Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences celebrated its successes and looked to the future during the inaugural State of the College address Oct. 3.

Dean Staci Simonich highlighted how OSU has the No. 2-ranked agricultural college in the United States by universities.com, $900,000 in available scholarships, 1,000 employees and a record $114 million in research funding.

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Enrollment in the college is up 16% over the last five years to meet employment demand and now stands at about 3,300 students, Simonich said.

“Forty percent of our total college population is now enrolled in e-campus. That’s amazing,” Simonich added.

She said the college needs to offer new online degrees and programs to boost e-campus enrollment even more. A draft of OSU’s new strategic plan aims for the university’s online enrollment to eventually surge to 30,000 — it was nearly 10,700 in fall 2022.

About 36% of the ag college’s enrollment is first-generation students, which compares to 19% throughout OSU.

“First-generation students require more support to be successful,” said Ricardo Mata-Gonzales, associate dean of academics. He also emphasized the value of experiential learning.

The college’s six-year graduation rate of nearly 67% is slightly better than the university average. Another of OSU’s draft strategic plan goals is to get its overall graduation rate to 80%.

The college recently completed its first Strategic Plan for Inclusive Excellence, and will be posting an inclusive excellence dean position in the fall.

That part-time position will help ensure the perspectives of underrepresented groups are heard and that the college recruits and reflects the needs of diverse people.

Though the College of Agriculture had the highest amount of research funding among all OSU colleges in fiscal 2022-23, the university is looking to gather more dollars. OSU hopes to grow its research funding from $480 million in fiscal 2023 to $600 million, according to a draft of its new strategic plan.

Continuing to grow research will attract more researchers, more students and more collaborations, including with peer institutions in foreign countries — and Simonich wants OSU to stand on a global stage.

Shawn Donkin, associate dean of research, noted that since research funding doubled in recent years, the infrastructure needed to support that also must double. He’s looking to hire a research funding project manager to help with heavy lifting.

Sam Angima, associate dean for extension, said extra funding from the Oregon Legislature will help hire two tenure track faculty focused on water quality, as well as up to six support staff. Those OSU Extension Service workers will help make data such as water quality and groundwater toxicity more available to farmers.

A video at the start of the event stressed the importance of scientists in creating an abundant food supply, and featured Pendleton, Ore., wheat farmer Greg Goad discussing OSU’s role in the ag “arms race.”

“The researchers help us to fight the never-ending war with fungus and disease,” Goad said.

About 50 people attended the event in person at the Corvallis campus, and 100 were registered to watch online.

The presentation should be available to watch soon via https://agsci.oregonstate.edu.