Jayathi Murthy is Oregon State University’s first female president, appointed in 2022, but many historic women come before her time.
Oregon State, then Oregon Agricultural College, was making waves in gender equality as one of the three land grant institutions in the nation to offer scientific courses to women in 1890. But OSU’s herstory goes back twenty more years.
1870 – Alice Biddle
Alice Biddle was one of three recipients in OAC’s first graduating class, her two companions both men, making her the first woman to receive a degree from OSU.
Biddle earned a Bachelor’s of Science and was the first woman to receive a degree in the western United States by a state assisted college or university, according to The Valley Library Digital Archives.
1889 – Margaret Comstock Snell
Margaret Snell was the first professor of Household Economics and Hygiene, the first department and position of its kind west of the Rocky Mountain range.
She originally had a women’s dormitory named after her, where present day Ballard Extension Hall sits. The current Snell Hall on the Corvallis campus is named in her honor.
1899 – Ellen Chamberlin
Chamberlin was appointed as the first dean of women, a position created to be in charge of the female student body, tasked with discipline, advising and serving as a role model for women attending OSU.
The last dean of women was Jo Anne Trow, her tenure in the position ending in 1969 and changed to associate dean of students, encompassing the entire student body.
1905 – Clara Humason Waldo
Clara Humason Waldo was named the first female member of the Board of Regents, serving from 1905 to 1919.
The Board of Regents is a university’s governing body to make sure budgets and procedures align with state regulations.
Waldo Hall is named after her and remains standing on the Corvallis campus.
1908 – Ida Angeline Kidder
Ida Kidder was the first professionally trained librarian at OSU, earning her degree in librarianship from the University of Illinois.
Kidder Hall on the Corvallis campus is named in honor of her.
1926 – Carrie Halsell
Carrie Halsell was the first african-american to graduate from Oregon State, being awarded a B.S. in business.
Halsell Hall was named after her in 2002 and remains on the Corvallis campus.
1941 – Chuang Kwai Lui
Chuang Kwai Lui was the first woman to receive a doctorate degree from OSU, earning her PhD in physics in 1941.
1993 & 1994 – Jane Lubchenco
Selected to receive the McArthur Fellowship for her work in marine biology, Lubchenco was the first awarded OSU faculty member and the second awarded Oregonian.
In 1994, she was named Oregon Scientist of the Year by the Oregon Academy of Science.
Lubchenco is still working at OSU, serving as a distinguished professor in the Department of Integrative Biology.
2006 & 2010 – Kelly Benoit-Bird
In July 2006, Benoit-Bird was honored with the Presidential Early Career Award from the National Science Foundation.
She was one of twenty-three national recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship in 2010 for her work in environmental biology.
