Oregon State University President Ed Ray gave his annual state of the university address to the Faculty Senate on Thursday, vowing to give employee raises as planned despite the tough economic times.

"We cannot afford not to go forward with increases," said Ray, now in his fifth year as OSU's leader, in answer to an audience question.

Higher pay will ensure that OSU is competitive with other universities and that quality faculty members don't get lured away to other jobs, he said.

Faculty members will get a 3 percent across-the-board raise for satisfactory performance, and could get another

u3 percent in merit and equity raises.

"It's a hard decision. The budgets are tight, but if you don't attract and keep good people, you lose the positive position OSU is in right now," Cheryl Lyons, associate director of printing and mailing, said after the speech. "We have some great people doing research."

And that research has grown substantially. The university had $231 million in research grants last year, a figure that climbed by $25 million over the previous year.

In fall 2007, OSU also launched its first-ever comprehensive fundraising campaign and collected a record-breaking $126 million. That exceeded the previous annual fundraising record by $50 million.

"Five years ago, our annual fundraising total was only $38.1 million," Ray said.

In 2008-09, however, endowments won't have as much of a payout in previous years because of the floundering economy. "We will make it through this period we are in," Ray said.

OSU faces other challenges as well.

"We simply have not met our goals for first-year retention and six-year graduation rates," Ray said.

OSU's strategic plan lists a retention goal of 83 percent for 2007-08, up 3 percentage points from 2002-03, and a graduation goal of 62 percent, up 4 percentage points for that same time period.

Ray added that graduation rates are especially low for Latino, African-American and Native American students, and that OSU must also work to improve its diversity among its employees at every level. The university also must move forward with rebuilding four of its diversity centers, he said.

Ray said excellence only can be achieved through diversity, and a new collaboration with "Into University Partnerships" will enhance that by doubling international student enrollments in the next five years.

The partnership with the private company, however, has been controversial with people on campus who worry that the influx of students will strain the existing language program and that the foreign students will be isolated in a separate dorm.

The university will start planning to eliminate its carbon footprint this year, Ray said. OSU is in the process of re-engineering its business practices to create efficiencies and assessing university investment priorities and its current core curriculum.

Ray said the university also must assess how it has performed on its strategic plan for 2008, set in 2004, and create new goals for 2013.

The goal is to create the new strategic plan in February.

Peter Saunders, the director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, said he was happy to hear Ray, an economist, talk about the United States' current financial situation. He agreed with the president's stance on wages. Saunders said he believed OSU was evolving into a great school.

"This university is turning the corner. It's happening," he said.

BLOG

To read the full state of the university address, see Kyle Odegard's blog at http://www.gazettetimes.com/gtblogs/kyle_odegard/

Kyle Odegard covers Oregon State University. He can be contacted at kyle.odegard@lee.net or 758-9523.