President Scholz sent the following message to faculty, staff, and student employees on Wednesday, October 28, 2026.
To the University of Oregon community,
I am writing today with an update on our progress to address our structural deficit.
Over the last several months, leaders and units have been engaged in a process to find creative, substantive, and sustainable solutions that can put us on a path to a stronger and more resilient foundation. Those efforts have been augmented by feedback and discussion and by suggestions from the broader community, some of which are reflected in our proposals.
Through this process, I remain committed to continuing our investments in areas of academic and research strength and to ensuring we provide a high-quality student experience that can make us a destination of choice for more students.
We started the summer anticipating average cuts of 10% across administrative and academic units. With creative scrutiny on enterprise-level activity, we are now anticipating average cuts of 7.25%. Specifically, we are now planning several actions that include:
- Cutting $3 million recurring from the Strategic Initiative Funds on which the Budget Advisory Group (BAG) typically advises.
- Reducing Education & General Fund transfers to support capital projects by $3 million, recurring.
- Allocating $10 million recurring from Internal Bank interest earnings to the E&G fund.
While these reallocations create risk, the opportunity to reduce the scope of further cuts to the organization makes the risk worth bearing.
Administrative leaders are continuing to work with their teams to model and analyze budget cuts. I will be meeting with the vice presidents next month to better understand the potential actions, impacts, and risks. As I have mentioned in the past, we will not be implementing these budget cuts across the board but instead will be applying the actions strategically to minimize the impact as much as possible on essential campus services.
We have also launched two campus-wide task forces. A cross-functional team with representatives from across the university—schools and colleges, auxiliary units, research centers and institutes, business hubs, and central departments—is exploring potential changes to administrative functions that might result in more standardized business processes, more efficient delivery of service, and cost savings. A team led by Purchasing and Contracting Services is also identifying opportunities to create savings by better leveraging the institution’s scale to negotiate with vendors for improved product pricing.
Meanwhile, we presented a draft of proposed academic modifications to the University Senate this afternoon. This plan reflects months of work by the Provost's Council, deans and department heads, and the Academic Modifications Advisory Committee (AMAC), the body created by the UO Senate to provide consultation to the process.
As promised, that proposed plan is now public.
The contents of the plan are recommendations, not final decisions. Through November, members of our community can comment on the proposed academic modifications and can also submit general budget savings ideas. I will make final decisions, informed by input across this entire process, in early December.
I would like to thank the many people involved in this difficult exercise. Our ability to generate thoughtful solutions from a range of perspectives underscores what universities do well. I am grateful for the creativity, care, and consideration represented in this process to date and believe we will forge a stronger path, and a brighter future, together.
Thank you,
Karl Scholz
President