Admissions Counselor’s Fly-In Address 2008
Let me add my official welcome to those that you have already received. I trust you’ve enjoyed your trip to Eugene so far and by looking at your schedule, I know you’ve had a very full day. What a great climax to your trip—spending time in this incredible setting and partaking of the best that we have to offer in this beautiful area of Lane County.
It truly is a pleasure to speak to you this evening. The work you do every day to help your students succeed and prepare them for college is often a daunting task. As both an administrator in charge of student success as well as a mental health professional, I know firsthand both the challenges and rewards of the work you do. So I applaud you and congratulate you for your success in this important endeavor.
As a higher education administrator, I understand the challenges associated with students going to college outside of their home state. As the parent of a graduating senior, I can appreciate the inclination to encourage students to stay closer to home. While we both know that colleges vary widely across academics, economics, location, and extra curricular activities, one thing is true in every case: we want our students to succeed. That’s something we all understand and believe in.
When I accepted Brian’s invitation to come talk to you, I asked myself, “Why would a student from Paradise Valley High School want to be a Duck?” “How would you explain to the parent of a student from The Rivers School that they should consider sending their 17 year-old child to a university 3000 miles away?” Would I want to send my son or daughter to the University of Oregon? Well, the answer is a resounding yes, and I would like to tell you why.
We are the Flagship University in the State of Oregon. You’ve read about us in the news and you’ve had a chance to visit a number of our “points of pride” on campus, including the Lillis Business and the Integrative Science Complexes. You’ve learned about our outstanding academic programs, from Architecture to Music and Dance. You are seeing up close what you’ve read about our location: 250 beautiful acres conveniently located an hour from both the coast and the mountains.
We are a community of scholars dedicated to the highest standards of academic inquiry, learning, and service. Learning is at the core of our mission, and we recognize that students learn in a variety of ways and in a variety of settings. As a residential university, we strive to foster the development of diverse, intellectually-engaged communities. We believe the human element promotes connection with the academic heart of the university by encouraging inquisitiveness on the part of students and by facilitating informal interactions among students, faculty and staff. This is truly a place where learning and growth happens—for all of us in this community.
Our approach to undergraduate education is built on the conviction that close interaction between students and outstanding scholars is not only essential, but must be cultivated from the very beginning of a student’s college experience. We don’t believe in waiting until students are juniors or seniors to expose them to the big ideas that motivate investigation and learning on this campus. We want our students to meet the people who are answering these questions now and to also discover their own questions and ways to answer them. This philosophy motivated our creation of a range of academic Learning Communities–from Freshman Interest Groups to the Clark Honors College.
We know how important it is to make sure that our campus is a place that all students feel safe, welcome, and are afforded opportunities to flourish. We work tirelessly to ensure that our community is one in which all students not only survive but thrive.
You might have noticed some construction on your campus tour. We’re currently improving facilities at the College of Education, the School of Music and Dance, and the Robinson Theater, just to name a few. And in 57 short days the campus will host the 2008 Track and Field Olympic Trials and Eugene will once again transform into “track town USA” as we are fondly known. It’s an exciting time for the university and our students. This incredible track event will be followed by many others, including the hosting of the NCAA track and field finals and the Olympic Trials again in several more years. We of course encourage students to be more than spectators to the outstanding professional and college sports events that occur here in Eugene, we want them to be participants in sporting events and recreational opportunities as part of their holistic student experience. That’s why we have built our outstanding recreational complex and plan to construct the next phase of that facility (we are experiencing turnstile counts of almost 5,000 a day!) to accommodate the strong interest in fitness from our student body.
I would like to tell you a little bit about the students at the University of Oregon. Our students are from a wide range of cities and towns throughout Oregon and the 49 contiguous states. Our students on average achieve a 3.5 GPA as they enter college and involve themselves in a variety of programs including internships, study abroad and the Peace Corp, to name a few. Our students are comfortable taking the initiative, they have big dreams and they want to do well. We have a very large international student population from many, many countries in the world. We just admitted the most racially and ethnically diverse student class in our history. We launched the Pathway Oregon program that will ensure that students from all socioeconomic statuses are able to attend our great University regardless of their economic situation.
Although we are a relatively large university, we differentiate ourselves by being very involved and available to the students. We encourage students to become involved in leadership opportunities (such as Freshmen Interest Groups, student unions, or Student Government), or to participate in one of the 150 different student programs or clubs. We enjoy a strong Greek life community that spans an illustrious history including our claim to fame of being the site of where the movie Animal House was filmed or to take a Freshman Seminar to have a more up-close and personal experience with a faculty member. Research interest groups are available as are over 150 flag football sports team—whatever a student is looking for, they can most likely find it here.
Besides the excellent academic education students will enjoy at the University, they will also be well taken care of and have an opportunity to really grow emotionally, interpersonally and culturally. At the university we understand that learning happens wherever students are, so we want to make sure that they solidify their academic experiences in the variety of co-curricular choices and opportunities that are available to them. We also ensure that any impediments that might block their academic progress (physical or mental health concerns) are minimized by offering a variety of prevention activities, programs and support in our full service clinics at the health and counseling center, and through our programming efforts in the departments of Student and Residential Life. We believe that the university experience should have everything a student needs while they are away from home, AND that they should be learning how to take care of themselves and become capable, independent adults as a result of their college experiences.
In short, we have the best jobs in the world. We get to surround ourselves with the brightest, capable people who are destined to be the next great leaders in our world—the next doctors, lawyers, scientists, activist and social justice champions—we get to say “hey, we knew them when”!!
Thank you for all or that you do in getting our students ready for this exciting thing we call college. We appreciate you being here and in your interest in the University of Oregon. Go Ducks!