Phil and Penny Knight delighted the University of Oregon last month with their latest big-ticket donation, $1 billion to establish an engineering school in Eugene that plans to add dozens of faculty and hundreds of students.
The news hit much differently at the state’s established engineering programs, especially at Oregon State University. Leaders there say the University of Oregon took them by surprise when it announced plans for an engineering school. They describe it as direct competition to their own program, just up the freeway in Corvallis.
“It’s very easy in situations like this to divide the baby to the point where you’re at best mediocre, across the board, and that’s the last thing this state needs,” Oregon State Trustee Julia Phillips, who formerly led science and engineering research at Sandia National Laboratories, told fellow trustees at a meeting last week.
No one is suggesting Oregon turn down the Knights’ billion.
But Oregon State’s leaders want those who oversee the state’s university system to establish strict guardrails to protect their institution’s own programs. They are calling on the state to prevent the University of Oregon from duplicating their work or undermining existing programs at other universities.
“We expect a high bar to be set for any public university seeking to grow at the expense of others,” Oregon State President Jayathi Murthy, who has a doctorate in mechanical engineering, told her board of trustees at a meeting last week.
Phil Knight is the University of Oregon’s most celebrated and most generous alumnus. Among many other contributions, Nike’s co-founder has already given $1 billion — in two separate contributions — to create and expand the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact in a pair of modern research buildings at the north end of campus.
The Knight College of Engineering will add a third building and grow the program’s faculty from 17 to more than 40, according to plans the University of Oregon outlined last month. The science campus will grow from more than 500 students to well over 1,000 during a buildout that will take at least a decade.
Oregon State civil engineering student Brian Cortez-Cabezas said he initially thought it “amazing” when he heard about the Knights’ gift to the University of Oregon. His enthusiasm dimmed as he considered the implications for his own school if the new engineering school shifts the state’s focus away from Corvallis.
“If we already have the resources here, at Oregon State, then what’s the point of expanding that? Because clearly Oregon State already has the capacity,” said Cortez-Cabezas, Class of ’29, who serves as the student representative to OSU’s trustees.
The University of Oregon has been vague about just what its faculty and students will study at the new Knight campus.
It’s not clear whether the Knights pitched the engineering school to the University of Oregon, or if university leaders courted the donation with a new engineering program in mind.
The university has delayed releasing public records requested by The Oregonian/OregonLive connected to the donation and plans for the new engineering school, and it refused a request for an interview to respond to Oregon State’s concerns.
“We’ve already discussed the gift with you and your reporters and at this time we don’t have anything new to add,” Angela Seydel, the University of Oregon’s director of issues management, wrote in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive.
She wrote that “Oregon’s need for engineers is significant and growing” and said, “We will do so from our own strengths at the Knight Campus, through the same process every Oregon university follows.”
Oregon’s Higher Education Coordinating Commission has final say over when and whether the state’s universities add new degree programs. The commission makes its decisions after receiving a report from a council of provosts at all the state’s public universities. The provosts’ recommendation carries considerable weight.
So Oregon State, Portland State and the Oregon Institute of Technology — all of which have established engineering schools — may have considerable influence in shaping the University of Oregon’s program. And they’re wary of how the Knights’ donation will affect the state’s broader university system.
“While that kind of philanthropy to public higher education in Oregon should certainly be celebrated, the promise of greater competition for regional engineering students is sobering,” Portland State President Ann Cudd told her trustees last month.
Oregon State ranks fifth nationally in bachelor’s degrees awarded annually in engineering, according to the American Society for Engineering Education. Karla Chambers, chair of Oregon State’s board of trustees, said her school already has capacity to accommodate all Oregon high school graduates seeking engineering degrees in the state.
The $1 billion donation is an “amazing gift,” Chambers said, but she added that there’s “a lot of tension” because it’s not clear how the University of Oregon plans to spend the Knights’ money.
“The communication has been all over the map, and they do owe us a plan,” Chambers said. She called on the state’s higher education commission to ensure that Oregon’s new engineering program expand the range of offerings in the state rather than compete with existing programs at other schools.
“We do need to grow the pie,” she said. “We need to grow the economic pie in this state and absolutely not duplicate it.”
Ben Cannon, executive director of the higher education commission, told Oregon State trustees last week that he shares their expectation that the University of Oregon will coordinate with other schools in developing its engineering school. But Cannon said it appears Oregon’s plans are at an early stage and there’s still plenty of time to work together in shaping them.
The University of Oregon’s program can be structured around new areas of research, Cannon said, expanding the range of opportunities in the state’s university system.
“There’s an opportunity with the Knights’ gift, with an additional infusion of energy into the engineering space, to help transform Oregon’s economy, not just simply meet today’s projections about job needs,” Cannon said.
Announcing the Knights’ donation last month, the University of Oregon suggested that its new engineering school would seek to collaborate with the state’s other institutions. Bob Guldberg, executive director of the Knight Campus, noted that the University of Oregon already has a Ph.D. program in bioengineering run jointly with Oregon State. Faculty in the program hold joint appointments with Oregon Health & Science University.
“The real opportunities I find are in partnership,” Guldberg said.
In last month’s announcement, though, the University of Oregon quoted praise from Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and spotlighted semiconductor research as a key opportunity for the new Knight engineering campus.
Semiconductors are indeed among the state’s largest industries, but the engineering programs at OSU and PSU already devote substantial resources to that field.
In July, Oregon State led an effort that won $15 million from the National Science Foundation for semiconductor research. That could turn into $160 million for the state over the next decade. Portland State secured $2 million in congressional funding this year for its own semiconductor research.
Rep. Pam Marsh is vice chair of the state House’s committee on higher education. The Ashland Democrat said the Knights’ donation can work for everyone if the University of Oregon develops new programs no other school offers, or if the money enables premier programs that attract students from outside the state.
“If the University of Oregon has national stature, that could only be good for all of us,” Marsh said. “You just don’t want it to come at the cost of the rest of the system.”
Oregon needs private-sector money from the Knights and others, Marsh said, because university budgets are straining for sustainability. But she said only a few of Oregon’s schools can attract that kind of donation, so the state needs to reflect on how it can boost its flagship universities without neglecting its regional schools.
“We’re not in a position to reject anything nor should we even consider such a thing,” Marsh said. “But we do have the health of the whole system to think about.”
Clarification: The University of Oregon’s bioengineering Ph.D. program is run jointly with Oregon State. Faculty hold joint appointments at OHSU.
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