OSU basketball star A. C. Green shoots against USC, Gill Coliseum, ca. 1985.

Green played at OSU from 1982-1985 and is (as of 2000) a member of the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers. He was one of several players that made OSU a collegiate basketball powerhouses during the 1980s. From 1980-1989, Coach Ralph Miller's teams won twenty or more games eight times, captured four Pac-10 titles, and played in seven NCAA tournaments. Photo by Mike Shields. [OSU Archives P57:6121.]

Oregon Productivity Center established.

Office of International Education established.

Enrollment: 17,689.

Population in Corvallis: 40,960; in Benton County: 68,211; in Oregon: 2,632,663.

LaSells Stewart Center, the largest private-gift project ever financed at an Oregon public college or university, completed.

Crop Science Building completed.

Human Performance Laboratory in the College of Physical Education established.

Warren Kronstad and his research team introduced Stephens Wheat. This soft white wheat is now the major variety grown in the Pacific Northwest.

OSU and Western Oregon State College established the only jointly administered School of Education in the United States. The two schools' joint degree program was established in 1953.

Ava Helen Pauling Lectureship for World Peace established.

Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies established.

Biological Curation Building and Rabbit Research Labs completed.

The OSU Dar Reese Excellence in Advising Award established.

All schools, except Education, changed names to colleges.

Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies established.

OSU Marine Science Center became the OSU Mark O. Hatfield Marine Science Center.

Advanced Science and Technology Institute, a cooperative organization with the University of Oregon, founded.

Center for Gene Research and Biotechnology established.

Hinsdale Wave Research Lab completed.

The OSU D. Curtis Mumford Faculty Service Award for distinguished service to the faculty established.

John Vincent Byrne, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (November 16, 1984-December 31, 1995), appointed as the twelfth president of Oregon State University following the retirement of President MacVicar. Byrne returned to OSU after serving for three years as administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Byrne's OSU career began in 1960 as a faculty member in the Department of Oceanography. He later served as the first Dean of the School of Oceanography (1972-1976) and as Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies (1976-1981).

Milton Harris established an endowed chair in polymer chemistry in the Department of Chemistry; the first endowed chair established at OSU.

OSU is one of the first universities in the nation to develop electronic transmission of news releases to newspapers and wire services.

First summer Oregon Heritage Festival celebrated. Center for the Humanities established.

Physical Development Plan for the campus, prepared by the OSU Physical Plant staff, presented and approved.

OSU Foundation initiated Foursight, a program of fund raising in four fields: gene research and biotechnology, advanced materials research, marine studies, and humanities.

Central administration reorganized (four vice presidents, including the establishment of a Vice President for University Relations, and several associate and assistant vice presidents).

School of Education (OSU/WOSC) established the first "teacher warranty program" in the United States.

Certificate program in Peace Studies established in the College of Liberal Arts (first in the Pacific Northwest).

OSU graduate Linus Pauling (the only two-time Nobel Prize winner) designated OSU as the official repository of his papers and medals.

OSU's long-range planning document, "Preparing for the Future," published.

In December, Knute Buehler (Class of 1986, with a B.S. degree in microbiology and a minor in history) awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, becoming OSU's first Rhodes Scholar.

The OSU Outstanding Research Assistant Award established.

The OSU Herbert F. Frolander Graduate Teaching Assistant Award established.

OSU exceeded all universities in the United States in international development contract work with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

Trysting Tree Golf Course (18-hole) dedicated.

Track and field (men's and women's) eliminated on March 29 as an intercollegiate sport in a budget cutting move.

Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, located at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, opened in Newport; the nation's first marine experiment station.

Baccalaureate Core, new undergraduate curriculum and graduation requirements for OSU students, approved.

First graduate degrees authorized in the College of Liberal Arts; masters degree in Scientific and Technical Communication, and masters/doctorate degrees in Economics.

Dedication of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Building, financed by Oregon State Lottery funds.

OSU Distinguished Professor Award established.

OSU Portland Center opened January 9.

International exchange program with Kiev Polytechnical Institute in the Soviet Union initiated in September.

State Police begin providing law enforcement coverage for campus on November 15.

to chronology homepage | back to 1970 - 1979 | forward to 1990 - 1999