President Karl Scholz and Provost Chris Long sent the following message to university employees on Friday, May 30, 2025.

Dear colleagues,

Last week, we provided broad information about the university’s financial outlook and promised to share more specifics in a follow-up message.

Today, we share more specific details: we are facing a $25-30 million structural deficit in our Education and General (E&G) fund budget. This deficit will require that we make difficult decisions. We anticipate a 4 percent average reduction to the budgets of administrative units and a 2.5 percent average reduction to the budgets of the schools and colleges. These cuts are in addition to actions that some schools, colleges, and administrative units need to take to address pre-existing deficits.

There is no quick or simple fix to our situation. We will take the summer months to confer with leaders in academic and administrative areas to develop approaches that best support our education and research missions, our long-term goals, and our legal and contractual obligations, while being mindful of the impact various options will have on the institution. Our goal is to complete our plans and begin implementation by the start of the fall term. We will make these reductions strategically, guided by our commitment to fiscal responsibility, our care for our community, and the principles and priorities outlined in the Oregon Rising strategic plan.

As we said in our message last week, these are difficult times for higher education. Federal funding for research has been badly disrupted, and state budgets are tight. May 1 was also the national deposit deadline for next year’s incoming class. Deposit patterns provide additional critical information on the scope of our challenges.

The cumulative effect of federal and state actions, admissions results, hiring decisions across the institution, and labor contracts is that the growth rate of our pay and benefits sharply exceeds the growth of revenue. The best thing about our university is our faculty, staff, and students. They are remarkable. We embrace the importance of fairly compensating talented people, and we will need to reconcile our budget against our financial constraints. The information we are providing now provides context for our approach to addressing these challenges.

We will communicate openly about these and other issues facing the university. We will share more detailed information about our financial situation during the upcoming board of trustees meeting, particularly on the afternoon of June 2. We will also host a town hall for faculty and staff at 3 p.m. Monday, June 9. While we do not expect to have answers to every question, we will address what we can before the summer break.

Learn more about attending the town hall.

Our institution has faced times of political transition and budgetary headwinds before, and we will navigate them again together now. Ours is an interconnected and resilient community, and our shared commitment to the University of Oregon and to the purpose of higher education to serve the public good will sustain us as we face the challenges of the months to come.

Sincerely,

Karl Scholz
President

Christopher P. Long
Provost and Senior Vice President