OSU Today

Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey has been named Oregon State University’s 2026 recipient of the Stone Award for Literary Achievement. 

For undergraduate students at Oregon State, publishing in a peer-reviewed research journal might feel far out of reach, but a growing number of faculty are encouraging them to push beyond their comfort zone to benefit from the experience and confidence gained through publishing.

“It’s a tool for developing a sense of belonging in the field,” said Stephanie Ramos, associate director of the Office of Undergraduate Research. “For students’ self-efficacy, how they feel they’re going to perform can be an indicator for future success.” 

Oregon State has been named a Total Worker Health® Affiliate with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, a designation that recognizes the broad range of health-related resources already available to employees as well as OSU’s plans to better integrate and promote worker health and safety going forward.

After a four-year hiatus, theater is back in Withycombe Hall, and a brand-new student written and directed play opens next week titled “I met the Baba Yaga (and she lives in Tennessee).” Now performers and audiences can enjoy the intimate setting of the lab theatre and experience the play’s debut.

Campus Starship food delivery robots are wearing new wraps that honor the nine programs on the Corvallis campus that focus on identify-affirming community and belonging.

A new exhibit outside the Special Collections & Archives Research Center on the fifth floor of the Valley Library invites visitors to poke around OSU’s first 150 years via a unique tool: a digital touch table with stories floating by as “bubbles” that users can drag and open. 

Nikki Gold, an undergraduate health student at Oregon State University and U.S. Navy veteran, was named the 2025 National Student Veteran of the Year by Student Veterans of America. Selected from a pool of more than 600,000 student veterans nationwide, Gold is the first openly LGBTQ+ veteran to receive this honor.

More than three dozen ocean-themed films will be featured during the Big Blue Film Fest Jan. 23-24 in Newport.

Oregon State University has earned its third Carnegie Community Engagement Classification — a national designation that recognizes OSU’s deep and ongoing commitment to serving communities throughout Oregon and beyond.

The 2026 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration kicks off with the Peace Breakfast on Monday, Jan. 19, and concludes with the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service on Saturday, Jan. 31. This year marks the 44th anniversary of the commemoration event.