OSU-Cascades has filled nearly all of the faculty positions it plans to add for the fall.

The campus, which will begin offering lower-division undergraduate courses in 2015-16, plans to add nine full-time faculty to teach primarily general education requirements for freshmen, including reading and writing, math, science and communications. So far it has hired seven people and officials hope to have the final two hired by the end of next month.

Meanwhile, construction is set to begin in the coming days on a new campus, including an academic building and dining and residence halls, on the west side of Bend.

The campus plans to add another 10 full-time faculty members by fall 2016.

Officials had hoped to hire a full-time computer science faculty member for this fall but that has long been a difficult area to hire thanks to higher salaries in the private sector, according to Marla Hacker, OSU-Cascades’ dean of academic programs. The campus recently ended its search without a candidate and this fall will supplement the full-time position with part-time instructors.

All hiring decisions include input from Oregon State University officials on the Corvallis campus. This past school year OSU-Cascades had about 40 full-time faculty, who are paid the same as their counterparts in Corvallis.

While OSU-Cascades will be a four-year campus beginning this fall, only students in nine majors will be able to earn a degree entirely at OSU-Cascades; the rest will have to takes classes at Central Oregon Community College. Most new OSU-Cascades students are expected to also enroll at COCC.

Also this summer, a committee of OSU-Cascades faculty and staff will look at which academic programs could be added in the coming years, taking into consideration enrollment at Corvallis and peer institutions, local business needs and program costs. The committee plans to propose 12 programs by September. It typically takes OSU-Cascades three years to design and launch a new program.

Hacker said this round of faculty hiring was easy compared to the early years of OSU-Cascades. The campus began in fall 2001 and immediately faced cuts in the midst of a recession. Hacker said many people didn’t understand the concept of a branch campus. But, she said, as the campus and Bend have grown, attracting faculty has been easier, though most still come from outside the OSU system.

“We don’t attract faculty from the Valley. They have roots in Corvallis; they have kids; they want that big campus experience,” she said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7837,

aspegman@bendbulletin.com