Oregon State University received a large donation this week to launch a planned expansion of its marine studies facility and program.
OSU accepted a 20-million dollar anonymous donation this week to begin its fundraising for another Hatfield Marine Science Center facility in South Beach.
The 100-thousand square foot, two-story building is expected to be completed by 2017. The Marine Science Center currently houses 50 students. Director Bob Cowen expects there will be 500 students studying at the campus by 2025.
“The really exciting thing about the building is it gives us this capacity to bring a much broader diversity of people and broader diversity of disciplines to educate the students, to give them access to researchers, issues, marine issues, environments, habitats, it’s really exciting.”
The donation was given as a challenge grant, with the expectation that other donors will match it. The university anticipates it will need to raise 65-million dollars total.