16 OregonStater.org PHOTO BY KARL MAASDAM, ’93 VO I C E S created the Tillamook Dairy Innovators Lab and the Erath FamilyFoundationWineryLaboratory. How do partnerships like these with industry fit into the university’s mission? They play right into our mission.We want to do research that is relevant. Our strategic plan talks about big ideas leading to big solutions, and this is the solutions part. There are lots of ideas cooked up by our researchers, but translating those into real use does require industry telling us what is workable and what their needs actually are. What’s something coming up this new academic year that you’re really excited about? I am so glad to have the students back — their energy and sheer excitement — I really, really love that. This year, the big focus for me is the Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex.You can actually see the walls now. It’s coming up really fast. I want to see that complex take off and come to life. That’s what we’re working hard on.All theAI that we’ve been talking about in ag, in forestry, in oceanography and robotics and health — all of that will come to pass because this will be the locus of AI at OSU and certainly the locus of AI in Oregon. What role does food play in your idea of a good life? Food is sustenance, food is health, food is pleasure. It’s all of those things to all of us. But it’s so much more. You remember Marcel Proust and his madeleines — food offers a connection to one’s past. One bite of a cookie can make you remember your childhood. Food is memory, food is culture, food is history.As a person who immigrated from India, I can see how potent the connection to food is. There’s so much in your life that is transformed through the act of immigration, but the connection to the food of your childhood, to the food of your culture, remains. THIS INTERVIEW WAS EDITED FOR CLARITY AND LENGTH. MEET OSU’S NEW PROVOST THE UNIVERSITY’S ACADEMIC LEADER IS A FAMILIAR FACE WITH A FRESH VISION. As told to Theresa Hogue Roy Haggerty, environmental geologist and longtime Oregon State University leader, returned this fall as the university’s next provost and executive vice president. He spent 26 years at OSU as a faculty member and administrator before taking on the role of provost at Louisiana State University in 2022. Haggerty will now guide the academic direction of the university. Why did you want to return to Oregon State? My wife, Amanda, and my children and grandchildren are here; I spent most of my career here; and OSU is a world-class university that I love. Most important professionally: I am inspired by President Murthy’s ambitious strategic plan, “Prosperity Widely Shared.” What makes you passionate about higher education? Colleges and universities, and particularly research universities, are some of the best institutions humanity has ever created for increasing human prosperity and well-being, and they merit our investment of time and treasure.Why? Because every problem we face exists from the lack of knowledge on how to solve it. Universities exist to generate and propagate that knowledge. What is one of the first things you’re focusing on this year? Our strategic plan commits us to the bold goal of every student graduating. We know that many students who leave do so between the fall and winter terms of their first year, which makes those first weeks on campus absolutely crucial. That’s why we’re focusing on a strong start — through advising, mentoring and helping students feel a sense of belonging right away. If we get that right, we set students up not just to stay for their first year, but also to walk across the stage at graduation. That’s what every Beaver deserves. What was your favorite course in college? Applied linear algebra. I took linear algebra and found it rather dull. (Sorry, math colleagues!) When I took applied linear algebra — combining coding, differential equations and linear algebra — and discovered all that I could do with it, I fell in love. How would you convince today’s parents that college is worth the money? You will never regret an investment in knowledge. It’s the best investment in the future you could possibly make.
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