Dear Colleagues,
I hope your academic year is off to a great start. I’ve enjoyed meeting new students and welcoming our outstanding new faculty and staff members to campus at events marking the beginning of school, from “Unpack the Quack” and our neighborhood welcome walk to the annual new faculty picnic. Since the close of our previous academic and fiscal years, we’ve made significant progress on a number of fronts that affect the university, and I’m pleased to take this opportunity to share a few highlights with you.
I frequently mention our dual obligations of access and quality that are the foundation upon which our university is built. As we now plan for the UO’s future, it is critical that we elevate both, for quality that is limited only to those with the means to afford it does not serve the public interest, and access without excellence is a hollow promise.
We are on the right trajectory, as this year’s freshman class demonstrates. Numbers won’t be final until the fifth week of classes, but we can say with confidence that this incoming class will break records in several key areas linked to both quality and access. It is the most academically prepared class we have ever enrolled, with an average 1126 SAT and 3.6 GPA. Nearly 27 percent of freshmen are from underrepresented populations, and among Oregon freshmen, 37.6 percent are Pell eligible. Our total enrollment will hold steady at about 24,500 as planned, with about 5,200 new students, 54 percent of them Oregonians, coming to the UO.
We are focusing intently on reducing financial barriers to attendance for Oregon residents, who continue to be hit by ongoing reductions in state funding that have shifted the burden of paying for education onto the shoulders of students and their families. This year, we increased financial aid to in-state students by 75 percent through scholarships aimed at high-achieving Oregon students, such as Summit and Apex, and the outstanding Pathway Oregon program.
It was a summer of construction around campus, with about $300 million in physical improvements in the works. Recently launched projects include renovations and classroom expansions at Straub and Earl Halls, a major expansion of the Student Rec Center, significant upgrades and expansions of the Science Commons and Research Library and the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, and maintenance involving everything from seismic upgrades and new roofs to sewer-system improvements. Soon, the long-awaited renovation of the Erb Memorial Union will begin.
I anticipate that such infrastructure improvements will become easier to realize as we adopt a new governance model that will provide greater flexibility in the way we manage the institution. The long-sought move to governance by local institutional boards was approved by the legislature and signed into law this summer. I am grateful to the Lane County delegation and many other supportive legislators, Governor Kitzhaber and his staff, the UO Foundation, and the UO Alumni Association for their partnership in bringing about this momentous change this spring. The governor has appointed a 14-member board for the UO that reflects a remarkable range of experience and expertise. Ten of our new board members are alumni, and all bring a commitment and dedication to the future of this university that will serve us, and the state, well. I look forward to working closely with them as we determine new ways to finance the institution and support programs and practices that will strategically focus our resources to improve access, elevate excellence, and secure our position among our peer research universities. We must develop the means to better support research, to address threats from sequestration and cuts in federal funding, and to close the innovation deficit that compromises our nation’s capacity to remain the world’s leader in innovation, creativity, and discovery.
At the heart of the university’s ability to carry out its mission are, of course, our faculty and staff. I am pleased that we are beginning the new academic year with new contracts for our union-represented faculty and staff, and with a schedule of compensation increases in place for faculty, classified staff, and officers of administration. At the same time, I recognize the pressures that faculty and staff are feeling from successive years of declining state investment and burgeoning undergraduate enrollment. Your work with our students, in the classroom and in informal settings, is what distinguishes this university and creates the quality educational experiences that will define your students’ futures. Improving the teaching and research environment for our outstanding faculty and staff is among my top priorities, and essential to our success in realizing our aspirations of access, excellence, and innovation.
Best regards,
Michael R. Gottfredson
President