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May 21, 2024 – President Rick Bailey offers an update on �ڹϳ�����’s solar ambitions, and also addresses protests on campuses near and far over the tragedies in Israel and Gaza. �ڹϳ����� is a little less than a third of the way to the seven megawatts of solar generating capacity it will need to become the first public university to produce all of its own daytime electricity. New solar arrays are in the works atop Lithia Motors Pavilion and The Hawk dining commons, and �ڹϳ�����’s first solar-covered parking lot will likely be in the works within the year. President Bailey recognizes that both the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and the ongoing loss of innocent lives in Gaza are “horrific,” and that students, faculty and staff have strong feelings about it. �ڹϳ����� supports the right to speak out about the situation, but urges nonviolence. President Bailey quotes Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

March 20, 2024 – President Rick Bailey celebrates �ڹϳ����� academics and athletics, and thanks state lawmakers for their support, in this month’s video message. Graphic design students in the Emerging Media & Digital Arts program completed work on a rebranding project with the city of Shady Cove, four recent Theatre Arts graduates are acting in Oregon Shakespeare Festival productions and �ڹϳ����� students just returned from Guanajuato, Mexico, as part of the Global Innovation Scholars program in the School of Business. Congratulations to the Cheer & Dance team and women’s basketball and wrestling teams for successful seasons. And a paraphrase from The Rev. Jesse Jackson about kindness: Never look down on someone unless leaning over to help them up.

January 16, 2024 – President Rick Bailey clicks off �ڹϳ�����’s goals for 2024 in this month’s video message. External objectives include building on “partnerships, collaborations and coalitions” built over the past two years, and moving �ڹϳ�����’s entrepreneurial initiatives – solar projects, senior housing and university business district – from the idea to the “actionable” phase. Internal goals focus on celebrating “loving, passionate, caring things” �ڹϳ����� does to serve its students, consolidating enrollment gains by retaining more returning students and ensuring that all “not just feel welcome here, but feel they belong here.”

November 20, 2023 – President Rick Bailey celebrates �ڹϳ�����’s groundbreaking fall enrollment gains in this month’s video message. Increases of 15% in the freshman class and 10% for transfers, along with solid retention gains for all undergraduates, “set �ڹϳ����� apart” from Oregon’s other public universities. He credits data-sharing agreements with Oregon high schools, visits to K-12 districts, data analytics and hard work by admissions staff. The president also discusses �ڹϳ�����’s novel general education core and the “connection” of community members with the university.

October 4, 2023 – �ڹϳ����� President Rick Bailey says in this month’s video message that the new academic year is full of possibility. Enrollment figures suggest we’ll have the largest first year student class in at least six or seven years, and that enthusiasm for higher ed is good for the region and state. Also, the positive results from fiscal adjustments made over the past year have changed assumptions. �ڹϳ����� has gone from a “culture of scarcity” where possibilities are limited, to a “culture of opportunity” in which the best way to predict the future is to invent it.