The Register Guard
February 15th, 2015
The University of Oregon finds itself mired in an identity crisis. What are we? What do we want to be? How do we get there?
The UO is a member of the prestigious American Association of Universities, the top 62 research universities in the United States and Canada. AAU members include such stars as Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA and Michigan. What is a research university? It is a higher education institution focusing not only on high quality undergraduate education, but also on excellent graduate training programs and pioneering, original research by its faculty.
The UO rightfully prides itself in its AAU membership. It has had important research successes from its world-renowned Institute of Molecular Biology to its nationally ranked School of Education and psychology department. Significant advances have also been made in numerous other fields from neuroscience to art history and architecture. In addition to research excellence, the UO, in its role as a state university, has trained and educated hundreds of thousands of young Oregonians to be productive citizens in a complex world.