Letter from UO President Frohnmayer to the UO Community September 21, 1999

September 21, 1999

Dear Friends,

Despite the sun-splashed beauty of these early September days, the hint of chill in our morning air reminds us that the glory of summer cannot last.

My thoughts turn inescapably to the new school year. I am delighted at the prospect of new and returning students joining us this week. I am equally pleased to report that energetic new faculty and staff already have arrived, bringing with them the annual promise and reality of institutional renewal.

We have every reason to believe that we are embarking on a splendid school year. The recent dedication of the William W. Knight Law Center, highlighted by a speech by United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, provided us our first occasion for reaffirming the pride in our sense of community. On October 21, we will celebrate again, this time for the opening of the new Student Recreation and Fitness Center. I hope you will all visit the Center and make good use of this facility. It should greatly improve the quality of life for our students, as well as the faculty, staff and emeriti who use it.

During the past summer we saw important advances on many fronts. First, I am very pleased that negotiations with OPEU and GTFF were concluded without lasting rancor. And I am hopeful that both contracts will be ratified. At the University of Oregon we work to honor a culture that values good human relations in the workplace. We recognize the extraordinary hard work of our classified staff and our graduate teaching fellows. Through this admittedly inadequate letter of autumn greetings, I thank and salute them again.

Second, and very important, our state legislature decisively reversed the state's early-1990s policy of disinvestment in its public universities. Over the current biennium we will see the first significant increase in public funding in a decade. This means only that we can balance our internal budgets rather than cut them, but that knowledge itself is very welcome.

I greatly appreciate what the legislative leadership has done. Although the final funding fell several million dollars short of what the Oregon University System requested, the increase still marks an absolutely critical change. Higher education is again a clear priority in Salem, thanks to political leadership decisions.

Where will the money go? Much of the increase is tagged for recapitalizationÑto support long-term programs we have been funding through short-term means during the "disinvestment years." Much will go toward implementing a new, student-based funding formula, a long-desired model that is simpler and more realistic than ever before. This widely praised and innovative model will allow each Oregon public university to retain the tuition moneys generated on its campus. The model will reward those institutions that are most genuinely innovative and successful in attracting and retaining students. As you know, this is a change advocated by those who labored before me and which I have urged since I have been privileged to be president.

With so much spoken for, we will not see a flood of new money washing over our campus. However, in addition to contracted wage increases for classified staff, we plan to wring from other budgetary savings as much as possible for increases for faculty salaries. And we should be able to implement some of the best academic projects developed through our Process for Change.

As we implement the first Process for Change initiatives, we are already experiencing the fruits of one program developed by the Recruitment and Retention Team, with the guidance of our Admissions Office. The Deans' Scholarships, through which high school students with strong academic records are automatically awarded scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $5,000, have significantly increased the yield of new and highly qualified students coming to the UO.

If projections hold, we should witness an overall increase of several hundred students on our campus this year. Academic quality is increasing as well. Our freshman class shows an overall average increase of 9 points on SAT scores and higher average GPAs compared to last year. The increases in numbers hold across the board, for in-state, out-of-state and international students alike. This is a testament to the reputation we have, not only in Oregon, but around the world.

Other important Process for Change initiatives this year will include the introduction of Pathways, an innovative curriculum of integrated courses and activities for undergraduates. We increased our focus on academic rigor during our Week of Welcome for incoming students. And this year we will emphasize especially Participatory Learning Experience opportunities for upper division undergraduates. PLEs are designed to allow more of our students to participate in the acquisition and application of knowledge through internships, laboratory research opportunities, or community service projects.

These are only the first of many Process for Change initiatives to reach implementation. We will advance more as the year progresses.

The best news is that the new student-based funding model should allow us to continue to innovate and thrive in the coming decades.

Where do we go from here? I propose that we aim even higher: that we establish and secure our place among the nation's very top research universities.

This is a goal well within our reach. By some measures, we are already there. This year, for example, despite years of budget cuts, we moved from a third-tier "national universities" ranking in U.S. News & World Report to the second-tier top 100. Other less mindlessly statistics-driven rankings this year again have called us a national "Best Buy" and a "Hidden Treasure" in higher education. National media attention paid to our work has more than doubled in the past three years.

But that is just a start. I want us to be more than a "Best Buy." I want us to be The Best.

Part of that will be achieved through the continuing renewal and growth of our academic enterprise. Part will come from our continuing efforts to help our state understand the importance of higher education. Part will come from listening to our students and, frankly, to each other.

Our students and many faculty have been speaking about diversity, and I have been listening carefully. This is an issue that can confound and divide us, reinforcing concerns about the "new tribalism," about which I have spoken for many years. Or, instead, we can be leaders of change. I will speak more fully to these concerns with faculty, staff and our larger community in the coming weeks.

I hope you share my enthusiasm for the year ahead. With a considerable sense of personal surprise, I find myself entering a sixth year of this officeÑa presidency I never envisioned on my career horizon, but a calling, now, as of the first moment, to which I am deeply dedicated. Your examples of excellence inspire me to continue my service.

As always, please feel free to e-mail me your thoughts at pres@oregon.uoregon.edu.

Warmest regards,

Dave Frohnmayer President

P.S. Convocation, with Governor John Kitzhaber as our keynote speaker, will be held Friday, October 29, 1999, at 2:30 p.m. in the EMU Ballroom. My office will underwrite rental of academic regalia for faculty who wish to be in the processional.