LA GRANDE — Eastern Oregon University’s fall enrollment showcases a rise in the number of students learning online and in its Master of Arts in Teaching program, according to a Tuesday, Nov. 10, press release from the school.

University Vice President Tim Seydel said the online enrollment increase was expected due to the coronavirus pandemic. The university saw a 6.6% increase in online students from the 2019 enrollment numbers, with 48% of undergraduate students taking courses online.

“If you look at the numbers here, that’s where you see a shift: fewer on-campus students, more online students — and that helps us balance out our enrollment portfolio,” Seydel said in the press release. “The other big thing we work on a lot is retention. It’s not just about getting them in the door, it’s about how we take care of those students when they get here.”

Kevin Walker teaches online business courses for EOU and said students often choose to study and learn online because of the flexibility it allows when scheduling for classes.

“Ordinarily, students tend to be interested in online education because of work or family commitments,” Walker said. “It’s not hard to see how rural students would fit this category, but it’s not at all unusual for EOU’s online students to be working in urban areas and can’t simply quit working to get a degree they need to be promoted or to change careers.”

Walker said classes that were already online did not have to change much, but for classes that were more suited for in-person instruction, such as art, music, theater and lab-based courses, there was a scramble to find an online equivalency for teaching the classes online.

“Sometimes you can use technology to create workarounds,” Walker said. “Not ideal but sufficient. Faculty have adapted to the pandemic restrictions and their own risk factors. I meet with my students via Zoom both as a class and via individual meetings pretty regularly to keep them on track. Most faculty do that to try to keep them engaged.”

Eastern Oregon University enrolled 2,853 students for the 2020 school year. According to the report, 35% of these students are from Eastern Oregon. While that represents a 0.4% dip in enrollment from 2019, the school anticipated a possible drop in overall enrollment due to the pandemic.

The university also saw a dip in retention overall, with 73% of students from the 2019-20 school year returning this fall.

More graduate students are enrolling at Eastern Oregon University. In 2019, the Master of Arts in Teaching program enrolled 45 graduate students. The program now has 60 students. Graduate students make up about 8% of the total student population.

Popular undergraduate majors include business administration, health and human performance and psychology.

Diversity at the university remains steady, according to the press release. More than 65% of students identify as white, with 28% of students identifying as culturally or ethnically diverse.

LA GRANDE — Eastern Oregon University’s Board of Trustees unanimously agreed to remove the name Pierce from the university’s library.

The decision came Thursday, Nov. 12, during the board’s virtual meeting. University President Tom Inkso said a new name is under consideration, and there are plans for a display acknowledging the history of the library’s name.

The board heard comments from the public and reviewed the final report from the Pierce Library Naming Committee. The board agreed the library’s namesake, former Oregon Gov. Walter Pierce and his wife Cordelia, do not represent the mission and diversity within the university.

“The name is something people take a great deal of pride in, at the same time it is a name that a great deal take concern with,” said Tim Seydel, University vice president and naming committee member.

Seydel said the name of the library has been a topic of discussion and rumors for decades. The report from the committee found Walter Pierce had known connections to the Ku Klux Klan and supported racist and discriminatory policies. While he and his wife helped the advancement of Eastern Oregon’s recognition across the state, the report indicated, their beliefs are not indicative of what Eastern Oregon University strives to be for students.

“As I’ve observed the conversations on our campus as a student and as an administrator now,” Insko said, “I think we can find a better balance between the history of the naming of the library and the legacy of Walter and Cornelia Pierce, but do it a way that is from a historical perspective rather than elevating his name on the campus.”

Library faculty member Katie Townsend said she hears students talking about the name on campus and is concerned and disheartened some students don’t feel comfortable entering the library because of its namesake. Townsend also is a member of the library renaming committee.

“We continue to have students express discomfort with coming into the library. To know there were students out there who felt that was really upsetting,” Townsend said.

The changes to the library will not be immediate, Seydel and Townsend said. The school will update the signs at the library and update the university’s webpages, in addition to updating stamps in the large collection of books at EOU. This will occur over time to not burden the staff and keep costs low.

“You can’t just do a global search and replace,” Seydel said. “We do expect there to be some cost, but largely born out over time.”

— Sabrina Thompson, The Observer