Project Information

Bid Title

Request for Information: National Public Relations Campaign- The Land Grant Difference

Issuing Agency

Oregon State University

Location

Oregon

Published Date

Feb 2, 2026

Closing Date

Feb 13, 2026

Government Level

State & Local

Status

Closed

Original Source

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Bid Documents

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Project Description

Description

Oregon State University is seeking input from potential contractors to provide information pertaining to a national public relations campaign around land grant institutions in the higher education space. Responses to the request for information (RFI) must be received no later than the due date and time in accordance with the submittal instructions contained in the RFI document. For additional information please contact Jennifer Koehne by email at jennifer.koehne@oregonstate.edu or by telephone at 541-737-7353.

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• I-2026-021005-JK_Request for Information_Public Relations Campaign_The Land Grant Difference.pdf

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REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

No. I-2026-021005-JK

National Public Relations Campaign:

The Land Grant Difference

I. SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

Issue Date

February 6, 2026

Due Date and Time

February 13, 2026 (5:00 pm, PT)

II. ISSUING OFFICE AND CONTACT

ISSUING OFFICE:

Office of Procurement, Payment and Travel at Oregon State University (OSU) is the issuing office

and is the sole point of contact for this Request for Information. All concerns or questions

pertaining to this Request for Information should be appropriately addressed to the individual

identified below:

CONTACT PERSON:

Name:

Jennifer Koehne

Title:

Purchasing Contract Officer

Telephone: 541-737-7353

Fax:

541-737-2160

E-Mail:

jennifer.koehne@oregonstate.edu

III. INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION:

This is a Request for Information (RFI), issued by OSU’s Office of Procurement, Payment and

Travel (OPPT). The purpose of this RFI is to solicit input from potential contractors for

information pertaining to a national public relations (PR) campaign around land grant institutions

in the higher education space.

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY:

Founded in 1868, Oregon State University is a comprehensive, research-extensive, public

university located in Corvallis. Oregon State is one of only three American universities to hold

the Land Grant, Sea Grant, Space Grant and Sun Grant designations. Oregon State is also the

only Oregon institution to have earned the Carnegie Foundation classifications for Highest

Research Activity and Community Engagement, a recognition of the depth and quality of its

graduate education and research programs.

Through its centers, institutes, Extension offices and Experiment Stations, Oregon State has a

presence in all of Oregon's 36 counties, including its main campus in Corvallis, the Hatfield

Marine Sciences Center in Newport and OSU-Cascades Campus in Bend. Oregon State offers

undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees through 11 academic colleges enrolling more

than 38,000 students from every county in Oregon, every state in the country and more than

110 nations.

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BACKGROUND:

In an era when Americans' confidence in higher education is in troubling decline, land-grant

universities stand as an overlooked outlier.

According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, nearly 70 percent of Americans said

that the United States’ (U.S.) higher-education system is generally heading in the wrong

direction, an increase from 56 percent of respondents who felt this way in 2020. But land-grant

universities are often among the most trusted civic institutions in their states and regions. Born

from the idea that institutions of higher education should serve people of their states where they

live and work, land-grants are driven by a three-part mission: to provide rigorous, accessible

and relevant education; engage in research that supports agriculture, manufacturing,

businesses and consumers; and be rooted in communities, delivering programs that are

responsive to local needs and values. Across our country, land-grants are in every state and

serve everyone — spanning demographics and political viewpoints— with new knowledge that

addresses local challenges, education that's accessible to all qualified students, and programs

that bring expertise directly where it's most needed.

Amid an evolving landscape of higher education, ranging from community colleges to elite private

universities, land-grant universities are measured by tangible impact, designed to serve, and built

to bridge differences. In short, land-grant universities operate from a fundamentally different playbook

than most other public or private universities and offer a unique value proposition.

Supporting the Success of Every State Resident

From youth engagement, including 4-H, Outdoor School and engineering camps, to intensive

graduate studies and mid-career re-skilling and development programs, land-grants provide

highly relevant and often immediately useful education and research supporting a robust state

economy and creating opportunity for individuals that lasts a lifetime.

Civic Engagement and Civic Infrastructure

Lang-grants build trust by working across the entire state, rural to urban, to overcome shared

challenges and realize shared goals. Land-grants and counties reciprocally invest in programs

bolstering local health, food and business resiliency, economic development, innovation and

needed resources.

Solutions that Improve Lives

With a focus on impactful applied research, land-grants provide solutions to real challenges for real

people where they live and work. From farming and ranching to disaster preparedness and climate

resiliency, land-grants focus on discoveries that improve lives.

The Urgent Need for a Public Affairs Campaign

In addition to the aforementioned erosion in public trust, federal and state funding is in decline,

priorities are shifting and demographics are changing, with a steep decrease in the number of

college-age students starting in 2026 and projected for years to come. These elements combine

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to drive a sense of urgency to convincingly illustrate for the American public a story of how land-

grant universities have long driven tangible, relevant discovery and have created transformative

opportunity, playing a key role in the U.S. economy and workforce.

This opportunity has emerged at a pivotal moment as we look towards the future of higher

education in the U.S. Land-grant universities are a uniquely American innovation that embody

and amplify the best of our shared values. Employing tactics and strategies across owned,

earned, social and paid media, a proposed PR campaign would articulate and amplify the

distinctive importance of land-grant universities and highlight their enduring value for an

increasingly skeptical public.

IV. REQUIREMENTS

OBJECTIVE:

Responses to this RFI will be used to achieve the following objective: Provide OSU with

insights and guidance on the feasibility, strategic design, and cost of a statewide public

affairs and trust-building campaign. A campaign should be scalable and customizable

for adoption and adaptation by other land-grant universities in their own states. With

select placements in national media and in aggregate across participating states, a

campaign would articulate and amplify the role of land-grant universities in creating

opportunity and prosperity for individuals, families and businesses.

In addition to traditional public relations considerations, OSU seeks guidance on how a

campaign could:

• Rebuild public trust in higher education, particularly among audiences that may

be skeptical of or disengaged from higher education generally.

• Operate effectively across politically and demographically diverse environments,

emphasizing credibility, relevance and nonpartisan public value.

• Leverage trusted community voices (like alumni, employers, community-based and

industry partners) as messengers of land-grant impact.

• Balance a shared national narrative with local authenticity and state-specific

adaptation.

REQUIREMENTS:

OSU is seeking input from national firms with public affairs, strategic communications and

trust-building campaigns, preferably with higher education experience or with

specialized expertise on approach, structure, budget, timelines and feasibility for a

national campaign across owned, earned, social and paid media, while extending

beyond media execution to include strategic narrative development, audience

engagement and innovative storytelling.

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A proposed campaign is intended to function not just as a single-institution public

relations effort, but as a modular, multi-institutional public affairs framework, which:

• Articulates the distinct public value of land-grant universities as engines of

opportunity, applied research and community partnership established over

decades.

• Supports state-level customization while reinforcing a shared national story about the

land-grant mission.

• Enables participating institutions to activate trusted stakeholders and community

relationships as part of a broader trust-building effort.

• Evolves over time as additional institutions opt in and as public and political contexts

shift.

At its core, a campaign seeks to rebuild trust in higher education among the voting

public by showcasing the unique role land-grant universities have historically played —

and continue to play — in our country’s prosperity.

OSU is particularly interested in learning how experienced firms would approach:

• Defining and measuring public trust as distinct from awareness or favorability.

• Identifying and prioritizing key audiences most critical to trust-building at the state

level.

• Navigating political polarization and public skepticism while maintaining credibility

and nonpartisan positioning.

• Designing campaign frameworks that support long-term durability, not solely short-

term visibility.

A campaign budget should include creative deliverables, such as a website, video and graphic assets, as

well as paid means of distribution, encompassing traditional and digital/social media. Campaign

budgets should scale to support up to seven, 15 and 35 participating land-grant universities in

their respective states.

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Commodity Codes

• NAICS 541611Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services
• NAICS 541613Marketing Consulting Services
• NAICS 541820Public Relations Agencies

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