re: Why are university Oregon and Oregon State so close?

There are also interesting character traits of the two universities, OSU and UofO. The charters of the two schools as well as the culture of their students are diametrically opposed to each other. While OSU is a science and engineering university, Oregon is liberal arts and science. For many years OSU didn't even offer graduate studies in the liberal arts. Historically, the students and the universities don't really like each other, either. Back in the day, many in OR referred to the UofO as the University of California at Oregon.