Beaver Brags & BriefsFall 2026

Beaver Brags

of OSU students graduate debt-free, versus 45% of public university grads nationwide, according to the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities.

has been given so far toward scholarships and other student success programs in OSU’s Believe It! campaign.

students have graduated from OSU-Cascades since its founding in 2001. This year’s class of 377 students was the largest in campus history.

largest engineering school by undergraduate enrollment, OSU’s College of Engineering ranks among the nation’s biggest according to the ASEE.

Briefs

Cosmic Bend Beavs’ New Place to Recharge

The Oregon State Legislature approved $42 million to remediate 24 acres of former landfill and build a new student health and recreation center at Oregon State University –  Cascades in Bend. The roughly 40,000-square-foot facility will be the first comprehensive campus center dedicated to student health, wellness and recreation. Remediation is expected to begin in 2027. Learn more.

Text Support

Oregon State launched Beaverly, an AI-powered text-messaging tool designed to connect students to information and support. Beaverly sends check-in texts to undergraduate students at key points in the term, offering resources when they’re likely to need them most. Students can also text Beaverly with questions. Drawing on a knowledge base curated by OSU staff, Beaverly can answer questions on a range of topics or refer students to humans for help. The tool is part of an effort to boost graduation rates by helping students avoid falling behind. Learn more.

RIP Robots

June 11 was the last day to see flocks of little white six-wheeled robots trundling across the Corvallis campus on their way to deliver smoothies and sandwiches to hungry students. Starship Technologies has pulled its autonomous fleets out of U.S. college campuses to focus on delivery in urban markets and Europe. After debuting in 2019, the robots quickly became quirky campus fixtures, beloved by many for their cuteness and occasional misadventures, including a 2022 incident when one was famously hit by a train. Watch that video (again).

On A Winning Streak

Five National Awards

The Oregon Stater picked up five national awards this summer, including its first for overall excellence. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) named the Stater among the country’s best, awarding it a bronze award for alumni magazines published three or more times a year.

The magazine also won two writing awards: a silver for “OSU Below,” by Katherine Cusumano, MFA ’24, and a bronze for “6 Things You Might Not Know About OSU and AI,” by Keith Hautala, Cathleen Hockman-Wert, Scholle McFarland and Rachel Robertson.

The Fall 2025 “Super Fans!” cover brought home silver awards from both CASE and the Society of Publication Designers (SPD). Becky Plante of Pentagram Austin created the design from photographs taken by Karl Maasdam, ’93, of more than 100 vintage Beaver buttons, pins and patches.

The SPD recognition put the Stater in good company, alongside winners from The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and Rolling Stone. Go Beavs! — Stater Staff