April 15, 2024

Dear University of Oregon community,

I am thrilled to announce that Christopher P. Long, dean of the College of Arts & Letters and the Honors College at Michigan State University (MSU) and professor of philosophy and MSU Research Foundation Professor, will join the University of Oregon as provost and senior vice president.

Chris is a visionary leader with a demonstrated track record of catalyzing innovation in teaching and impactful scholarship. He has twenty years of leadership experience at two public AAU universities—MSU and Pennsylvania State University. As the UO’s chief academic officer, Chris will steward the university’s academic mission, working with the faculty, deans, students, and staff to maintain the highest quality of scholarly activity and educational programs at the UO.

During his nine years as the arts and letters dean at MSU, Chris elevated the college’s international reputation by creating new centers, programs, and departments focused on collaborative research, raising resources for more than ten new endowed professorships and chairs, enriching student experiences, advancing equity, and increasing external research funding across the arts and humanities. This included creating a new Department of African American and African Studies, the Citizen Scholars program, the Excel Network, and the Enhanced Digital Learning Initiative. Since 2021, he has also led the honors college, helping to diversify the student body and enhance the undergraduate research experience.

The search committee was especially impressed by Chris’ track record for collaboration and his values-enacted approach to leadership. He’s credited with building trust among faculty and staff through a strategic planning process in the College of Arts & Letters focused on equity, openness, and community, redressing salary inequities, enhancing the undergraduate experience, and reimagining the promotional and tenure process to elevate and support faculty’s most meaningful work.

An advocate of public scholarship, open access, and digital approaches to research and teaching, he is cofounder of the Public Philosophy Journal, an open forum for the curation and creation of accessible scholarship that deepens our understanding of publicly relevant issues, and he has served as editor of The Journal for General Education, a publication focused on general education as a cornerstone of efforts to prepare citizens to live engaged, responsible, and meaningful lives.

With a formidable record of securing grants and fundraising, Chris has received over $7 million in research funding as primary investigator for projects that include over $3.7 million from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to improve the teaching of less commonly taught languages with the Big Ten Academic Alliance and almost $1 million for the HuMetricsHSS initiative, which seeks to transform the academy by aligning shared values with the policies and practices that shape academic life.

Prior to joining MSU, he was associate dean for graduate and undergraduate education and a professor of philosophy and classics in the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State. Chris received his master of arts and doctorate from the New School for Social Research in New York and bachelor of arts from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. 

I am deeply grateful for Professor Leslie Leve’s leadership of the provost search committee, which recruited an outstanding pool of diverse and experienced candidates. I thank the search committee members and the many hundreds of individuals who participated in the international search process and interviews of the candidates. I am also deeply appreciative of Karen Ford, serving as interim provost, for her leadership and steady guidance.

I could not be more excited for Chris to begin as provost in time to join us for our university commencement ceremony on June 17. As we propel the university forward guided by a new strategic plan, I am confident that Chris’ vision and experience will enhance our commitment to student success, career preparation, belonging and flourishing, and elevate the impact of our research and scholarship. I look forward to collaborating closely with him for years to come.

Please join me in congratulating Chris and welcoming him to the University of Oregon community.

Sincerely,

Karl Scholz
President