A new study shows that Oregon State University – Cascades contributed $89.9 million in economic impact to the Central Oregon region in 2024, reflecting the campus’s growth, spending, research and other contributions to the surrounding community.
The report, commissioned by Oregon State University, details the collective impact of the university’s contributions to the economy and society, which totaled more than $3.5 billion.
The full report was unveiled today by OSU President Jayathi Murthy at the Portland Metro Chamber’s annual meeting.
The economic analysis showed that OSU-Cascades generates 701 jobs in Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties and drives $6.6 million in state and local taxes. In all, OSU supports and sustains 933 jobs in the tri-county region and drives $9.4 million in state and local tax revenues, with OSU-Cascades driving the majority of that impact.
“This report is confirmation of how OSU-Cascades is working in partnership with the Central Oregon community to fulfill its decades-long quest to bring a four-year university campus to serve both the region’s educational and economic needs,” said Sherm Bloomer, chancellor and dean of OSU-Cascades.
Since OSU-Cascades was founded in 2001, it has developed 24 undergraduate degrees, three master’s degree programs and a doctoral program. Several academic programs were developed in collaboration with regional industries as they sought a local and skilled workforce to boost employee recruitment and retention.
These include degrees in energy systems engineering, which has boasted a 95% job placement rate since 2012; and outdoor products, which was launched in 2020 with a $250,000 gift from Hydro Flask and in the 2024-2025 academic year enrolled nearly 80 students.
In 2024, the first cohort of 44 students graduated from OSU-Cascades’ Doctor of Physical Therapy program. The program was created in 2021 to address the need for physical therapists in Oregon and the nation, especially in rural areas, and to help diversify the physical therapy workforce. Alumni of the program are now working in Central Oregon, Portland and around the state, as well as in California, Idaho and Washington.
The report also notes how OSU-Cascades’ transformation of nearly 120 acres of unusable land, a former pumice mine and demolition landfill near downtown Bend is a cost-effective use of public money and a long-term investment that will produce future economic benefit for the region.
Expansion plans include a 24-acre innovation district where entrepreneurs, established businesses, researchers and students will advance research, technology commercialization, incubation and economic development. Land remediation for the first eight-acre phase of the district is complete and roadways and utilities are under construction.
OSU-Cascades is currently seeking $42 million in capital funds for the last phase of its land remediation for the academic campus, and for a student health and recreation center, for which students have raised $20 million since 2017.
“As legislators face difficult budgeting decisions, this economic impact report can give them even more validation of the return of an investment in OSU-Cascades,” said Bloomer.
As a branch campus of Oregon’s leading research university, OSU-Cascades’ research portfolio has steadily climbed with expenditures for research and sponsored activities totaling $5.8 million in the 2024 fiscal year. Challenges addressed by researchers have local and global impact related to water, energy, natural resources, human health and resilience, sustainable tourism and intervention strategies for injuries.
To date, the university campus’s energy systems engineering program has spun off two companies based on licensed commercial technologies. Onboard Dynamics and Espiku are both based in Bend.
A news release is also available outlining OSU’s overall economic impact in 2024.
Conducted by Parker Strategy Group, the economic impact report used data available through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, as well as OSU operational and capital expenditures, employee payroll, and student and visitor spending.
