes exceptionally favorable the development of an upper division and graduate campus in cooperation with a community college, thereby providing Central Oregon residents with the equivalent of an outstanding liberal arts college. These circumstances include the unusual history of COCC, resulting in a substantial faculty well-qualified to teach at the upper division level in a research university program, the unusually strong lower division arts and sciences program at COCC, the excellent cooperative working relationships which have already been developed between UO and COCC faculty and administrators, the rapid growth in Central Oregon coupled with the lack of four-year and graduate education opportunities, and the support of Central Oregon leadership for the current plan.

We fully recognize that COCC has a traditional community college mission–to provide technical education, continuing education, high school completion programs, and training opportunities for the Central Oregon community. It is important that UO/Central Oregon not detract from that critical part of COCC’s mission, but rather complement it.

COCC’s goals for its technical programs have always stressed training for family wage jobs and the ability to pursue a career track which allows for growth, change and life long learning.  Many programs such as nursing, computer information systems, criminal justice, and manufacturing consciously seek both immediate employability and articulation with additional educational opportunities.

COCC also carefully monitors and controls its program mix and has publicly committed to keeping that program mix proportional as the college grows. COCC expansion plans include continued growth in specific training areas such as manufacturing and computing that will become stronger and more attractive to students with the presence of four-year and graduate degree opportunities.

The University of Oregon is very familiar with COCC’s Mission Statement, its Vision Statement, and its statement of Goals, as adopted and prioritized earlier this year. We fully support these aspirations, and pledge to work closely with the COCC Board of Trustees to ensure that the presence of a UO/Central Oregon campus actively promotes the full mission of COCC.

We also recognize that one of the great challenges of modern education is balancing theory and practice.  When the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson looked out over his small village and observed his neighbors at work, he proclaimed: "I like people who can do things."  A full educational program for the twenty-first century requires a strong dose of both theory and practice so that students can both think and do, and are thus prepared to deal with a world of rapid change.  Without sound and balanced grounding, change is both defeating and demoralizing.  Without a rich, liberal and humanistic education, we will find ourselves in the position of the former patents commissioner Charles H. Duell, who a hundred years ago spoke against the expansion of scientific education by declaring "everything that can be invented has been invented."

 The University of Oregon has a long and historic tradition of educating citizens who understand both the why and how of dealing with a changing world.  The program we propose for Central Oregon is specifically designed to deliver the balance of theory and practice required for decision-makers and program innovators in the evolving world of the twenty-first century. We thus recognize and appreciate the full and important role that a community college must play in its community, and the increasing importance of easy access to a full range of higher education programs for all of the citizens in that community. We will work diligently with COCC and our other partners to bring true excellence in higher education to Central Oregon.

At the University of Oregon, we see leadership development as one of the objectives of a liberal arts education. In order to prepare leaders for the 21^st century, we must ensure that our students develop leadership skills in a pluralistic environment. We strive for diversity not only because we are committed to equal opportunity but also because we recognize the educational value of a pluralistic university community.

The University of Oregon in Eugene is increasingly a place of diversity. As part of our mission, the University of Oregon "strives to enrich the public that sustains it through …an acceptance of true diversity as an affirmation of individual identity within a welcoming community". The UO has a 13% student-of-color population, including Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, African Americans, Chicanos and Latinos, and Native Americans. In addition, international students from 90 different countries make up another 7% of our student body.

At UO/Central Oregon, we are also committed to creating a community of diversity. Because the Central Oregon community itself is not particularly diverse, we cannot expect without special effort to enroll a particularly diverse group of students from Central Oregon alone. The University of Oregon will therefore work closely with the Warm Springs community, as well as local Hispanic and other minority populations, to try to maximize student enrollment from these communities. We are also confident that through our successful recruiting efforts we will attract minority students from across the state of Oregon and other states as well as students from foreign countries. At UO/Central Oregon, we will also use our best efforts to recruit a diverse faculty and staff.

In defining the specific mission of the UO/Central Oregon campus, we look to the work of the Central Oregon Regional Advisory Board and propose the following statement:

This mission is neither modest nor routine in its scope. We recognize this proposal as nationally path-breaking and largely without precedent. A first rank community college and a major research university, with its partners, are poised to develop an innovative, uniquely flexible and student-centered model of undergraduate education. We expect that, properly created, this model will itself be replicated and will be a magnet for federal and private foundation funding.

In addition, as a college of the University of Oregon, the Central Oregon campus also contributes to the enrichment of UO’s overall mission, providing new opportunities for all of our students. The mission statement for UO/Central Oregon will be included in the mission statement for the University of Oregon, as approved by the State Board of Higher Education. The UO’s current mission statement reads as follows:

The University of Oregon is a comprehensive research university that serves its students and the people of Oregon, the nation, and the world through the creation and transfer of knowledge in the liberal arts, the natural and social sciences, and the professions. It is the Association of American Universities flagship institution of the Oregon University System.

The university is a community of scholars dedicated to the highest standards of academic inquiry, learning, and service. Recognizing that knowledge is the fundamental wealth of civilization, the university strives to enrich the public that sustains it through

• a commitment to undergraduate education, with a goal of helping the individual learn to question critically, think logically, communicate clearly, act creatively, and live ethically.
• a commitment to graduate education to develop creators and innovators who will generate new knowledge and shape experience for the benefit of humanity.
• a recognition that research, both basic and applied, is essential to the intellectual health of the university, as well as to the enrichment of the lives of Oregonians, by energizing the state's economic, cultural, and political structure.
• the establishment of a framework for lifelong learning that leads to productive careers and to the enduring joy of inquiry.
• the integration of teaching, research, and service as mutually enriching enterprises that together accomplish the university's mission and support its spirit of community.
• the acceptance of the challenge of an evolving social, political, and technological environment by welcoming and guiding change rather than reacting to it.
• a dedication to the principles of equality of opportunity and freedom from unfair discrimination for all members of the university community and an acceptance of true diversity as an affirmation of individual identity within a welcoming community.
• a commitment to international awareness and understanding, and to the development of a faculty and student body that are capable of participating effectively in a global society.
• the conviction that freedom of thought and expression is the bedrock principle on which all university activity is based.
• the cultivation of an attitude toward citizenship that fosters a caring, supportive atmosphere on campus and the wise exercise of civic responsibilities and individual judgment throughout life.
• a continuing commitment to affordable public higher education.

UO/Central Oregon clearly contributes to UO’s overall mission to serve "the people of Oregon," and to "enrich the public that sustains it" by creating a new place and environment where UO can provide educational opportunities in "the liberal arts, the natural and social sciences and the professions."