The skill sets, sensitivities, and knowledge required to be an effective Chancellor are many and I have already written to the board about these. In those letters I mentioned that the next chancellor must understand that institutions of higher education are not corporate entities, that each OUS institution has different and sometimes unique needs, and that we should encourage interinstitutional cooperation rather than interinstitutional competition. I also strongly suggested that faculty and other OUS stakeholder groups should be intimately involved in the chancellor search process from beginning to end to ensure the best possible outcome. All these issues remain germane today.

However in thinking about what to say to you today, I was reminded of my colleague Wayne Westling who passed away last summer after a short, intense fight against cancer. He was one of our best faculty - an internationally renown legal scholar and an outstanding teacher. Above all, he was true educator who unswervingly insisted that his students achieve their potential. His approach is summed up in two phrases: ``Demand excellence" and ``never give up".

These two phrases succinctly encompass the attributes that I and my colleagues here at the University of Oregon expect from the next chancellor. The faculty here at the University of Oregon are one of the top faculty in the country - I never cease to be amazed at the amazingly high intellectual quality of my colleagues. The UO faculty are fascinating people, stimulating and passionate about their work and profession. The best teachers are often the best researchers and we here at the University of Oregon are blessed with outstanding teachers/researchers across all our schools and colleges. However, despite this quality, and our continued ability to recruit top rated junior faculty, the University of Oregon is not as highly rated as one might expect. For the 15 years I have been here, I have seen the University of Oregon decline in every national academic rating system. What is the reason for this seeming paradox? I believe it is because the state has failed to supply its institutions of higher education with sufficient resources to maintain, let alone improve, its standing. Our administrators, particularly President Frohnmayer, Provost Moseley and our Deans, have struggled for years to provide a quality education in the face of nearly continuous budget cuts. And we faculty, at the front lines of education, have tried our best to do more with less. But that mantra, ``do more with less" which seems to be the State's new motto, has disastrous long term implications. Over the long term, ``do more with less" turns into ``do less with less".

It is time to stop aspiring towards mediocrity. We faculty along with you as members of the state board and above all the next chancellor, must work together under a new banner, the banner of excellence. We must, as Professor Westling embodied, demand excellence of ourselves and insist it in others. We must convince the state legislators and more importantly, the general public, of the relationship between excellence and success. The next chancellor must not only have the interpersonal skills to succeed in this task, but he/she must intuitively understand why excellence and success go hand in hand. Academic types intuitively understand this relationship. Our next chancellor must know this too.

It obviously takes more than talk to attain academic excellence. Success will be achieved only through an influx of serious money into the system and this is a huge challenge awaiting the new chancellor. We need a chancellor who will not give up, a gentle bulldog who sees the goal line and will let nothing stop him/her from getting across it. I use this rather silly analogy on purpose, because our U of O athletic programs have enjoyed a recent run of success on the playing field. This success has been achieved by hiring people of the highest integrity such as Bill Moos, Mike Bellotti and Ernie Kent, and, most importantly, by giving them the requisite resources for success. These resources have been generated through inspired long term planning and implementation of novel revenue generating strategies developed by bright people in high places here at the University. Similar success could be achieved on the academic fields, but only with the right person as our next chancellor. Our next chancellor must be the academic flagbearer for OUS, the system's voice for academic excellence. But it is you, the State Board, who must identify and enunciate the goals for the next chancellor.

We are not asking for much - only to be able to do our jobs properly. Nothing more, nothing less. Our goals are simple: to teach our students how to think critically and express themselves both orally and in writing. These are the benchmarks of a quality University education yet they are in serious peril of not being achieved because of persistent declines in standards and expectations over the past two decades. This trend must be reversed to ensure a better life for the citizens of our state. ``Demand excellence". ``Don't give up". Wayne Westling lived these phrases his entire life and my colleagues walk this talk every day. We expect the next chancellor to do the same. Nothing more, nothing less. Please let us know how we can assist you in identifying and selecting the next chancellor capable of achieving these goals.