About the University of Oregon

Serving the state, the nation, and the world since 1876.

The University of Oregon is a comprehensive public research university committed to exceptional teaching, discovery, and service. The university is a community of scholars, helping members of its community to question critically, think logically, reason effectively, communicate clearly, act creatively, and live ethically.

Purpose

The university community strives for excellence in teaching, research, artistic expression, and the generation, dissemination, preservation, and application of knowledge, devoted to fostering the next generation of leaders and informed participants in the global community. Through these pursuits, the social, cultural, physical, and economic well-being of the students, the state, the nation, and the world are enhanced.

Vision

The university community aspires to create a preeminent and innovative public research university encompassing the humanities and arts, the natural and social sciences, and the professions, seeking to enrich the human condition through collaboration, teaching, mentoring, scholarship, creative inquiry, scientific discovery, outreach, and public service.

Values

The university community values

• the passions, aspirations, individuality, and success of the students and the members of its faculty and staff who work and learn here
• academic freedom, creative expression, and intellectual discourse
• diversity, and seeks to foster equity and inclusion in a welcoming, safe, and respectful community
• the unique geography, history, and culture of Oregon that shapes its identity and spirit
• a shared charge to steward resources sustainably and responsibly

Inspiration and Discovery

Generations of leaders and citizens have studied at the University of Oregon since it opened in 1876. Today’s students, like the more than 250,000 alumni before them, have access to the most current knowledge in lectures, laboratories, and seminars conducted by active researchers. By sharing their research through teaching, faculty members are better able to articulate their findings and to integrate their specialized studies with broader areas of knowledge.

University of Oregon students select courses from departments and programs in the College of Arts and Sciences and from six professional schools and colleges and the Robert Donald Clark Honors College. Some 1,992 faculty members, 44 librarians, and 1,470 graduate and research assistants serve as mentors, colleagues, and friends to the 23,202 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at the university.

Half of all students are from Oregon, 46 percent are from other states and 4 percent are from other countries. The mix of backgrounds gives students a chance to know people they might not meet otherwise—a real asset in a world where national and international relations influence everyday life.

Teaching, research, and a spirit of sharing are characteristics of the campus community. Faculty members and students engage in research programs that bring to the university approximately $180 million in competitive research awards. The university’s science departments receive national attention for their work in such areas as computer science, genetics, materials, optics, and neuroscience. Eleven current faculty members belong to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as four emeritus faculty. Seven current faculty members have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, as well as four emeritus faculty. One current faculty member has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine, as well as one emeritus faculty.

Connection to Community

The sharing of knowledge and the love of learning do not stop at the campus borders. Public service is important to the university.

Members of the UO faculty share their experience and knowledge in community activities that include service in local and state governments. They also serve as consultants for businesses, industries, school districts, and government agencies. Students work as interns in a variety of educational programs in the community and volunteer for service activities.

University programs that serve the public include Academic Extension, which offers for-credit and noncredit activities throughout the state. Planning and technical assistance from the Community Service Center helps Oregon communities solve local problems and improve the quality of life in rural Oregon. For more than four decades, the Oregon Bach Festival has offered an annual program of concerts and master classes to music lovers in the Pacific Northwest. The UO’s classical music radio station, KWAX-FM, is an affiliate of the Public Radio International Classical 24. KWAX programs are rebroadcast on translators in several coastal and central Oregon communities and cybercasts entertain listeners around the world. A second radio station, KWVA-FM, serves the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area and has a live internet stream, playing a varied mix of music in addition to talk shows and live college sports broadcasts. KWVA is a voice for UO students as well as a place for them to gain broadcast, production, and operation experience.

The university’s presence is evident at its off-campus facilities—Pine Mountain Observatory in central Oregon near Bend—and its academic programs in Portland and at the coastal Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in Charleston. Access is enabled through several online and hybrid programs.

The university is one of the largest and most stable employers in the state, directly employing 10,033 people. Overall, University of Oregon activity affects more than $989 million in household earnings and 25,917 jobs in the state.

The Campus Experience

The university’s 295-acre campus is an arboretum of more than 4,000 trees of approximately 500 species, located in the lush Willamette Valley, between the Pacific Ocean and the Cascade Mountains. Campus buildings date from 1876, when the UO’s first building opened, to the present, with the recent opening of the Lyllye Reynolds-Parker Black Cultural Center; Willie and Donald Tykeson Hall, the university’s hub for academic and career advising, and home to the College of Arts and Sciences, University Career Center, and Division of Equity and Inclusion; and the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact.

The Museum of Natural and Cultural History is located at East 15th Avenue and Columbia Street. Across campus, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, a member of the American Alliance of Museums, is noted for its collections of Asian and Northwest art.

The UO Libraries, a member of the Association of Research Libraries, is an important research facility for scholars throughout the Northwest. The free Oregon Card Program allows Oregon residents who are sixteen or older to borrow from the libraries’ three-million-volume collection.

Campus athletic facilities include the 54,000-seat Autzen Stadium, the Marcus Mariota Sports Performance Center, the Casanova Athletic Center, the Moshofsky Center, Papé Field, Jane Sanders Stadium, PK Park, Hayward Field, Matthew Knight Arena, and the Student Tennis Center.

Student-guided tours of the university are available Monday through Saturday. Tours may be arranged by calling 541-346-1274. Campus maps and pamphlets describing university programs, answers to questions about services and office locations, and general information about the university are available at the information desk in the main lobby of the Ford Alumni Center.

The university’s website has daily news updates and information about programs and events: www.uoregon.edu.

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