• Last Thursday, Oregon Governor Kate Brown released her budget for the FY 2017–19 biennium and proposed flat funding for all seven public universities. This is good news only in the sense that it could have been a lot worse due to the state’s estimated $1.7 billion budget deficit for the next biennium. The bad news is that flat funding from the state creates significant financial challenges for the UO.
• We, the president, provost, vice provosts, vice presidents, deans and other leadership of the University of Oregon, are committed to creating an inclusive, welcoming, and equitable learning environment for every member of our academic community.
• It may be obvious to many of you, but I want to make crystal clear our commitment to diversity and inclusion. Every person in this university is important and valued. The university’s leadership team stands united in our resolve to do whatever we can to enable every member of our community to flourish and contribute.
• Last week was an incredibly difficult time for our university. The decision of law professor Nancy Shurtz to wear blackface at her Halloween party wounded our community, divided us, and exposed fissures that long existed under the surface. It is now my job as the leader of our school to not only help us heal but, more important, to move us to a demonstrably better place. The challenge for all of us is to recognize that the problem is deep and cannot be fixed with a Band-Aid. Instead, real healing, progress, and transformation will take time, persistence, and generosity of spirit.
• The University of Oregon has been made aware that a faculty member of the School of Law wore a costume that included blackface at a private, off-campus Halloween party that was attended by UO faculty members and students. We condemn this action unequivocally as anathema to the University of Oregon’s cherished values of racial diversity and inclusion. The use of blackface, even in jest at a Halloween party, is patently offensive and reinforces historically racist stereotypes.
• While our announcement of the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact focused on the quantum leap in scientific research that it will make possible, the impact of this extraordinary gift will ripple far beyond the sciences and well beyond Eugene.
• I have the immense pleasure of announcing that our dear friends Phil and Penny Knight have made an extraordinarily generous $500 million gift—the largest ever to a public flagship university—that will launch an initiative to rethink and reshape research at the University of Oregon. The Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact will fast-track scientific discoveries into innovations, products, and cures that solve problems and improve our quality of life.
• The fall academic term is off to a fantastic start. I am proud to have welcomed to the University of Oregon our most diverse class of students ever, dozens of exceptional new faculty and staff members, and many additional graduate students—in addition to welcoming back our existing family of outstanding students, faculty, and staff members.
• As I look at my calendar, I am excited about the start of the new academic year and eager to welcome our students back to campus. While every fall brings a fresh opportunity for us to build upon our high aspirations for the university, this year is especially thrilling. We have a year of strong momentum at our backs.
• Academics are at the heart of everything we do, but our students also choose to be Ducks because of the exceptional student experience outside of the classroom. This exceptional student experience, one of the finest in the country, has been shaped and polished by our vice president for student life, Robin Holmes.
