CORVALLIS – The two campuses carry the name Oregon State University, but OSU President Ed Ray wants the university’s Bend branch to have a distinct personality.

He envisions the young branch, known as Cascades Campus, as a school that reflects the Central Oregon community.

”It needs to have its own character,” said Ray, 59, interviewed in his office in Corvallis.

When asked if the Bend campus is at risk in light of Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s remake of the State Board of Higher Education, Ray said he didn’t know.

But no one has suggested to him that the campus shouldn’t try to be as successful as it can be, he said.

Mimicking the depth of programs available on the main campus is unrealistic, he said.

Core academic courses should be available in collaboration with Central Oregon Community College.

Certain ”nuts and bolts” upper division courses in the arts and sciences will be necessary. Special majors should exist to meet the area’s needs.

Michael Wax, chairman of the Cascades Campus advisory board, said he agreed with Ray’s vision.

”I think this school must serve this region,” he said. ”That will be the easiest path to avoid resistance in the future. Let’s offer what’s immediately consumable to the public. Maybe in the future we’ll branch out.”

Offerings such as the outdoor recreation leadership and tourism degree make sense, given the presence of the tourism trade in the Bend area, Ray said.

Rather than acting as a pipeline to Corvallis, the campus will be able to attract students who want to attend school in Bend exclusively.

Most importantly, the campus needs to have a plan for its future.

”The best people to articulate that first are the people there,” Ray said.

Earlier this fall, a draft version of Oregon State University’s strategic plan frustrated some Central Oregon residents who felt the OSU-Cascades Campus was inadequately mentioned. Officials in Corvallis explained the intent of the plan was to provide a general road map for the future. The Bend branch, which opened in 2001, is expected to have its own plan sometime next year.

As the former executive vice president and provost of Ohio State University, a school with multiple regional campuses, Ray said he learned that a branch needs to have programs germane to its region.

Ray, who became president of OSU this summer, was a member of the economics faculty at Ohio State for more than 30 years. He served as department chairman from 1976 to 1992.

”The campuses in Ohio are doing fine,” he said. But if the campuses had a sense of focus and purpose earlier on, he said, they would have been more successful sooner.

Several years ago a commission studied Ohio State’s regional campuses, looking at their purpose and role in the greater university, said W. Randy Smith, the Ohio State University vice provost who worked with Ray.

One of the recommendations in the commission’s report was the need to recognize that each regional campus was located in a distinctive community. Each campus needed to be considered as having individual strengths and needs, he said.

”One of the big issues that emerged from the report was the need for us to think more as a kind of system ourselves,” Smith said.

The OSU-Cascades Campus is in the process of developing a strategic plan over the coming months. Branch officials intend to organize public meetings and focus groups to find out what people want in the campus and what they expect the region to need in the future. Those meetings will target different segments of the community such as members of the medical or education community.

Some planning has already begun. On Friday, COCC and OSU-Cascades college officials sat down to discuss the future of higher education in Oregon and how that would affect the two institutions.

”What we’ve got to do is, we’ve got to use resources very efficiently in this model we’re trying to build for a four-year institution,” said Wax, the advisory board chairman. The schools need to avoid duplication, he said.

Ray said he hoped the plan would discuss whether staying on the Central Oregon Community College campus is part of a long-term future. He also hoped the plan would consider the quality and quantity of student service such as advising as well as student government, sports, dormitories and diversity.

The future of partnerships between different colleges and universities at the Bend branch should also be considered, he said.

”We weren’t created to fight turf wars by the people of Oregon,” Ray said.

Officials plan to study data on enrollment trends and determine what kinds of facilities and programs may be needed for future growth.

”I’d like to see more science and pre-engineering,” said Jay Casbon, campus executive officer of the Bend branch. ”I have no supporting data right now that says that will fly here, but I know it ought to eventually, so I need to get real data on that.”

Not only does the school need to be prepared for the future, Casbon said, but planning can help the branch claim state funding as it grows.

The broad OSU plan is expected to be finished around January. The Cascades Campus plan should follow in May or before, Casbon said. Once it’s complete, the campus will continue to collect data to help prepare for future years.

The Bend branch plan is expected to address the campus’ needs for the next five years.

The campus is currently operating under a plan that was designed about four years ago to help launch the Bend branch, Casbon said.

When OSU fought to take charge of the proposed Bend campus, OSU officials promoted a Bend branch as a school with big possibilities. Though some of the ideas have yet to result in anything concrete, others are beginning to take shape or are already a reality.

By the end of the planning process, the Bend and Corvallis plans should align, Ray said. But Casbon isn’t going to ”nail a proclamation to my door saying that is what I demand for the campus,” the OSU president said.

”It’s not them versus us – it’s only us,” he said.

Julia Lyon can be reached at 541-617-7831 or at jlyon@bendbulletin.com.