Spring 2026 11 PRESIDENT Q + A Ecampus has been ranked in the Top 10 by U.S. News & World Report for 12 years. There are also new online programs that we’ve been creating — for example, in sports business and in healthcare administration. We’ve always been a good engineering school, so there’s a slew of engineering programs coming online. For example, online mechanical engineering has about 300 students in it. That tells you how attractive that program is. So being agile, being quick, being creative about the programs that we offer is going to be very important. We’ve been talking a lot about micro-credentials. These are online certificates in specialized fields — I’m sure it comes as no surprise that AI and semiconductors are big! But in the nonSTEM areas, for example, we’ve got microcredentials in consumer analytics and viral content creation. The other thing that I think about a lot is the fact that transfer students are a big chunk of our population. Therefore, making the transfer process smoother is part of how we attract community college students and others into the mix. It can’t be business as usual. We cannot take increasing enrollment for granted. Do we need enrollment to keep increasing? We’re already the biggest school in the state. Part of it is our reach. I mean, we want, through our land-grant mission, to have influence — and being bigger does mean influence. You have many more of your graduates out in the world doing good things. There are also financial pressures that will inevitably lead you there because of the way costs are increasing. Those costs outstrip tuition and what the state can give us, so part of how you make up for that is through increasing enrollment numbers. There are, of course, limits to how big on- campus enrollment can get. Ecampus offers exciting new offerings and an answer to the problem of physical constraints. ← President Murthy and OSU Foundation President and CEO Shawn Scoville at a 2025 meetup with alumni and friends in Taiwan. Follow her on LinkedIn. OSU’s land-grant mission can be hard to explain, but Oregonians feel the effects when funding for it is reduced. How do you explain the value of statewide engagement? You’re right that it’s when a program disappears that you understand its value most deeply. SNAP-Ed teaches people eligible for federal SNAP benefits how to eat and live healthily. In 2024, 24,000 Oregonians received direct education in these areas. Recently, federal funding for the program was eliminated, which was a devastating loss to OSU employees and the communities they served. Despite that, OSU Extension is working hard to deliver as much of the programming as they can. Outdoor School is another example. OSU Extension runs the state’s weeklong nature education program for fifth and sixth graders. The state cut its funding by 20%, but we’ll continue Outdoor School with maybe a shorter program duration or other adjustments. You can see how important these programs are. People may not know what a land-grant school is, but they access our programs all the time. Other OSU Extension programs that people certainly know about are 4-H and the Master Gardener program. Yes, degree granting is important. Yes, research is important. But this big deep connection to our community is also hugely important. Do you have any stories from communities that illustrate why the work matters? I’ve been making it a point to visit as many extension offices and experiment stations as possible. I’m always struck by the importance of the role that we play and the level of need that there is. There’s so much OSU does that should make us proud. One example: I am a huge potato fan, and I’m married to a man who lives exclusively on potatoes, it seems! I was at the Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center, one of two potato research facilities that we run (along with the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center), and I learned an interesting fact. The work that we do supports 40% of the frozen potato production in North America — 40%! That’s more than a billion dollars in gross revenue to farmers. You’re about to embark on your second OSU tour of Southeast Asia. What have you learned so far from visiting Beavers around the world? There’s so much love of OSU in the hearts of Beavers everywhere. Of course, the young folks are very connected through social media. They follow us and keep track of the things that are happening — and they’re deeply invested. But even people who have been out for a long time have so much nostalgia about their time at OSU and a lot of gratitude. I mean, we had these evening get-togethers, and people wouldn’t leave! There was just this amazing feeling of catching up with family after a long time. THIS INTERVIEW WAS EDITED FOR CLARITY AND LENGTH. “YES, DEGREE GRANTING IS IMPORTANT. YES, RESEARCH IS IMPORTANT. BUT THIS BIG DEEP CONNECTION TO OUR COMMUNITY IS ALSO HUGELY IMPORTANT.”
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