AI EverywhereLetters to the Editor

AI Everywhere

We rarely run out of extra copies of the magazine, but we came awfully close with the Spring 2025 issue. Its cover story, “6 Things You Might Not Know About OSU and AI,” got the word out about the university’s artificial intelligence prowess at events including the Portland Business Journal’s April AI Forum. And our story about the OSU steam tunnels — and the myth and mystery that surrounds them — generated the most reader excitement, especially online. It was the most clicked story in the Stater’s email newsletter and prompted a few readers to share their own experiences below ground.

Diamond drops of condensation shimmer on the ceiling of an OSU steam tunnel passage. Photo by Katterlea MacGregor, ’24

Underground Stories

My husband [Dr. Mark Rampton, ’72] has interesting steam tunnel stories. As a high schooler growing up in Corvallis, he and a group of friends would enter the steam tunnel at night, and they knew how to come up into the women’s gym and swim in the pool. I think they even took a canoe down and rowed around. It seems that they almost got caught once. By the time my high school class came of age, three years later, the tunnels were locked up.

 —Alice Rampton

It was spooky, and we heard strange noises. The older workers told me it was the pipes.

I enjoyed the article regarding the steam tunnels. My wife, Sally Blanc, was a secretary for the athletic department from 1976 to 1978 while I attended school. Paul Valenti got me a job with the plumbing department across the street from Gill. In the summers of 1976 and 1977, they turned off the steam so we could go underneath for repairs — new gaskets and fittings and various repairs. Even with the steam off, it was hot! I didn’t mind. I was young and needed the money for school. It was spooky, and we heard strange noises. The older workers told me it was the pipes. Never worked alone. We had a buddy system. Thanks for the article.

—Larry Blanc, ’78

Faith and Firsts

As an Episcopalian, I read the article about Katharine Jefferts Schori [“Gospel of Change”] with interest. I knew that she had roots in Corvallis and with the Good Samaritan Church, but the piece I didn’t know was that we were on campus at the same time. She finished her master’s in 1977 while I completed my bachelor’s. The other part is that my family lived in Philomath until I was entering sixth grade, and we attended the Good Samaritan Church. My parents were married there and both of my sisters and I were baptized there.

Fast forward to her being elected as the Presiding Bishop; it was awesome because she started at the same place I did, and she was the first woman to lead the Episcopal Church. “How cool is that!” I thought. When the Episcopal Diocese of Oregon elected their 10th Bishop at the annual convention in November 2009, the Presiding Bishop would conduct the ordination and consecration. This was held in Eugene, at the Hult Center (if I remember correctly). Michael Joseph Hanley was ordained to the episcopate and installed on April 10, 2010. I stood in line to meet Presiding Bishop Jefferts Schori, shook her hand, introduced myself and shared our common thread. I will never forget her smile and kindness to me. She was, and continues to be, a great human being.

—Linda (Clark) O’Hara, ’77

Memorable Mentors

When I read “The Things We Carry” Perspectives column in the Spring 2025 issue of the Oregon Stater, I thought of my former journalism professor, the late Rob Phillips.

I was a first-generation college student back before “first-gen” was even a thing, and I came from a home full of trauma. Kids raised that way either shrink or expand in an attempt to keep aggressors at bay.

I did the latter, and was therefore often the most talkative — and clueless — person in Rob’s classroom. I once overheard him talking to another journalism professor when he thought the hallway was empty, and the gist of his evaluation of me was “so much
potential, but distractable and immature.”

Those latter two attributes reared their head in the spring of my sophomore year, and I dropped out. Rob single-handedly got me back in school and kept me there so that the “so much potential” he saw would have time to materialize. (I’m proud to say it did throughout my career.) Rob’s influence in my life was the subject of a recent Substack I wrote, where readers can find more details of that story.  There’s rarely a day I’m not grateful for him and for having attended OSU. I’m proud to say my great-niece, Faith Boswell, currently attends and is finding it as life-giving as I did!

—Renée Schafer Horton, ’82

Photo courtesy of OSU Special Collections and Archives

Share Your Food Memories and Mysteries

We’re cooking up a special food-themed issue of the Oregon Stater, and we want to hear from you! Whether you have fond memories of campus restaurants or, like the protesters in this 1963 photo (the sign reads, “This guy (pictured above) ate dorm food”), you still shudder at the thought of cafeteria fare, we’d love to include your story. Likewise, we want to get our hands on favorite OSU-related recipes and hear about much-missed delights we might be able to track down. Email us.