Impact

Gifts in support of OSU faculty enable the university to recruit and retain the best educators and researchers. The impact of these individuals ripples throughout the university. World-class faculty attract the brightest students as well as significant research funding; that's a powerful combination. Exceptional faculty also inspire their colleagues. One endowment can energize an entire department.

Here are a few ways campaign gifts are supporting OSU faculty.

For students: Slayden Construction Faculty Fellowship

An article in the Winter 2010 Oregon Stater features the Slayden Construction Group Inc. Faculty Excellence Fund, created by Cindy and Todd Woodley '86. This current-use fund made it possible for OSU to retain one of its outstanding professors, Chris Higgins, who conducts structural and transportation engineering research.

Higgins has mentored many OSU students including Thomas Schumacher '07, a doctoral candidate who led a study investigating the forces of hurricane-generated waves hitting coastal bridges, gaining worldwide attention. Thanks to the Woodleys, Higgins is staying put at OSU, where he'll mentor more students and help meet transportation challenges in Oregon and beyond.

For Oregon: Giustina Endowed Professorships

The family of the late N.B. “Nat” Giustina and his wife, Jacqueline, has honored Nat's memory by making a $4 million gift to create two endowed professorships: one in forest management and one in turf management, two areas Nat loved which are vital to Oregon’s economy.

Rob Golembiewski is the holder of the N.B. and Jacqueline Giustina Professorship in Turf Management in the College of Agricultural Sciences. He succeeded Tom Cook as the director of OSU's turf management program, which has gained national recognition for producing superintendents at prominent golf courses and devising new approaches to making golf courses environmentally "green."

Doug Maguire is the holder of the N.B. and Jacqueline Giustina Professorship in Forest Management in the College of Forestry. Director of the Center for Intensive Planted-forest Silviculture at OSU, Maguire is an expert on growing and managing planted forests in the Douglas-fir region.

For the world: Robert S. Yeats Professorship of Earthquake Geology and Active Tectonics

Days before the Jan. 12 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince, Haiti, OSU geology professor emeritus Bob Yeats was quoted in a Scientific American article identifying the same area as being at high risk for such a catastrophe.

A group of Yeats' former students had previously combined their gifts and pledges to create the endowed Robert S. Yeats Professorship of Earthquake Geology and Active Tectonics in the College of Science. Its holder will build on Yeats' legacy and further strengthen OSU's research in earth hazards.

Oregon State University | OSU Foundation