Gov. Tina Kotek’s proposed budget has winners and losers. Support for people going through homelessness is a winner. Increasing housing is a winner. K-12 education gets special support.

Among the losers is Oregon State University-Cascades. Again, the state’s leaders are turning away from supporting the campus. Kotek’s proposed budget does not mention allocating a penny for the next piece of the campus puzzle — a student health and recreation center and land remediation on 24 acres to turn a brownfield into buildable land.

Legislators and the governor did not provide money for it in 2023. They didn’t in 2024. And now it isn’t in the governor’s proposed budget for 2025.

Students at OSU-Cascades are going to chip in $20 million in student fees for the center. They voted to place the fee on themselves in 2019. Gov. Kotek and legislators have agreed to chip in: zero.

The request of the state is not small. It would be $42 million. The $20 million from students would be added to it. Another $22 million would come from OSU debt, grants and gifts. The total project cost would be $84 million.

What does every other public campus in Oregon have? Student physical and mental health facilities on campus. Not OSU-Cascades. Does it not deserve it?

Just over a quarter of the students at OSU-Cascades have significant financial need. About 24% of students are the first in their family to attend college. The state is not going to give them the same advantages as students at Oregon’s other campuses. It’s not as if there are no services for students, but students at OSU-Cascades must go off campus to get them.

Students think better when they are physically active. They suffer stress, as anyone does. Many are away from home for a prolonged period for the first time. It’s an adjustment. A student health and recreation center gives them better tools to deal with those issues and therefore a better chance of academic success.

One thing that hurts OSU-Cascades is where its project is prioritized on the Higher Education Coordinating Commission’s list of capital projects. It’s listed below a Portland State University Center for the Performing Arts. Bonding for that would cost the state about $85 million. It’s behind general capital improvement and renewal, $120 million. It’s behind a University of Oregon project for $53 million. It’s behind a Southern Oregon University project for $40 million. It’s behind a Western Oregon University project for about $13 million. It’s behind an Eastern Oregon University project for more than $55 million. It’s behind an Oregon State University project for $73 million. Only then do you get to OSU-Cascades.

The scoring system that HECC uses to rate university projects gives points for addressing deferred maintenance issues. OSU-Cascades, being the newest campus in the state, really can’t score points in that category.

What’s happened in the past is legislators have looked at the money available and looked at the project rankings and gone right down the list. By the time they get to OSU-Cascades, the money has run out. It looks like that may happen again this next legislative session.

We did reach out to a spokeswoman in Gov. Kotek’s office and local legislators about funding for OSU-Cascades not being in the governor’s budget. We didn’t get answers by our deadline.

Central Oregon is the part of the state that has been growing like crazy. Its college campus needs to support the region and its growth. That starts with supporting its students. But state leaders may say no again.