StemCell Therapy

Oregon State Universitys new president cant definitively say what college life will be like this fall at his schools campuses in Bend and Corvallis if the campuses are open at all. But F. King Alexander knows that classes will resume at OSU and OSU-Cascades this fall despite the COVID-19 pandemic, whether online, in classrooms or with a mix of both.

Some institutions are throwing in the towel, saying, Lets start in the spring. Were not doing that, Alexander told The Bulletin.

On July 1, Alexander, 56, took over the universitys presidency from Ed Ray, who led OSU since 2003 and oversaw the construction of OSU-Cascades campus in 2016. Alexander previously served as the president of Louisiana State University for seven years, and also led California State University Long Beach, as well as Murray State University in rural Kentucky, before arriving in Baton Rouge.

The tentative plan for OSUs campuses is a hybrid of in-person and online learning, Alexander said. Ecampus an online learning system which was named the fifth best online bachelors degree program in the country by U.S. News and World Report this year will come in handy in case the university has to lean more toward online courses if the pandemic worsens, he said.

Weve ramped up our Ecampus, but it was already one of the best in the country, Alexander said.

Because OSU is on a quarter system, the fall term doesnt start until Sept. 23. That means Alexander will closely watch universities that start earlier, such as the University of Florida and University of Texas-Austin, to see what impacts COVID-19 has on those campuses, and adjust accordingly in Bend and Corvallis.

Nobody ever predicted that the quarter system would give us this kind of an advantage in this unusual environment, Alexander said.

OSU leaders plan to release their final plan about re-opening in the fall by mid-August at the latest, Alexander said.

While leading LSU where the local county has more COVID-19-related deaths than the entire state of Oregon, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics Alexander learned the importance of having the local university be a community leader against COVID-19.

The citizens of the state, when a catastrophe occurs, turn to LSU to solve their problems, he said.

Alexander transformed the Tigers basketball arena into a production facility for personal protective equipment. And LSUs school of veterinary medicine was the first in the Baton Rouge area to open for community COVID-19 testing, he said.

He compared this to how OSU-Cascades led contact tracing in Bend earlier this summer.

As for Beaver football and other OSU fall collegiate sports, Alexander said his teams have had low numbers of positive COVID-19 tests and athletes have stayed socially distant while working out.

But the prevalence of COVID-19 in other PAC-12 Conference university cities, like Los Angeles and Phoenix, might derail fall sports, he said.

Arizona and Arizona State may not want their students playing ... nor will we be that comfortable sending our students into that environment if cases are still climbing, Alexander said.

The university will likely make a decision on fall sports in the next two to three weeks, he said.

Having overseen LSU branches in smaller Louisiana cities like Alexandria and Eunice, Alexander understands the importance of OSU-Cascades to nearby rural Central and Eastern Oregon towns, he said.

Theyre economic engines for the communities, but theyre also there to provide academic access and opportunity to students that either would not have had it or never had it, Alexander said of rural branch campuses. I know how important OSU-Cascades is to keeping many of the people in the region.

Despite the challenges of leading a university during a pandemic, Alexander expressed enthusiasm for taking the reins of OSU and OSU-Cascades. And hell push for continued campus expansion in Bend, despite the rough economic climate, he said.

We are completely behind this project at Cascades in Bend, and well stay behind it, Alexander said. We just hope our state Legislature understands the importance of serving the population that were serving at OSU-Cascades.

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New OSU president hopeful that OSU-Cascades will partially re-open in fall - Bend Bulletin

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