⁄Tactics⁄ You were hired last March and started in July. How has it been so far? You’re probably speaking to the luckiest person you’ll encounter in the next year. The last eight months, I’ve been getting to learn a new great university. It’s a beautiful setting, people have been incredibly supportive and warm. It’s an outstanding university, the outside is breathtaking — and so it’s really exhilarating. Stepping back, I think what universities do in society is really precious, right? There’s not very many institutions where they’re organized around bringing people together from very disparate backgrounds. The military, for instance, might be another that brings people from very different walks of life and then organizes around a mission. What’s distinctive about the higher- education sector is it’s organized around the transmission of knowledge to the students that we serve, and the creation of knowledge and serving our city, the region, the state, the world. There’s no other sector that’s organized around that. So the opportunities to play a key role in what a university of the caliber of the University of Oregon truly is a dream come true. Dr. John Karl Scholz Reflects on His First Year at UO The university’s president talks about what drew him to Eugene, why the school is bucking enrollment trends and what’s next for the post-Pac-12 Ducks. INTERVIEW BY CHRISTEN McCURDY In May 2023, the University of Oregon’s board of trustees named Dr. John Karl Scholz as the university’s 19th president. According to a university press release, Scholz was selected following a six-month international search conducted by a 22-member presidential search committee comprised of trustees, students, faculty, staff, and academic and administrative leaders, as well as representatives from higher education outside of the community. Scholz’s predecessor, Michael Schill — credited with increasing the size of the school’s endowment and launching new academic projects like the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact and the Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health, as well as increasing financial aid and graduation rates—served as president for seven years and announced his departure from the school in August 2022 after accepting an offer to lead Northwestern University. Scholz, an economist by training, came to Eugene from the University of Wisconsin- Madison, where he had spent the bulk of his career, starting as a professor and more recently serving as the school’s provost. Scholz, who received his undergraduate degree from Minnesota’s Carleton College and his Ph.D. from Stanford, taught at UW-Madison’s department of economics and he has also worked for the Council of Economic Advisers and the U.S. Treasury Department under presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, respectively. This interview has been edited for space and clarity. 14
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