good morning it's a pleasure to be able to welcome everyone here today this is an incredibly important day for all of us the wu salem is the result of a successful collaboration between western oregon university and the city of salem and actually rather a long time coming as an alum of both western oregon university and the city of salem having a presence here in the downtown area has been a long time dream of mine and when we first about four decades four university presidents and two decades ago dr philip khan who was then university president dan penn who at the time was the president and ceo of maps credit union and my boss and myself all had a shared vision and that vision was to create a presence here in downtown salem for western we had a lot of meetings we went so far as to find a location and we also drew up blueprints and we all had copies of those and we kept them and we'd have a lot of different meetings well we had a lot of bumps along the road and it didn't happen but the dream and the vision didn't go away in fact it kept the blueprints that i had on my desk in my office until i retired a couple of years ago and the dream was there but the blueprints when i retired went into the recycle bin so this moment right now is even more significant because it is the realization of a long-standing goal and vision of several people to make the university and city of salem strong partners and it gives me great pleasure to be the one to introduce the university president that made that dream and vision come true please help me welcome dr rex fuller

thank you corey for that uh introduction and that perspective on how long this has been in the works on the dream if you will uh welcome to wu salem as corey indicated this is really a vision to provide access for oregonians to to earn college degrees and so we really see this as targeting two main audiences throughout the nation and certainly true in oregon as well there are hundreds of thousands of people who started college and then didn't finish so we call that the group that has some college but no degree and so this space is intended to provide access for those who are working within blocks of where we are thousands of professionals wanting to elevate and want to be part of the new economy and to do that they need a bachelor's degree and so we think about finishing that degree at the undergraduate level as a key opportunity for us to help those students really achieve their dreams become a dream center if you will additionally we have hundreds of thousands of people who have a bachelor's degree who are seeking advanced degrees so another major opportunity for us here at wu salem are master's degrees master's degrees that will help grow the workforce grow the professional staff that employers need throughout the city of salem and the fact that we have so many oregonians here in our capital that work within walking distance of this location makes this especially exciting for us and as i said earlier it really becomes that dream center for those audiences as we go forward there are so many people i want to thank i was lucky to work with the team i think in terms of the academic affairs team provost winningham hillary holman kid who now works for the city of salem was a key driver in this process sue monahan we have vice president anna karen and her team if those folks who were sort of in on the planning for this uh my assistant luanne vickers if you'll just stand for a moment and be recognized i really wouldn't want you to do that so i mean you really carried the load to make this happen so please stand up and be recognized

this building really is a dream come true for us as i said earlier the conversion process is now complete you see it being ready for occupancy and while kovitt had delayed this grand opening we're now ready for us to to really begin to have face-to-face classes as conditions warrant just like we do on the main campus so wu salem in short fulfills our mission and our mission is to provide lasting opportunities for student success through transformational education and personalized support so what we mean by that is when students enroll western they graduate they earn degrees and become part of the communities that we all love and care about and that's what western has done for decades going back to 1856 the oldest public university in the state of oregon that tradition that dna is deep and is strong in this location is now a way in which we can really provide more access access opportunity student success so thank you for being here and at this time i think i'm being followed by emily thank you

good morning everyone my name is emily kanaus and i was one of the first two graduates to complete the masters in organizational leadership program through wu salem i completed that in december of 2020 so it's been just about a year i'm just here to briefly kind of give you a student perspective of wu salem and how that has helped me in my career and how having this location in salem hopefully will help many students like me as president fuller said yes my office is walking distance from this campus i do wish that that was here when i was going to school but i am so happy for all the students who live in this area and will have the opportunity to enjoy this campus i work for an organization called special districts association of oregon and in that my master's program has helped me immensely i have learned valuable skills that have helped me propel my career and all thanks to this program here in salem i lived just outside of salem about 25 minutes and so commuting to monmouth was a little daunting at first when enlisting in a master's program so having the opportunity to walk from my office or drive very closely was just the key factor in deciding to obtain my master's degree and continue my education i'm very thankful for the opportunity to continue at western i also received my bachelor's in psychology from western and so it was just a no-brainer that this location was going to be helpful for me in my career and i look forward to having all the students here and how it benefits them as well thank you

hello everyone my name is logan jackson and i'm serving as the western oregon university student body president now this certainly isn't the first time you've heard this but this past year and a half has been hard for everyone it's been hard on essential workers such as medical staff and those in the food industry it's been hard on business owners and those who live in small town communities but it's also been quite difficult for those in the education system from teachers and professors having to instantly switch the formats of their classes to online to students having to adjust to this new way of learning that turned out to be much more difficult than anybody would have anticipated in numerous aspects but as we continue to push through this pandemic it is important to realize that while the struggles we endured at the beginning of all this was plentiful we are now at a pivotal moment in our current circumstances where we can either view everything that has happened over the course of the last 18 months as setbacks or we can take everything we've learned over the last year and a half and view our present as an opportunity to re-evaluate regenerate come together as a community and begin making educational opportunities more accessible than they previously were before that's why the opening of this western oregon salem campus is so important not only are we providing hybrid courses to provide students with more flexibility in covett's safety but this campus will give opportunities to those who are unable to attend classes during the day by offering evening courses give those who may have taken a break from college a chance to hop back in with the easier path to degree completion create less of a commute to those who are already located in the area and also give opportunities to earn certificates and master degrees geared towards their careers the salem campus is giving wu the chance to have a positive impact on the students here in oregon and i am very excited to see what's to come in the future thank you for your time and go wolves

good morning everyone my name is jay kenton and i'm the interim president at western today tough act to follow our student body president our former student graduate

i do i also want to thank some other people for this facility michael smith is in the back of the room michael is our director of capital construction our facilities crews did much of this work if not most of the work and i want to thank them also tracy wicks who is the person who's stationed in this building is here today i want to thank her for all her work she spent a lot of time in the last week getting the building ready to open cleaning up and getting organized and then sue monahan i know that we've recognized her already but sue is the vice provost for going places is what she told me and she's here today and thank you this this building is the result of a lot of hard work we've done a good job as was mentioned earlier i'm not gonna bore you with a number of comments but um we are within walking distance of thousands of state employees and others that work in downtown salem we have major opportunities in this building to reach out to that group and we've already started conversations with das and with the unions seiu asked me and the other unions as a way to do workforce development and help state agencies grow their own workforce in today's labor market that will be critically important anyway i want to thank you again for coming today look forward to working with you as we open this wonderful new facility and with that i will turn it over to our good mayor of salem chuck bennett

well good morning finally finally western oregon is here this is been a long time coming the last time i was involved with this issue of western oregon coming to salem we were looking at the marion parkade for both housing and an international program and i think i've probably got blueprints of that sitting around the office somewhere as well i am really really pleased to be here i do want to first though acknowledge a couple of folks from the city city councilman tom anderson is here as well as our police chief trevor womack and

and i was really pleased to see my old friend betty comp is now the chair of the board that uh someone i've worked with over the years and known over the years it's very exciting to see her here betty it's good to see you uh this is a really fantastic opportunity for the residents of salem for the in the mid willamette valley as a whole to have uh a four-year and beyond education program moving across the river into salem and giving students here an opportunity particularly has been pointed out over and over we are the seed of i don't know how many governments right now i run through them real quick you know state county city schools

council council of governments is here the serv the education service district there are enormous amount of opportunities here for just in the public forum let alone the private opportunities for opportunities in organizational leadership that this program will offer it also focuses heavily beyond the master's degrees which i think are tremendous opportunities but the degree completion opportunities for local adults or or those who have just left college gone into the workforce but want to continue back in and complete their degrees i think is tremendous and finally it offers a substantial new option for students in salem kaiser school district as well as at chemeketa to go into a four-year program here at home and be able to complete it while staying really rooted in their local community which i think is tremendously important i came here over 50 years ago from spokane valley washington to go to willamette and i know how many times i thought it would have been really pleasant if willamette was in spokane but all they had was was whitworth and so i decided to come here and i think finally to complete i think salem's service as a community to our residents to to be i think once and for all the only state capital if i understood it correctly that didn't doesn't have a state institution isn't in it of higher education will be uh will be corrected and you will give us i think ultimately as the city of salem a higher education district that we have with willamette and with western oregon in this area to to really have a place where students can come and and adults can come and complete their education i i really congratulate western on on this and look forward to a tremendous future in cooperation with the city and state government so thank you very much for being here and for this opportunity with those fine words i now open the building