VOL. CXVIII, No. 89
DailyBarometer.com
Friday, February 19, 2016 Oregon State University
Ray talks student success
Brian Nguyen | THE DAILY BAROMETER
Ed Ray spoke at the annual “State of the University Address” last Friday in Portland, discussing future student success initiatives and an update on OSU.
OSU President Ed Ray discusses the future of the university By Riley Youngman News Reporter
Speaking in front of over 700 students, business professionals, alumni and community members last Friday in Portland, Oregon State University President Ed Ray gave his annual “State of the University Address.” Student success was at the forefront of Ray’s vision for the future of OSU, and several initiatives and goals for the next four years were carefully laid out and explained. Ray also provided an update on all that OSU had accomplished in the last year. “Today’s address is also a call to action,” Ray said beginning his speech. Ray has pledged that by 2020, Oregon State University will raise its first-year retention rate for all students from the current 83.8 percent to 90 percent. In addition to this, Ray has also stated that the university is aiming for the six-
year graduation rate to increase from the now 63.1 percent to 70 percent for all students. Ray also touched on the subject of student debt, saying that this is a burden that needs to be reformed. According to Ray, OSU has downloaded 11 years of academic data, for 80,000 students, and will perform predictive analytics, using the data to identify paths that succeed and paths that fail to get a sense of what has and what has not worked for students. This information will then be used to provide students with the most efficient paths possible through OSU, leading to the least amount of debt. “The better the information you have, the better choices you are going to make, the faster you are going to get done, the better your education, the less debt you’ll have,” Ray said. The average Oregon resident undergraduate has an unmet annual need at OSU of $7,256, leading to debt.
Ray also recapped the numerous successes that OSU has had in the last year. According to the university, enrollment online, at the OSU Cascades Campus and at the Corvallis campus exceeded 30,000 for the second year in a row. In the last year, OSU faculty has conducted $309 million in research, which equates to almost double the combined total of Oregon’s six other public universities. According to Ray, last fall, more than 41 percent of the entering freshman class has a high school GPA of 3.75 or greater. Ray hopes that as years go on, OSU will become the top school of choice for Oregon’s most accomplished students. In 2015, the OSU Foundation raised $130.8 million in donor gifts to the university, the largest fundraising year in history Ray said. Ray also talked about OSU’s Marine Studies Initiative,
See Ray, Page 3
Arrest made in parking garage break-ins OSP catch one suspect in car thefts on campus By Sarah Weaver News Contributor
Joshua Lucas | THE DAILY BAROMETER
Ed Ray
An arrest has been made in connection to a string of car break-ins at the Reser Stadium parking garage on the Oregon State University campus going back to late January. Oregon State Police are not releasing the name of the suspect. Stretching back to week three, the break-ins have been happening during the evening hours and most commonly been occurring in the parts of the garage where there
IN THIS ISSUE >>>
is less foot traffic. The suspect had stolen valuables including basketball shoes, clothes and money. On Jan. 22, sophomore computer science major Jacob Royer came back to the garage after studying for a midterm and found his car’s left window had been shattered. Nothing was stolen from his car. That same night, he saw another student in the garage report a break-in. “When I was there, there was some kid a few spots down who had his car broken into at the same time,” Royer said. Royer and other OSU students said they have stopped parking in
We’re just trying to be as vigilant as possible. Huff Meyr OSP Senior Trooper
See Theft, Page 3
Police Beat, NEWS, PAGE 3 Civil War, SPORTS, PAGE 5 OSU Pistol club, FORUM, PAGE 7