The Government Relations Office Records document Oregon State University's interactions with federal, state, and local governments. The collection includes both paper and electronic (born-digital) records. The paper materials consist of Federal Relations Records. The electronic records include the Government Relations Office website, captured in April 2013, and periodic updates issued by the Government Relations Office on events and activities in Washington D.C. and Salem, Oregon for 2007-2010. The electronic records are available online.
The Federal Relations Records document OSU's interactions with members of Congress, executive branch agencies, and federal officials. The Records consist predominantly of Federal Agendas for the years 1999 through 2007. These agendas list proposed projects to be funded by federal government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and NASA. The records include congressional bills, correspondence, reports, meeting minutes, newspaper clippings, and press releases. The correspondence includes letters from OSU Presidents Ed Ray and Paul Risser to Oregon's Senators and U.S. House members regarding specific pieces of legislation. Information pertaining to endophyte research, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, and the Sun Grant Initiative are included. Materials documenting visits to campus by First Lady Hillary Clinton in November 1996 and Oregon Senator Gordon Smith in 1998 are part of the collection. One folder of materials pertaining to the transfer of Horner Museum collections from Oregon State University to the Benton County Historical Society is part of the collection.
The Government Relations website documents the functions and activities of the office from 2007 to 2013; the website was captured on April 23, 2013 and is available online. The April 2013 capture consists of 200 megabytes in 421 documents. The website provides information on State Relations, including legislative priorities, Oregon higher education governance in Oregon, state advocacy, and the OSU Day at the Capitol. The Federal Relations component of the website includes the OSU Federal Agendas for FY 2009 through FY 2014, information about federal budget sequestration in 2012-2013, federal advocacy, the 2007 Federal Task Force Report, and information about Oregon's Congressional delegation. The "Your OSU" section of the website provides information about OSU's presence in each Oregon legislative district, including the current OSU enrollment from the district, OSU alumni, OSU payroll, and support generated for the OSU Foundation within the district. The website also provides information about internships, Government Relations Office staff, and events.
The website also includes the Government Relations Update which describes activities of the Government Relations Office in Washington, D.C. and in Salem, Oregon from September 2009 to March 2013. The Updates provide insights on how policy decisions at the state and federal level affect OSU and are issued once or twice per month, depending on the level of activity. These are published in a newsletter format, with photographs, as pdfs. Updates for January 2007 through August 2009 are available in the Office of Government Relations Collection in ScholarsArchive@OSU. These earlier updates are pdfs of e-mail messages sent by Jock Mills, head of Government Relations; these are titled Salem Update or Washington Update. The ScholarsArchive@OSU collection also includes several issues of the Government Relations Update, for September 2009 through May 2010. The total extent of the electronic materials in ScholarsArchive is 128 documents (65 megabytes).
