The story
Founded by Joshua Jones Walton in 1876.1
Establishment
Prior to the establishment of the university in 1872, most of Oregon's colleges were denominational. While the Oregon State Legislature drafted a bill in 1872 to form the university, a citizens group from Eugene, the Union University Association (UUA), formed and began campaigning to make the university non-denominational. During a legislative meeting in September 1872, the UUA would succeed in amending the bill to include a non-denominational clause. The bill eventually was passed by the state legislature in 1872, establishing the institution as Oregon State University. The residents of Eugene raised $27,500 to buy eighteen acres of land at a cost of $2,500.
Early years
The university opened in 1876 under the name of "Oregon State University" and University Hall as its sole building. The first year of enrollment contained 155 students taught by five faculty members. The first graduating class was in 1878, graduating five students. In 1881, the university was nearly closed; it was $8,000 in debt before Henry Villard donated $7,000 to help pay it. In 1913 and 1932, there were proposals to merge the university with what is now Oregon State University. Both proposals were defeated.
Maturity as a university
During Prince Lucien Campbell's tenure as president from 1902 to 1925, the university experienced tremendous growth. The budget, enrollment, facilities, and faculty members all grew several times its amount prior to his presidency. Numerous schools were also established during his tenure, including the School of Music in 1902, the School of Education in 1910, the School of Architecture, the College of Business in 1914, the School of Law in 1915, the School of Journalism in 1916, and the School of Health and Physical Education in 1920. However, the University of Oregon lost its School of Engineering to Oregon Agricultural College, now known as Oregon State University.
In 1917, a "three term" (quarter system) calendar was adopted by the university faculty as a war-time measure. This academic calendar has remained ever since then. However, it is now referred to as the Quarter System.
The Zorn-MacPherson Bill in 1932 proposed the University of Oregon and Oregon State College (now "University") merge. The bill lost in a landslide vote of over 6 to 1. The University of Oregon Medical School was founded in 1887 in Portland and merged with Willamette University's program in 1913. However, in 1974 it became an independent institution known as Oregon Health Sciences University.
The Institute of Molecular Biology was established at the university in 1959.
UO served as the filming location for the 1978 cult classic National Lampoon's Animal House.
Golden age
The 60s and 70s were somewhat of a golden age for the university. In 1964, the university ranked 25th nationally in National Science Foundation basic research grants, ahead of the University of Rochester, Northwestern University, the University of Colorado and the University of Pittsburgh.
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In 1969, the UO was admitted into the Association of American Universities, along with Case Western Reserve University, the University of Maryland, and the University of Southern California.
Graduate enrollment peaked during the 1978-79 academic year at 4,568. From 1970 to 1979, 2,614 doctoral degrees were awarded at UO cumulatively.
From 1970 to 1979, 817 UO undergraduate students would go on to earn doctoral degrees at UO or another institution. Despite increases in total undergraduate enrollment since the 60s and 70s, fewer UO undergraduate students would go on to earn doctorates in the 80s, 90s, 2000s and 2010s.
Prominent UO researchers of this era include Michael Posner, Frank Stahl, George Streisinger and Aaron Novick.
UO experienced state disinvestment in the 1980s during the tenure of president Paul Olum. Further state disinvestment occurred during the 1990s and during the Great Recession. Many programs have been scaled back or eliminated.
In June 2025, the American English Institute was closed. Based in Agate Hall, this unit of the arts and sciences college had been providing three different ESL (English as a Second Language) courses since 1978: the Intensive English Program (IEP), Academic English for International Students (AEIS), and Distance Education.
Recent history
In recent years UO's administration and Board of Trustees have approved hundreds of millions of dollars in construction projects. These facilities include Matthew Knight Arena, the Ford Alumni Center, the EMU renovation (student union building), and dormitories. This has occurred in tandem with state budget reductions, tuition increases, and increases in out-of-state enrollment.
In 2016, the university removed the name of Frederic Stanley Dunn, head of the Classics department in the 1920s and 30s, from the dormitory Dunn Hall, because of his leading role in the Ku Klux Klan.
Declining state support
Measure 5 established limits on property taxes in Oregon. This impacted the state budget, and led to budget and programmatic cuts at UO starting the 1990s. The College of Human Performance and Development was closed. Furthermore, many of the school's primary and secondary teacher training programs were eliminated. By 1997, more than 20 other programs were closed or significantly reduced in size.
UO has initiated three capital campaigns in the last 30 years. The first campaign of this era was launched with a goal of $150 million. It ended up raising a total of $255.3 million between 1992 and 1998.
With financial support from the state dwindling from 40% to 13% of the university budget, in January 2001, University President Dave Frohnmayer began Campaign Oregon with the goal of raising $600 million by December 2008, the most ambitious philanthropic fundraising campaign in the state's history at the time. With contributions exceeding $100 million from benefactors such as Phil Knight and Lorry I. Lokey, the campaign goal was exceeded by over $253 million.
In the fall of 2014, the institution announced that it would attempt to raise $2 billion from donors. In the fall of 2018, the campaign revised its goal to $3 billion. Substantial gifts were donated by Phil Knight and his wife. In October 2016, it was announced Phil Knight and his wife Penny will contribute $500 million to establish the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact. At the time it was the largest donation to a public research university. Knight gave an additional $500 million to the Knight Campus in 2021.
In 2022, Steve Ballmer made a large gift of $425 million to fund a new institute for children's behavioral health.
Despite the recent influx in private gifts given by mega-donors, as of 2020, UO's state subsidy per resident student is one of the lowest in both the Association of American Universities and Pac-12 Conference.
"University of Nike"
The school's "O" logo was officially adopted by the university as a whole in 2002. Designed by Nike, it was first adopted by the athletic program in late-1998. The inside of the logo is said to depict Hayward Field, the institution's track and field venue. The outside of the logo is said to represent Autzen Stadium, which is UO's football stadium.
Phil Knight has financed hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of construction projects on UO's campus going back to the late-1980s. Knight contributed to the renovation and expansion of the Main Library, now called the Knight Library, and the construction of the William W. Knight Law Center. Knight did not make a major contribution to academics between 1996 and 2016.
Knight is an athletic booster. He has contributed to, and managed, the construction of various athletic department facilities. Knight's involvement in said projects usually does not involve any university oversight, making them controversial. Knight also financed the majority of the Hayward Field renovation project.
Major publications including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal have described the university as the "University of Nike". A book titled The University of Nike, written by Joshua Hunt, describes Nike and Phil Knight's influence on the university.
As of 2022, 16.5% of UO's gross square footage is purpose-built for the university's sports programs.
Push for independence
In 2010, the newly installed UO president, Richard Lariviere, proposed establishing a new governance and funding model for UO. The New Partnership, as it became known, sought to establish an independent board and large endowment to fund the university into the future. Funding had become too low and unpredictable for UO officials, and the new model would provide the university with a consistent stream of funding and the legal freedom to borrow money for large capital projects. Lariviere's proposal called for $800 million in state bonds and "an equal amount" of private gifts. The new funds would provide a large boost to UO's then modest endowment.
In a 2010 interview, UO booster Phil Knight discussed the New Partnership. Knight explained that Lariviere's plan would allow UO greater control and possibly allow it to set its own tuition for in-state students.
Oh, I talk to [Lariviere] on a regular basis. I spoke with him a couple of days ago. He was mostly talking about -- his view is the next step to upgrade the academic side of the university is to get the Legislature to go along with his plan, which is a little bit complicated, but it's to take a step -- I hate to use the word because it's an oversimplification -- but to take a step toward becoming more of a private university. I think the state provides about 7 percent of the funding now, so basically it is a private university that's hamstrung by public policy... He's hamstrung in the sense he can't charge more tuition than the Legislature will let him do for in-state kids. So he loses money on every state kid that enrolls in the University of Oregon and he makes money on every kid that comes from out of state. So, increasingly, it's become the University of California at Eugene. That's the result of the current Legislature's policies.
On March 31, 2012, a Political Action Committee called Oregonians For Higher Education Excellence was formed by Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle. As of May 23, 2012, the organization has raised over $320,000. Notable contributors to the PAC include, Phil Knight, Patrick Kilkenny, and Tim Boyle. According to Boyle, the PAC's stated goal was to help facilitate an increase in autonomy at the University of Oregon.
In reaction to a growing movement to establish an independent university board, the Oregon Legislature in 2013 passed SB 270, requiring local governing boards for the state's three largest institutions. In 2014, the University of Oregon became an independent public body governed by the Board of Trustees of the University of Oregon. Proponents of local governing boards claimed that an independent board would give the university more autonomy and free it from inadequate state funding. This change of the board structure that eventually allowed the University of Oregon to leave the Pac12 and move to the Big10 without consideration for other state-funded universities in the state, i.e. Oregon State.
Michael H. Schill became the university's president in the summer of 2015. In June 2015, UO's endowment surpassed the $700 million mark. In 2022, Schill became president at Northwestern University. Karl Scholz has been president since July 1, 2023.
From Wikipedia’s article on University of Oregon, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5