CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University is in uncharted waters with regard to the status of embattled President F. King Alexander.
Alexander, who replaced Ed Ray as university president last July, was placed on probation Wednesday by the OSU Board of Trustees. Alexander, the 15th person to hold the position, has been under fire because of allegations of lax Title IX compliance during his 2013-2020 tenure at LSU.
Many students, faculty, staff and community members think Alexander’s punishment was too light. All 19 individuals who spoke during the public comment period of Wednesday’s hearing were critical of Alexander, with many calling for his dismissal.
No OSU president ever has been fired, put on probation, forced out or resigned under pressure, according to William G. Robbins, a retired OSU history professor. Robbins wrote “The People’s School: A History of Oregon State” for the university’s 150th anniversary in 2018.
“I can say, despite the serious shortcomings of a few presidents, none were ever involved in serious lying and covering up evil,” Robbins said of the 14 individuals who preceded Alexander, “Although there were some hiccups along the way.
In fact, the most controversy faced by an OSU president before Alexander also involved a hire. William Jasper Kerr, who began serving in 1907, was a bigamist. Raised in Utah in a Mormon family when “plural marriage” was taught and practiced, Kerr divorced his second wife in 1898 after the church renounced the practice. The emotional impact caused Kerr to leave the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
There was an “uproar in some parts of the state,” Robbins said. “My guess is that Kerr’s appointment created more public noise than that of any other president.”
Kerr proved to be a sterling hire. His 25-year term is the longest in OSU presidential history and he followed up his work in Corvallis with a stint as the first chancellor of the Oregon State System of Higher Education.
As president, he oversaw a huge expansion of the school, adding 23 buildings. The campus grew during his tenure from 225 acres to 555 acres, approximately 20% more than its current 422 acres. Kerr also hired John C. Olmsted, the nephew of Frederick Law Olmsted of Central Park design fame, to draft a master plan for OSU’s campus.
John Olmsted, a landscape architect of some renown in his own right, also created the plan for the University of Washington, Washington Park in Portland, the 1909 World’s Fair, Bryn Mawr (Pennsylvania) College and the Washington Capitol grounds in Olympia.
OSU named its library for Kerr but when the new Valley Library was built in the 1960s, Kerr’s name was attached to the university’s administration building near 15th Street and Jefferson Way.
Here are some quick notes on other OSU presidents from Robbins’ book. Many of them, like Kerr, have been honored by having buildings named for them:
Benjamin Arnold (1872-92): He served nearly 20 years and had some notable squabbles with an overzealous Board of Regents Secretary named Wallis Nash. Arnold also is the only OSU president who died in office.
August Strand (1942-61): Tons of building during his reign: Wiegand, Withycombe, Azalea House, Gleeson, Cordley, Weatherford, Snell and Weniger. Plus Gill Coliseum, Parker Stadium and a post-war boom that doubled enrollment.
James Jensen (1961-69): He built the Valley Library and created the first university archives, which previously had been lodged in the basement of Gill. He was president during the 1969 Black boycott driven by an incident involving a football player’s facial hair. Jensen appears to have been unscathed by the affair, with the brunt of the ill will falling on football coach Dee Andros.
Memorably, Jensen and Nobel-winning scientist Linus Pauling were on stage at Gill for an event in February 1969 when members of the Black Student Union interrupted and asked to speak. Jensen and Pauling stepped aside, “graciously,” notes Robbins. Jensen retired later that year.
John MacVicar (1970-84): He was president when Title IX went into effect in 1972, although at that time, unlike the present discussion over sexual harassment, the main issues were female access to athletic opportunities. MacVicar also is known as the president who used his lobbying power with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to work to keep liquor away from Monroe Avenue restaurants.
In his email interview with the Gazette-Times, Robbins said he was “interested in the tribulations of Title IX at LSU. Good grief, most of the Title IX kinks at OSU were resolved under presidents MacVicar and (John) Byrne (1984-95).”
