Good afternoon colleagues. Thank you, President Schmitke and Senator Taliek Lopez-DuBoff, for your updates.
As we approach the end of the academic year, the message that President Scholz and I sent out yesterday may be on your minds today. I hope you have had time to digest it. It may not have come as a complete surprise to you, given the similar developments at institutions all around the country. I am also sure you now have more questions about what it all means than I have answers to today.
Still, our leadership team felt it was important to communicate directly and openly with our community about the significant and compounding budgetary headwinds we are facing and the difficult period of budgetary austerity that lies ahead for us here at the University of Oregon. As we wrote yesterday, we will likely not be able to outline specific institution-wide action or decisions for some time. To do this well requires a principled and thoughtful process. Over the coming weeks and months, we plan to move forward with intentionality on the spending reductions we need to make.
One of the challenges we face is that significant uncertainties remain. For example, we just heard the latest state revenue forecast — down more than $750 million — on Friday, and we will learn more about the strength of our fall enrollment numbers as the summer progresses. It would therefore be premature for me to discuss details with you today. We do plan to host a budget town hall on June 9th, so please keep your eyes open for an email invitation. The space in the room will be limited, so we will encourage folks to join by Zoom and we are committed to gathering questions before and during the event from remote and in-person attendees. We are committed to clear and consistent communication throughout the process.
Just this afternoon, I was grateful to meet with Alison and Sandy about the Senate budget committee, and I look forward to meeting with that group next week and throughout this process so that it can provide perspective and institutional knowledge to better inform our decision-making.
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We know budget cuts have real impacts for colleagues we care deeply about, colleagues who have served our university community well. I know too that the University of Oregon has experienced budget reductions in the past. My hope is that we can find ways to communicate and support each other through this difficult period.
One of the people to which I turn as I think about change in difficult times, is the author and social activist Grace Lee Boggs. She reminds us that:
We urgently need to bring to our communities the limitless capacity to love, serve, and create for and with each other
In moments like this — when we face difficult decisions and painful budget cuts — her words feel especially relevant.
As we navigate this difficult period, my hope is that we will find ways to deepen our connection with honesty and care, to remember that, even in times of constraint, we still have the power to act with compassion, to serve with integrity, and to imagine a future together. The choices ahead may be hard, but they don’t have to be isolating. We will face them together — with a spirit of listening, shared responsibility, and mutual respect.
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Earlier this month, I met with a small group of graduate employees at the SOJC. They were concerned — and angry — about the cutbacks that were already happening to their summer appointments.
It was a difficult conversation, because I did not have an easy solution to provide. But it was important for me to listen, to feel the weight and stress they are bearing, and to better understand their experience, their anxiety, and their frustration. As I was leaving, I bumped into some colleagues from my office who were about to surprise Professor Damien Radcliffe with one of our eight Distinguished Teaching Awards for this year.
The small, joyous gathering that followed was an important reminder that — though it can feel counterintuitive — finding moments of joy in recognizing the intentional and excellent work of our colleagues is not just appropriate, but essential.
It honors the creativity, perseverance, and care that help make progress possible even when the path is steep. These moments of recognition keep us connected to our purpose and to each other.
In that vein, I want to conclude my final remarks to you this academic year with some reminders of recent achievements we should celebrate together. Almost 4,000 Ducks will graduate with a University of Oregon degree next month. And three weeks from now, we will celebrate more than 90 faculty members who have been promoted or received tenured this year.
On May 29, we will host the grand opening of the new UO Portland campus, a bold initiative that has become a vibrant space of research and learning.
Last week, our College of Arts and Sciences received its largest ever donation, $25 million, from our alum Jordan Schnitzer to name the Schnitzer School of Global Studies and Languages at a time when it could not be more important to deepen our understanding of the world and its languages.
Earlier this month, we hosted 40 members of the Yasui family, across four generations, in a remarkable and moving naming ceremony for our new residence hall.
And finally, let me publicly congratulate Provost Laura Lee McIntyre on her new role at an institution that is very close to my heart, Michigan State University. It has been a true joy to work with and learn from Laura Lee during my first year as Provost, and while her departure is a huge loss for us, her appointment is also a testament both to her outstanding, values-based leadership and to the continued excellence and stellar reputation of our College of Education.
Let me conclude by thanking you all for your partnership during my first year here at the University of Oregon. From the moment I arrived on campus—indeed, from my first meeting as a candidate for Provost with President Schmitke and Professor Sandoval, I have been grateful for the work we have done to enact the values of collaboration, trust, and respect that we named during our earliest meetings together.
Thank you.