Colleagues and Students,

I have the immense pleasure of announcing that our dear friends Penny and Phil Knight have made an extraordinarily generous $500 million gift—the largest ever to a public flagship university—that will launch an initiative to rethink and reshape research at the University of Oregon. The Phil and Penny Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact will fast-track scientific discoveries into innovations, products, and cures that solve problems and improve our quality of life.

This is a defining moment for the University of Oregon that builds upon our rich history of interdisciplinary scientific research and the deep talents of our faculty members. I encourage you to learn about the new Knight Campus by visiting around.uoregon.edu/accelerate.

We will also share more details about this exciting new initiative tomorrow morning at 8:45 a.m. in the Giustina Ballroom of the Ford Alumni Center. You can watch the event live on the UO Channel and UO Facebook page.

The Knight Campus will work to transform the University of Oregon and the state’s public higher-education landscape by training the next generation of scientists, forging tighter ties with industry and entrepreneurs, and creating new educational opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. The campus will also generate tremendous economic benefit for our community, state, and region.

This gift will allow us to strive for a level of excellence and national prominence that had previously been out of reach. The greatest beneficiaries of this monumental change will be the people of Oregon and our future students. Please join me in thanking Penny and Phil Knight for this incredible investment in our future.

Sincerely,

Michael H. Schill
President and Professor of Law