Students might be surprised to find duck tracks on campus by the end of this year.

An agreement was signed Tuesday to set up a new program encouraging University of Oregon students to spend their undergraduate years at SOU.

SOU President Mary Cullinan, Provost James Klein, and U of O Provost James Bean, signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the two universities at the Eugene campus.

“This is an exciting partnership,” Bean said. “SOU shares our commitment to the liberal arts and science core. Through collaboration, our two universities are offering a unique opportunity to students.”

The program will officially start in the 2010-11 school year and will allow students to be enrolled in both schools simultaneously.

For their first two years participants will be considered SOU students. They will pay SOU tuition but they will have a University of Oregon e-mail address, and will be invited to participate in special programs such as trips to U of O sporting events.

“I do think this Memorandom of Understanding with the University of Oregon is a great opportunity for students,” said Cullinan. “It will bring students to our wonderful university who may not even know all that we offer.”

The program is intended to increase SOU’s enrollment numbers and address U of O’s limited housing space.

“The UO has, and will continue, to see record freshman enrollment,” said Bean. “As we meet our housing capacity, we need new strategies to ensure access and allow all entering students to have the traditional residential-living experience.”

President Cullinan said that the program will not include any significant changes in classes or the structure of SOU. She said that SOU will remain separate from U of O and students participating in the duel program will be considered SOU students while they are attending class here.

“We are a strong regional institution with a different mission than that of U of O.”

The pilot program is set to run for two years starting in 2010, but there may be a few students participating in 2009. Cullinan said there may be as many as 250 duel students in future years.

“I feel certain that the majority of students who come here through this program will ultimately decide to stay at SOU,” she said.