Oregon Public Broadcasting

In a speech  Thursday to Oregon State University faculty, President Ed Ray described an ambitious new agenda for the school – one that includes a 60-percent growth in enrollment.

Yet, the new vision for the school was disappointing in Central Oregon.

Ethan Lindsey reports that the OSU-Cascades campus learned the College of Education would not be moving there.

President Ray says that after “careful review”, he decided to scuttle a proposal that would have moved the College of Education’s administrative home from Corvallis.

Becky Johnson is the head of OSU Cascades.

Becky Johnson: “Yeah we are a little disappointed because this would have been a signature program for us – it would have been our first college, here at OSU Cascades.”

A cash-strapped Legislature has repeatedly threatened to close the Bend campus. Administrators had proposed moving the education school to Bend to fortify the school against possible shutdown.

Johnson says she is confident in the school’s growth rate – about 20 percent more students enrolled this semester.

Becky Johnson: “That I think is going to speak more to the Legislature than whether the college of education was moving over here to central Oregon.”